Album Review: Mogwai - Rave Tapes

After the driving, gang-guitar urgency the poster boys of post-rock applied to 2011's ripping Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will, there's a softer touch to be discovered on Mogwai's eighth studio album, Rave Tapes. A swag of new pedals and synths acquired for their soundtrack work on French TV series, Les Revenants, has made way for a decidedly more electronic canvas which sends listeners headlong into spirals of intricate melody.

Lead single, Remurdered signals a slow build from the first dulled synth notes, underpinned by a palm-muted guitar that provides an almost percussive backbone through which thick, fuzzy bass synth, layered lead guitars and kaleidoscopic, harpsichord-esque keys weave. It's a foreboding gem that may not sink in straightaway, though on repeat listens Martin Bulloch's drumming reveals an inspired pathway through the piece like a shining torch. Opener, Heard About You Last Night is exquisite; floaty and gently textured with the classic guitar tones of Stuart Braithwaite and John Cummings that connect the Scots to a certain sense of longing and wonder, it calmly indicates the electronic shift while making their history clear with a trademark Mogwai structure. Men of few words, a heavily distorted vocoder features on the industrial hymn closer, The Lord Is Out Of Control, while Repelish re-records a Christian radio critique of Stairway To Heaven provided by Geoff Barrow of Portishead.

Don't be fooled by Mogwai's penchant for playful titles as there are still guitars, noise and ambient charm aplenty across Rave Tapes: just be prepared for a complex, dynamic, thinking man's kind of rave.