Mogwai - Rock Action

  by Maarten Schiethart

published: 17 / 12 / 2001

---

Review

Yeah sure, 'Rock Action' indeed. No blasting opener, however. Mogwai's always into doing the unexpected. 'Rock Action' is on the surface their least confrontial album yet. Opening with a chill out, the wonderful electronic creek of 'Sinewave', the album initially follows a quiet path, but don't ever let Mogwai fool you. Multi instrumentalist Stuart Braithwaite and the rest of the Mogwai gang open up this long EP with music that's very accurately described in the title. A stone movement in music. 'Sinewave' works like an electronic overture. 'Take me Somewhere Nice' smoothly follows and has Stuart singing ! Mogwai have done this song a few times already live, but without a string section. Fundamentalist punk rockers may be surprised by this move towards trad rock but it results in touching music nonetheless. Art rock war veteran David Pajo meanwhile supplies backing vocals on the track, hinting once again at Mogwai's anti format attitude. 'O I Sleep' continues with this soft toned setting. The Mogwai psyche is still lurking around but is pretty tough to catch, and is both eloquent and beautiful. If 'Dial: Revenge', the next track ever bores you , you'd better stop listening to music at all.It is reminiscent of sounds both from the garden as well as from the cellar,and on it producer Dave Friedman catches Mogwai at their very best ... 'You don't know Jesus' has the Super Furry Animals' Gruff Rhys writing and singing. First though I thought him to be with Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, another Welsh band with a name similar to Mogwai's. What is it with these youngsters in rock action these days? There are too many mentions of toys and torment. Were they conceived while their parents were listening to David Bowie's 'Scary Monsters, Super Creeps'? Towards the end the great Mogwaay wall of guitar sounds finally builds up to the proportions we've grown to expect from the band. The little monsters first of all tease their fans with a subtle jangle then overhaul their own entire back catalogue. 'Robot Chant' is an industrial snippet of sound that rearranges the scale, before '2 Rights Make 1 Wrong" comes as Mogwai's greatest treasure yet. The band's major achievement of the new millennium is to bring all their different sides together on one album. You'd have to imagine yourself, not only in the UK somewhere, but also in a Catholic region to fully understand the last track' Secret Pint'. It's no mystery track but a genuine epilogue, and explains how petrifying rock action can be: "Oh so scared, falling down, it's hard to say, fatal ..." It's hard to say. It's all too much. Rock action.

Track Listing:-

1 Sine Wave
2 Take Me Somewhere Nice
3 O I Sleep
4 Dial : Revenge
5 You Don't Know Jesus
6 Robot Chant
7 2 Rights Make 1 Wrong
8 Secret Pint