The album opens and closes with solid tracks from their most recent release (the closer of "Stop Coming To My House" is especially peerless), while the middle of the release mixes it up from their earlier period, keeping things mostly on the quieter side as "Kappa," "Cody," "Secret Pint," and "R U Still In 2 It" all wash by with warm guitars and occasional downcast vocals. With the late, great John Peel introducing the band and the disc, it's bound to put anyone in a nostalgic mood, and the group touches on each of their full-length albums, with two tracks from each save Rock Action. While working on the follow up to Happy Music For Happy People, the group has decided to drop this BBC Sessions disc (remember when all the cool groups did it?) and at the same time the release works as sort of a greatest-hits to-date package as well. With artists like Godspeed You! Black Emperor upping the ante and Explosions In The Sky tiptoeing on beautiful sonics and subtle dynamic changes, it's become a landscape littered with post rock. The second reason the group seemingly hasn't stunned as much lately is that there are so many groups doing similar things nowadays that Mogwai simply aren't looked to as the groundbreakers they once were. The massive My Father My King is a perfect example, following a very similar sonic structure as "Like Herod" from Young Team. Mogwai still pretty much sounds like Mogwai, and although the line from Ten Rapid to Happy Music For Happy People isn't a completely straight one, their work is still fairly interconnnected as they've revisited themese throughout their career. The first is that while the group has changed up their style slightly (adding more electronics, some vocals, and relying less on punishing volume changes), they haven't gone off and done anything too outlandish. While the last couple albums from the group haven't quite reached the dizzying heights of their first releases, there are probably a couple probable reasons for such. I remember the first time that I heard "Helicon 2" back clear back in 1997 and thought that the group was really something new and brave and exciting (I hadn't heard Slint at that point yet, so sue me). Over the course of their nearly decade-long career, Mogwai has managed to stay prolific as well as slightly change their style up with each release so that they simply aren't retreading the same ground over and over again. Government Commissions: BBC Sessions 1996-2003 Well, amongst British bands at least.Mogwai - Government Commissions: BBC Sessions 1996-2003 - Review Perhaps second only to Radiohead in terms of making music on their own terms, but also having a wide-reaching appeal and influencing countless others.
#Mogwai government commissions rar series#
Their mixture of post-rock, shoegaze, electronica and art rock has produced not only a series of successful albums but has been perfect for soundtrack work such as their score for the film Zidane.
Mogwai's famous quiet/loud dynamic and consistently stellar live shows have elevated the band way out of the post-rock ghetto, and they now sit as one of the most popular alternative bands on the planet. These records took their cues from Slint and the spindly post-rock bands of the day, but they were simply a mere blueprint of what was to come later. The band has slowly built up a huge following from inauspicious (but brilliant) beginnings with the Young Team debut and the Ten Rapid compilation. One of the most important post-rock bands, Mogwai's career arc has been similar to that of a snowball.
0 kommentar(er)
