Marking three many years collectively, Mogwai have remodeled a troublesome interval right into a blazing post-rock extravaganza. The Dangerous Hearth finds them in fantastic type and taking surprising 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 shaped a band in Glasgow, no one may have had any inkling {that a} group taking part in 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 ideas.
The band have had a superb run from virtually the start, charting from the off with 1997’s Mogwai Younger Staff, 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 satisfied about it.”
One imagines a No.1 album at the beginning of their profession would have been downright harmful, given their propensity for hedonism. “It could have been, yeah,” he agrees. “I don’t suppose we’d have lasted too lengthy after that. It’s in all probability fairly good that it occurred after we have been effectively into our 40s.”
How did it really feel to have the best-selling album in Britain, preserving pop artists like Dua Lipa and Ariana Grande at bay – for every week, a minimum of? “It was pretty. The one unlucky factor was that it occurred through the pandemic, and we couldn’t do an enormous celebratory tour. However we ultimately managed to get out and play the songs. I feel the sort of assist and heat we acquired round that point gave us a whole lot of confidence going into this report.”
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 unwell simply as they began planning the report in early 2024. Fortunately, she’s responded effectively to remedy 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 may anticipate, with loads of peaks and troughs and surprises, too. Mogwai, it appears, have been stunned themselves when the importance of the title of the album – a Scottish schoolyard expression for Hell – ultimately dawned on them.
I feel we solely realised the title’s relevance on reflection. We simply thought it was humorous
“I feel we solely realised its relevance on reflection,” 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 having the ability to be collectively, and understanding that Barry was going via a extremely terrible time together with his household. It sort of made the recording really feel much more particular than traditional.”
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 in all probability made 20 information since he made this one. I met him and I received on effectively with him, and he’s additionally made some information that we actually like, like All Mirrors by Angel Olsen, and he’s executed information with our associates 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 superb expertise. John had a ‘let’s simply smash out some takes’ vitality, which I like.”
Whereas that may counsel there are tough edges to The Dangerous Hearth, it’s polished in a poppy method in locations, similar to lead observe God Will get You Again, whereas Hammer Room is bold and even proggy, with notes reaching into infinity, sounding virtually virtuosic at instances. “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 effectively. “I like Crockett’s Theme! That’s really the tune Kenny, our sound man, at all times checks the PA with.” As for the bizarre title: “My spouse was on the physician for a sore head. She regarded 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 completely different tools for each report, 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 want to simply hold making the identical report. We at all times attempt to do one thing new. Barry makes use of utterly completely different tools for each report, which helps change the sound up. I’m in all probability a bit too lazy for that, however I prefer to have some new toys and do one thing completely 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 attempting of instances.
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 “in all probability probably the most intense expertise I’ve ever had with a band.” Then there’s the latest true crime miniseries, Black Chicken. “It’s at all times 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 complete match. A fantastic idea, barely let down by the very fact he had a lacklustre recreation. “I feel 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 at all times had their heads within the clouds, with a method of music that’s good 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 individuals. I’m not an enormous label particular person, however one of many few labels that I’m completely comfy with is ‘area rock,’ as a result of I can’t consider a band described that method that I don’t like. It’s a sort of music that connects us with the universe.”
Are Mogwai secret Hawkwind followers, then? “I 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 Nineteen Eighties and Nineties that appeared so essential to him on the time. These allegiances typically 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 recognize? It’s unhealthy when persons are unashamedly listening to Rick Astley. You’ve received to attract a line someplace!”
The guitar half in Lion Rumpus is me attempting 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 Aspect 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 out to be obsessive about King Crimson, turned onto the band by Toby Amies’ In The Courtroom Of The Crimson King – King Crimson At 50 documentary. “I’m working my method via the entire information, that are simply so good. I feel the guitar half in Lion Rumpus is me attempting to deconstruct Robert Fripp’s guitar solo from [Eno’s] Child’s On Hearth. It’s me attempting 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 carry in 2021. They and a few stir-crazy musicians they’d met on-line launched into a ferry to the Outer Hebrides to report on the Black Bay Studio on the Isle Of Lewis. The unanticipated consequence was a brand-new band, Silver Moth, with a critically-lauded debut album Black Bay.
Braithwaite mentioned on the time the venture had unleashed his “internal prog.” Did that have affect the brand new Mogwai recording in any respect? “It could have executed,” he considers, “as a result of there positively was a prog ingredient to that. I actually loved making that report, and I actually loved occurring the tour as effectively. It was good remembering these experiences of worry if you’re first in a band.
“We’re positively going to make one other report. 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 effectively, so it’ll be good to spend extra time with him once more.”