Day 197: Mogwai – Ten Rapid
Remember when gigs used to be a great way to discover new bands? I sure do. I long for those days. Even as a casual music writer and general music dork, I need to prioritise stuff based on what I know I’ll like. You used to just be able to go to some random bar to see your friend’s neighbour’s band, these days that costs what a mid-tier world famous band did five years ago. Ludicrous!
Album cover courtesy of Rock Action
And I’d be happy getting fleeced if I knew it was going to line the pockets of the artists, but I’m going to bravely assume that that’s not exactly true and executives at Racketmaster and Live Nation are probably laughing all the way to the bank. Actually I know the executives at Live Nation are, because we recently saw Slack messages between Live Nation execs that came out as a part of their antitrust lawsuits. They laughed about “price gouging” customers on ancillary prices and said:
These people are so stupid. I almost feel bad taking advantage of them.
Robbing them blind baby, that’s how we do it.
All of this to say, I was asked if I wanted to go see Mogwai and whereas I would have just said yeah in the before times, now I had to actually spend time finding out if I like them because the tickets are 52 pounds.
Mogwai was formed in 1995 in Glasgow, and they became known for their shoegaze-inspired mostly instrumental post-rock. They’ve released a total of 11 albums and they semi-recently scored their first number one album with their 2021 release, As the Love Continues. They’ve also done a fair few film and TV scores, having soundtracked shows like Les Revenants, The Bombing of Pan Am 103 and Black Bird.
Out of all of their recorded output, I decided to go for a compilation album, Ten Rapid (Collected Recordings 1996–1997). I thought I’d get a good idea of them, plus they are fans of making >1 hour albums and I ran out of time a little bit, I tried to go for another one but didn’t have time to finish it so I switched. I think it worked out nicely, I feel like I got a good overview.
The album I started with, Young Team, occasionally reminded me of the previously reviewed Jesus and Mary Chain because of the more overt post-punk and noise elements, but this one was noticeably softer. It’s not ambient music per se but the lack of lyrics and the softness of it would make it very appropriate background music, it builds atmosphere but it isn’t overpowering.
I enjoyed my journey into Mogwai, but not enough for £52. It’s a 7.5/10, but I’d be willing to give something else from their discography a try when I’m not so short on time.