Two years ago Pitchfork awarded Mogwai's best album in nearly a decade with an inexplicable 4.5 rating. The album in question, "The Hawk is Howling" was a return to the brooding explosive sound that had made Mogwai one of the most revered bands of the late 90s and early aughts. Along with Godspeed You Black Emperor the band defined what post-rock came to be known for - mostly instrumental compositions that trade between loud and soft dynamics, and which usually culminate in an intensely emotional climax. After releasing a string of genre-defining albums, eps and singles the band released their first, and only, real dud in 2003 "Happy Songs For Happy People". The album was far too subdued for Mogwai, who work best when they paint in giant, and often harrowing, strokes. There was a reason why the band was dubbed the "Scottish Guitar Army", and it wasn't because they focused on vocoder and piano (not that keyboards didn't on many occasion wrack up the tension on a classic Mogwai number). Unfortunately they kind of forgot the whole guitar army part of Mogwai on "Happy Songs," and the album was mostly forgettable as a result. The band moved away from "Happy Songs" with "Mr. Beast," another album that challenged notions of what a Mogwai record should sound like. While not nearly as snooze-worthy as "Happy Songs," "Mr. Beast" was not necessarily a return to form (although I do maintain it is grossly underrated). The songs were shorter and while not nearly as restrained as "Happy Songs," they only exploded forth a couple of times, which is not nearly enough to make for a classic Mogwai album. One gets the sense that while listening to "Mr. Beast" that if the band had cut a couple of tracks, lengthened and let breath a few more they would have been able to produce a proper sequel to "Rock Action".While Mogwai were off attempting to find new directions in sound, indie rock was increasingly becoming subjected to the demands of a blogosphere fueled by a hype-generating, trend-fucking, I heard it first attitude. As a result, musical trends were coming and going at the speed of light and what band wore the crown one year, could just as easily find themselves in pauper status the next. The term "old stuff", as in 'I liked their old stuff better,' came to describe a period of months not years. One of the first trends thrown to the lions happened to be post-rock. Bands like Explosions in the Sky and Mono, both of whom owed their entire careers to Mogwai, went from being the next great thing to also-rans nearly overnight. Even Godspeed You Black Emperor, arguably one of the biggest indie-rock bands at the turn of the millennium, were forgotten as the band who rose from GYBE's ashes, A Silver Mt. Zion, received no more attention in blogs and websites than your average mid-level indie act.
To their credit, Mogwai didn't seem to care. They kept producing albums and kept touring, and in 2008, after a few years in the wilderness, they produced their roaring return to form "The Hawk is Howling." It featured mainly the kind of the in red rockers and meditative downers that made the band so important in the first place. Most importantly they let each piece breath and grow to lengths appropriate for a proper Mogwai songs. So how where they rewarded? With utter indifference. Pitchfork, who had long abandoned any semblance of being anything other than a trend tracker, least they go the way of Rolling Stone in the face of increasing pressure from up to the minute blog hype, not only meet the album with indifference, but with an insulting 4.5 rating. For a site that regularly inflates scores this wasn't just a slap in the face, this was a kick in the balls while we burn down your house and rape your family kind of thing. It was the kind of rating often reserved for scene veterans who the hipster powers that be believe have passed their "hype" prime. This was Pitchfork's way of saying Mogwai needed to be put out to pasture.
That review coupled with the trend of throwing perfectly great acts under the bus because they had gone past some sort of perceived expiration date (a date, like I said, that seems to come in terms of months and not years anymore) is what caused me to start a music blog in the first place. I started writing reviews because albums like "The Hawk is Howling" deserved praise, rather than being thrown onto the fire because it was a post-rock album in a chillwave world.
So imagine my shock and, frankly, feeling of vindication when I saw that Pitchfork gave "Special Moves/Burning" a whopping 8.2. Yes, trends aside, Mogwai is just that fucking good. And no, that isn't inflation, Pitchfork actually got something right. "Special Moves/Burning" is an incredible document of some of the absolute best post-rock ever created played perfectly by the band who created it.
