Marking three a long time collectively, Mogwai have remodeled a tough interval right into a blazing post-rock extravaganza. The Dangerous Hearth finds them in fantastic type and taking sudden inspiration from King Crimson and Jan Hammer – with, maybe, Pink Floyd to be added sooner or later.
In 1995, when Stuart Braithwaite, Dominic Aitchison and Martin Bulloch fashioned a band in Glasgow, no one may have had any inkling {that a} group enjoying principally instrumental post-rock would make it to the highest of the UK charts with As The Love Continues in 2021. Mogwai’s success is as shocking as it’s heartwarming – and proof that independently-minded artists can prosper by sticking to their musical rules.
The band have had a very good run from virtually the start, charting from the off with 1997’s Mogwai Younger Crew, whereas their homespun label Rock Motion has proved sturdy,boasting an ever-expanding roster that features Kathryn Joseph, Arab Strap and Bdrmm. How does Braithwaite really feel about the truth that Mogwai are nonetheless right here, and seemingly going from energy to energy?
“Oh, I’m positively proud,” he says. “I’m proud that we’re nonetheless making music, and I’m proud that folks nonetheless need to hear the music we’re making. I’m fairly happy about it.”
One imagines a No.1 album firstly of their profession would have been downright harmful, given their propensity for hedonism. “It might have been, yeah,” he agrees. “I don’t suppose we’d have lasted too lengthy after that. It’s most likely fairly good that it occurred once we have been properly into our 40s.”
How did it really feel to have the best-selling album in Britain, protecting pop artists like Dua Lipa and Ariana Grande at bay – for per week, at the very least? “It was beautiful. The one unlucky factor was that it occurred in the course of the pandemic, and we couldn’t do a giant celebratory tour. However we finally managed to get out and play the songs. I believe the sort of assist and heat we obtained round that point gave us loads of confidence going into this file.”
He means The Dangerous Hearth, Mogwai’s outstanding eleventh album, which hasn’t been with out tribulation. Barry Burns, their auxiliary multi-instrumentalist who’s been with the group since 1998, was put via the wringer when his daughter turned severely in poor health simply as they began planning the file in early 2024. Fortunately, she’s responded properly to therapy and has been on the up since then.
Whereas that introduced a darkish complexion to proceedings, it additionally consolidated the unit of their artistic endeavours. The Dangerous Hearth is as emphatic and dynamic as you would possibly count on, with loads of peaks and troughs and surprises, too. Mogwai, it appears, have been shocked themselves when the importance of the title of the album – a Scottish schoolyard expression for Hell – finally dawned on them.
I believe we solely realised the title’s relevance looking back. We simply thought it was humorous
“I believe we solely realised its relevance looking back,” says Braithwaite. “We simply thought the title was humorous. After which we’re like: ‘Oh, that’s really sort of heavy.’ It was a tough time; nevertheless it simply felt very nice to have the ability to all get collectively and make some music after not with the ability to be collectively, and realizing that Barry was going via a extremely terrible time along with his household. It sort of made the recording really feel much more particular than typical.”
The group labored with the American producer John Congleton, whose credit embrace St Vincent, Swans and Sparks, to call however three. “He’s an absolute workaholic,” says Braithwaite. “He’s most likely made 20 information since he made this one. I met him and I received on properly with him, and he’s additionally made some information that we actually like, like All Mirrors by Angel Olsen, and he’s accomplished information with our pals Explosions In The Sky.”
Congleton flew into Glasgow for the recording. “It was the primary time we’ve ever had a producer come to Scotland. It was a very good expertise. John had a ‘let’s simply smash out some takes’ vitality, which I like.”
Whereas that may recommend there are tough edges to The Dangerous Hearth, it’s polished in a poppy manner in locations, similar to lead monitor God Will get You Again, whereas Hammer Room is bold and even proggy, with notes reaching into infinity, sounding virtually virtuosic at occasions. “It’s positively uncommon. It’s very busy for a Mogwai music,” says Braithwaite.
One other, Pale Vegan Hip Ache, reminds Prog of Jan Hammer’s Crockett’s Theme, which Braithwaite takes properly. “I really like Crockett’s Theme! That’s really the tune Kenny, our sound man, all the time checks the PA with.” As for the weird title: “My spouse was on the physician for a sore head. She seemed over the desk and noticed that ‘pale vegan hip ache’ have been the one phrases written on the physician’s notes.”
Barry makes use of totally different gear for each file, which helps change the sound up. I’m a bit too lazy for that
Thirty years into their profession, Mogwai are nonetheless evolving. “I don’t suppose we wish to simply maintain making the identical file. We all the time attempt to do one thing new. Barry makes use of utterly totally different gear for each file, which helps change the sound up. I’m most likely a bit too lazy for that, however I prefer to have some new toys and do one thing totally different. There’s positively some songs that wouldn’t get on some other information.”
