Word: mogwai
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...prefer, a Vietnamese rose tea) among a bewildering medley of model cats and novelty knickknacks. If you get hungry, you can order a thin-crust pizza at Bellini's, tel: (63-2) 913 2550. ? If you simply want a drink, sit back and people-watch at Mogwai, tel: (63-2) 913 1060, which also features an art-house cinematheque upstairs. Once refreshed, head across the road to the I Love You Store, tel: (63) 917 499 5223. At this ukay-ukay (or rummage) boutique, preloved clothing is deconstructed, redesigned and remade into highly covetable fashion...
With all these challenges, it’s no surprise that Mogwai’s work over the past ten years has been somewhat uneven. When they’re weak, the music is tedious, derivative, and overwrought. But when Mogwai are on, their songs stir us in a way that few other things—musically or otherwise—can. Their strength lies in an ability to take a simple riff and slowly weave an epic arrangement around it, until every color of every note has been revealed. A single chord can be heartbreaking...
This year’s “Mr Beast” shows Mogwai at the strongest they have ever been. The band has distanced itself from old, self-indulgent habits—no more overlong tracks or repetitive, angular guitar riffs. Instead, they’ve focused on production: on distilling the feel of their earlier albums into something intense and compact...
Vocals, as always, are spare in this album. When Mogwai do decide to incorporate their voices into a song, the vocals blend right into the texture of the instrumental fabric, becoming another part of the ambience. Even as the individual elements of the music may merge together, however, the structure of the songs themselves is never indistinct. The rhythm and the drive are always in the forefront, pushing the song forward, holding us in suspense for the next big crest of sound...
Granted, this suspense is not indefinite. Each song contains a range of sounds and moods, but this range tends to repeat itself from track to track. This is an album best appreciated in small doses. Still, “Mr Beast” captures Mogwai at an important moment—they seem to have shed their extraneous embellishments and gone straight to the heart of their music. And that moment is surely one worth listening...