Recorded over a three night stint at Brooklyn's Music Hall of Williamsburg, "Special Moves" is the band's first ever live album, which also acts as an overview of the band's career by featuring tracks from every one of their studio releases. What elevates "Special Moves" from being just another live album is that while it operates like a document of a band's performance for sure, it also makes for an intensely emotional journey. This isn't just a greatest hits live collection, it's a damn soundtrack to life itself.
Opening with the stately "I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead," the band sets the tone for what is to follow. Meditative piano and guitar strums slowly build into an epic wall of sound that is easier felt than described. At their best Mogwai make some of the most emotionally powerful music ever, and their loud soft dynamics are only one partly the reason for that. They also craft massive arching guitars that sound like revelation, transcendence, or, my new favorite analogy, a superhero defying the laws of physics in an effort to save someone. But - and this is an incredibly important point - that superhero is an all too human one like Batman. Mogwai doesn't play music for superheros who cheat with special abilities like Superman, they play anthems for real-life heroes, they play anthems for all of us and all of our trials and tribulations. If victory had a sound that wasn't a quasi-fascist brass band, Mogwai would be it. Granted that victory is won only after a long fought and often dark internal struggle, but that's what makes the explosive payoff that much more powerful. Throughout "Special Moves" Mogwai focuses on those kind of songs from their catalog, stopping only slightly for an emotional breather on tracks like "Hunted By A Freak" and "Cody". Obvious tracks like "Mogwai Loves Satan" and "Like Herod" are featured, but just as exciting are lesser known tracks like "I Know You Are But Am I?" and "I Love You, I'm Going To Blow Up Your School." The band lets all of the tracks breath providing them each with enough space to work toward their eventual climaxes organically. That approach makes for a captivating listen throughout and elevates each piece to the level of their classic material, so that you don't think twice about "2 Rights Make 1 Wrong" and "Glasgow Megasnake" sandwiching "Like Herod." Hell, actually "Megasnake" might just blow "Herod" out of the water here. Just sayin'.
"Burning" takes a more concise approach. The film is just around forty-five minutes long, but packs in the essence of Mogwai at their absolute brightest and most intense. "Burning" only shares three full songs with the "Special Moves" LP, while the rest seem to be included to craft an emotional arch for the film. Director Vincent Moon shot the live footage in black and white and unlike so many other concert films, rather than attempt to recreate a wide view of the performance, Moon comprises his work of quick cuts, extreme close ups and mood laden crowd shots. Surprisingly it works wonderfully. Rather than document a concert, Moon is more concerned with focusing directly on the feel of the show and, in turn, the feel of Mogwai at their most explosive. There are nearly no wide shots here, instead the experience is as subjective as it would be if you were in the crowd that night being pummelled and transformed by Mogwai in peak performance. I've been privy to that experience and it was utterly transcendent, particularly during the religious experience-inducing "New Paths To Halicon Part 1." Moon does real justice to the performance of that track by focusing on audience member's blissed-out expressions as they become caught up in the layers of white light noise that increasingly engulf them. It's rare that you get to see a concert film that eschews convention to get at something deeper inherent in the live experience, but "Burning" is one of those. The only complaint about "Burning" is that it is too short. When it was finished I hit replay, not once but twice, because I needed just that much more.
This is the part of the review where I am supposed to sum everything up in a conclusory paragraph, but rather than that I will leave you with the words of Mari Myren who was quoted in a newspaper article referring to a show Mogwai performed in Bergen, Norway in 1997, sampled by the band on the opening track of their legendary "Young Team" album "Yes! I Am A Long Way From Home," and utilized by Moon prior to the intense finale in "Burning": "This music can put a human in a trance like state and deprive it of the sneaking feeling of existing, cause this music is much bigger than words and wider than pictures...if the stars had a sound it would sound like this."
"Special Moves/Burning" is bigger than words and wider than pictures and very much the sound of stars.
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