Dynamic Scottish post-rock veterans Mogwai will be releasing their eighth album, Rave Tapes, next Tuesday on Sub Pop. In advance of the album’s release, they’ve made it available in full for streaming, and you should go listen to it right now!
Dynamic Scottish post-rock veterans Mogwai will be releasing their eighth album, Rave Tapes, next Tuesday on Sub Pop. In advance of the album’s release, they’ve made it available in full for streaming, and you should go listen to it right now! We shared the first track released from Rave Tapes, “Remurdered,” with you back in November. At the time, we said the song’s “foreboding, synth-based groove sounds reminiscent of Italian prog band Goblin’s soundtrack work for 70s horror movies.” That spooky atmosphere and focus on cinematic synth sounds seems to hold true across a lot of the album, which only makes sense considering Mogwai’s previous album was the soundtrack for a French zombie horror TV show. A special bonus horror quality is added by a voiceover on “Repelish,” narrating the discovery of backwards masking on a Led Zeppelin song–though of course, that whole story’s been debunked for years, so there’s clearly an element of irony here.
Photo by Steve Gullick
The more unified feel created by Rave Tapes‘s soundtrack-like qualities makes this album more consistent than many of Mogwai’s previous albums, which have tended towards a mix of mind-blowing highlights and barely-there filler tracks. This album may not quite reach the volume levels attained on “Like Herod,” but on first listen, it appears to be one of the group’s more enjoyable overall efforts. Find out for yourself by streaming it at Soundcloud HERE, and if you enjoy it as much as we believe you will, you can pre-order the album on vinyl or CD from Sub Pop HERE. Alternately, if you prefer digital versions, you can preorder the album from iTunes HERE, and get immediate downloads of “Remurdered” and “The Lord Is Out Of Control” while you’re at it.
