The Rock Blogger

Mogwai. The Hawk is Howling. 2008. 4 stars.

These post-rock pioneers seem to have divided critical opinion over the last few years. Being that their breakthrough debut Young Team came out over a decade ago, fans have debated as to whether their followups are merely paled copies of their first efforts or successful attempts at refining and focusing their sound. 2006’s Mr. Beast was an excellent case in point - some argued that it cut Mogwai far too short, narrowing their songs down to powerful bursts, essentially loosing the slow-burning, spacey atmosphere that made them famous. Others, myself included, saw the transition as an attempt to reassert their dominance in a genre now full of faceless copycats. The Hawk is Howling follows the measured lead of its predecessor but is thankfully more intricate, dense and fluid.

The album’s opener, “I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead” is a beautiful and impressively detailed track that builds organically into a shimmering crescendo. Its progressions are far less forced and mechanical than some of the other Slint-inspired numbers from their discography. “Batcat”, the first single from the album, is the album’s most intense and bloody song, with lots of cascading feedback and distortion, sounding like a compressed climax from Tool. The burning tension leads to fiery, angular release, reminding me of the final, terrifying moments of Slint’s “Good Morning Captain”, an obvious inspiration for the band. Far from being derivative, “BatCat” blends a climbing doom metal procession with psychedelic passages of noise, making it a genuine tour de force.

Other highlights include the infectious psych-pop of “The Sun Smells to Loud” which features a bouncy, guitar hook accompanied by bright electronic flourishes. Easily one of the catchiest Mogwai songs to come along, perhaps since “Hunted by a Freak”, revealing the more wide-eyed and wondrous side of the band that is often neglected amid the usual gloom and doom (and boom).

The rest of the album, save for a few explosive climaxes, is not as distinctive. Songs like “King’s Meadow”, “Daphne and the Brain” and “Local Authority” are certainly beautiful and relaxed jams, but they seem uneventful in light of their more intense counterparts. “I Love you I’m Going to Blow Up Your School” has a compelling build up, with spidery riffs and a foreboding atmosphere, but its very similar to the gargantuan “My Father My King” from the EP of the same name.

While about half of this album has Mogwai returning to some of their better ideas, there is enough of an experimental edge to this to keep it interesting and fresh. Its a satisfying work to be sure, and it manages to solidify Mogwai’s position as a intense and influential creative force in post rock. The Hawk is Howling may not have the same effect on 2008 as Young Team had on 1997, but its still an impressive accomplishment, both in terms of its tight cohesion and its tense, spiraling compositions.

Mogwai “I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead” Live in Mexico City

Crippled Black Phoenix. A Love of Shared Disasters. 2007. 3.5 stars.

A Love of Shared Disasters is an incredibly difficult album to get into. It’s not that its songs are really that obscure, unconventional or abstract, its that each one sounds completely different from the other, making it seem uneven and beguiling at times. The eclecticism in the material may come from the diverse membership of Crippled Black Phoenix, featuring a few folks from Mogwai, Electric Wizard, Portishead and others. The band touches on everything from ambient to folk to explosive post-rock all across the album’s lengthy running time.

When CBP are at the top of their game, like on the rollicking “Suppose I Told the Truth”, they sound inspired and ambitious as they blend clear alternative-rock hooks with spiraling post-rock ambiance. The effect, on that song in particular, is quite moving, sounding like a cross between the infectious melancholy of The National and the star-gazing wonder of Explosions in the Sky. Moments such as these are plentiful, albeit scattered, across this album, with each effort brimming with tension and cool, nightly atmosphere.

Its just unfortunate that these shinning moments are fitted between indulgent experiments that don’t really lead anywhere interesting. Long, barren ambient interludes, awkward spoken word samples and drawn out ’slowcore’ passages fill out the album. While these moments are certainly moody, and occasionally gripping, they drag down the record’s overall flow and detract from the genuinely epic numbers.

If the collective had decided to trim 15 minutes or so from the record, they may have had a definitive and essential post-rock record on their hands. When this band plays tightly, they are on another astral plane, drawing avant-garde and alternative rock sounds together in wildly original and beautiful compositions. So until they produce a more cohesive album (fingers crossed for a followup), you’re pretty much skipping through half of the songs here to get to the gems. Still, they are definitely worth searching for.

An interesting series of videos I found on Youtube pairing Mogwai’s “My Father My King” with the classic vampire film Nosferatu. They don’t show the entire film, but the editor here skillfully tells its story concisely across Mogwai’s 20 minute epic. Very cool.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Busy lately, so here’s another quick post-rock tune to tide you guys over.

Easily one of the crown jewels of Mogwai’s catalog, “Dial Revenge” can be found on Rock Action (2001).

“We have resumed rehearsing (meeting up and talking rubbish and occasionally playing music” -Stuart Braithewaite of Mogwai

As reported by Chart Attack, Scottish post-rockers Mogwai are working on a follow up to last year’s epic Mr. Beast which is currently under the working title “The Hawk is Circling“. The band has recently announced that the new work will be released sometime in the autumn of 2008. The only announced track name so far is “The Precipice”. Hm, sounds deep I’m sure it will be just as explosively psychedelic as their last work.

To tide you over until its out, here is the awesome video for “Travel is Dangerous”, from Mr. Beast (2006).