Which of them? Braithwaite mentions the axe-wielding Lion Rumpus, God Will get You Again and the brilliantly-titled Fanzine Made Of Flesh. The latter aches with pathos, with lyrics sung via a vocoder similar to, ‘My coronary heart breaks with each beat’ and, ‘See the celebrities and know they’re lifeless by now’ that trace at turmoil. Arpeggios drift into area like cosmic escalators as perspective is sought in probably the most making an attempt of occasions.
It’s maybe not shocking that Mogwai have a concomitant profession as soundtrack composers, with their cinematic music scoring momentous big- and small-screen photos like Mark Cousins’ Atomic: Residing In Dread And Promise. Mogwai performed it in Hiroshima, which Braithwaite describes as “most likely probably the most intense expertise I’ve ever had with a band.” Then there’s the current true crime miniseries, Black Hen. “It’s all the time the cheery stuff with us!”
Throughout the Channel, there was the soundtrack to the lauded TV drama Les Revenants in 2012, and most famously, Zidane: A twenty first Century Portrait from 2006, an arty on-field portrait of French footballing genius Zinédine Zidane the place the digicam follows him round for a whole match. A fantastic idea, barely let down by the actual fact he had a lacklustre recreation. “I believe that’s why he received despatched off,” chuckles Braithwaite. “Simply so there was one thing to recollect.”
Hawkwind are a extremely essential band… the glue between punk rock, prog rock and krautrock
Mogwai have all the time had their heads within the clouds, with a method of music that’s excellent for accompanying the viewing of nice expanses or staring longingly into the empyrean and questioning what’s on the market. Braithwaite’s late father made astronomical telescopes, which makes Prog surprise if that had an affect on the music?
“100 per cent,” he agrees. “I grew up round astronomers and sci-fi folks. I’m not a giant label individual, however one of many few labels that I’m completely snug with is ‘area rock,’ as a result of I can’t consider a band described that manner that I don’t like. It’s a sort of music that connects us with the universe.”
Are Mogwai secret Hawkwind followers, then? “I really like Hawkwind!” he confirms. “They’re a extremely essential band, aren’t they? They’re the glue between punk rock, prog rock and krautrock. Dave Brock did the liner notes for Neu! again in 1972, after which there’s Lemmy, who’s a punk-rock icon.”
Braithwaite’s 2022 memoir Spaceships Over Glasgow recounts his time as a fan of The Remedy and Sonic Youth. He remembers the tribalism of the Eighties and Nineteen Nineties that appeared so essential to him on the time. These allegiances usually led to arguments and even some scrapes. Now, nonetheless, that pursuit of post-punk authenticity appears to have fallen by the wayside in an internet-dominated world.
“Nothing issues any extra,” he displays. “The idea of cool and uncool is totally gone. Which is nice and unhealthy, you understand? It’s unhealthy when individuals are unashamedly listening to Rick Astley. You’ve received to attract a line someplace!”
The guitar half in Lion Rumpus is me making an attempt to play like Fripp. If Fripp was pretending he couldn’t play
The punk-rock doctrinaire of previous has even come round to the concept that what he does isn’t 1,000,000 miles away from progressive rock. “We’re prog curious,” he declares with amusing. His spouse, the singer Elisabeth Elektra, has helped lead him there.
“I went to see Roger Waters final 12 months, primarily as a result of my spouse is a Pink Floyd fan, and I cherished it a lot. I even purchased The Darkish Facet Of The Moon. I’d by no means listened to it till three months in the past. The music followers I grew up with all thought Pink Floyd disappeared after Syd Barrett left – however I’m realising that there’s some good things after that.”
And that’s not all: he’s additionally turn into obsessive about King Crimson, turned onto the band by Toby Amies’ In The Court docket Of The Crimson King – King Crimson At 50 documentary. “I’m working my manner via all the information, that are simply so good. I believe the guitar half in Lion Rumpus is me making an attempt to deconstruct Robert Fripp’s guitar solo from [Eno’s] Child’s On Hearth. It’s me making an attempt to play like Fripp. If Fripp was pretending he couldn’t play!”
Braithwaite and his spouse took half in a sonic experiment as Covid restrictions started to elevate in 2021. They and a few stir-crazy musicians they’d met on-line launched into a ferry to the Outer Hebrides to file on the Black Bay Studio on the Isle Of Lewis. The unanticipated outcome was a brand-new band, Silver Moth, with a critically-lauded debut album Black Bay.
Braithwaite stated on the time the mission had unleashed his “inside prog.” Did that have affect the brand new Mogwai recording in any respect? “It could have accomplished,” he considers, “as a result of there positively was a prog component to that. I actually loved making that file, and I actually loved occurring the tour as properly. It was good remembering these experiences of concern once you’re first in a band.
“We’re positively going to make one other file. We’ll be again within the wilderness [of Lewis] once more. The man that recorded us [inhouse engineer/owner Pete Fletcher] is a very nice bloke as properly, so it’ll be good to spend extra time with him once more.”
