I was pretty slow at getting into Mogwai. I have no idea why it took me so long, but I went for years without checking them out despite hearing the name all over the place. The closing down sale of the Virgin Megastore in Cardiff made for some excellent rummaging through the boxes of miscellaneous stock they had and in amongst them I found a copy of The Hawk is Howling by Mogwai. I decided to chance it and it worked out well. So well in fact, a week later I headed to Spillers for the sole purpose of buying their acclaimed debut Young Team. Having such a great record shop on your doorstep is truly an excellent thing, especially when it satisfies my music-buying whims so well. Within a week I'd gone from having never heard Mogwai to becoming a huge fan.
Their lengthy back-catalogue has allowed me to gradually buy their albums whenever I feel like buying a new album that I know will be good. On top of that, they're still putting out excellent albums, so it's win-win. Shortly after it came out, I found this copy of the soundtrack to Les Revenants in Banquet and knew it'd be a good listen. I'd heard that they were scoring the soundtrack to a French drama and both the music and TV show sounded interesting.
The record works both as a great Mogwai album and as a soundtrack. I think the constraints of fitting the music to a TV show makes for a great flow; the songs really feel like an perfect collection of well-matched songs. On top of that, they're fucking creepy in places, which adds so much to the actual show. A short while later Channel 4 began showing Les Revenants (or The Returned in English) and it was brilliant. At first it was strange watching the show with this soundtrack of Mogwai songs I'd become used to hearing on my hi-fi, but they quickly became part of the show and now when I listen to it I get the same chills I used to get from watching it.
In Les Revenants (for those who don't know) the dead slowly come back to life, but as themselves as if nothing has happened. It's set in a small Alpine village and is shot beautifully. Amongst all that style, the actual plot is creepy and fascinating. As recent TV shows go, it's certainly been one of my favourites and no small part of that was the soundtrack.
The album is certainly quite different to most the other Mogwai albums I know. Missing are the electronic elements they've been playing with on the last few albums, and so are the crashing quiet-quiet-heavy-heavy guitar moments from their earlier ones. A couple of times the songs ramp up in classic Mogwai style (and scare the shit out of you in the show, just have a listen to Wizard Motor) but it's mostly a fairly calm affair. For me, this is Mogwai as The Dirty Three, which makes for an excellent listen.
Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 14
Cost: £10 new
Bought: Banquet Records, Kingston
When: 18/03/13
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code
