MOGWAI
Mr. Beast
Matador
· Noise by rote – everyone’s favourite Glaswegian noiseniks.
Upon Mogwai’s barnstorming debut, Ten Rapid, in 1997, everyone’s favourite Glaswegian noiseniks took an instant starring role in the very definition of post rock. Nearly a decade later, Mr. Beast arrives after a series of diminishing returns most blatantly laid forth on 2003’s Happy Songs for Happy People. By this point, Mogwai have perfected their formulaic noise rock, but with it seems to have gone most of the feeling and excitement. The likes of Mr. Beast’s blitzkrieg-style "Glasgow Mega-Snake" holds nowhere near the headphone exploration depth of Young Team’s "Tracy" or "Like Herod."
Here we get the token addition of piano in a leading role on opener "Auto Rock," a pretty whisper build to "Acid Food," and the characteristic swell of "Folk Death 95" compacted into less than three-and-a-half minutes. So used to making mountains of noise out of molehills of notes, Mogwai’s Mr. Beast feels halfhearted and easy – while the epic noise is still around in spades, the epic construction of prior Mogwai compositions is all but missing. Sometimes the best payoffs are those you have to wait for. Mr. Beast, on the other hand, is too impatient for its own good.
It’s easiest perhaps to compare Mogwai with their primary precursors Slint – an even more apt comparison given "Like Herod’s" working title of simply "Slint" – whose entire discography consists of two short albums and a sole EP’s worth of material. Five albums in with Mogwai, things are starting to get a little bit too predictable.
|
Copyright ©2006 FFWD. All rights reserved.