- Average USER Rating: 10 out of 10 -
With only 3 tracks, to call it an E.P. would typically be a tad generous; Mogwai’s latest is more of a teaser single. However, the fact that it clocks in just under the 15 minute mark and because the tracks are so deliciously dense, they can call it what ever the hell they want to. The E.P. opens with the title track “Batcat,” which will also appear on the upcoming full-length The Hawk Is Howling later this month. In addition to this sneak peek, you get two non-album tracks: the look-how-arbitrarily-silly-we-can-name-our-songs titled “Stupid Prick Gets Chased By the Police and Loses His Slut Girlfriend” and “Devil Rides,” featuring guest vocals from the 13th Floor Elevators’ godfather of psyche Roky Erickson.
Opener “Batcat” damn near melted my speakers, wasting no time escalating into a proper audio ass-whoopin’. A droning guitar riff weaves in and out of thunderous drums and relentless sludge guitars. Imagine the intensity of the 2:57 mark on Young Team’s “Like Herod,” except carried out for five minutes from start to finish (oh, and pretend Tony Iommi is there too). The only difference is that unlike “Herod,” “Batcat” didn’t scare the crap out of me.
To make nice for their sonic assault, “Stupid Prick…” offers the flip side to the Mogwai coin, exposing the fuzzy underbelly of the band that just kicked you in the eardrum. The song begins with a hardly audible drum and proceeds to build a dreamy sound scape layer by layer. The end of the song wears a little thin, taking the better part of a minute to drag out the song’s conclusion. The album picks up with closer “Devil Rides” which is dominated by Erickson’s haunting vocals. His trembly voice creates as much musical texture as it does lyrical content, complimenting the layered Mogwai instrumentation.
The first two tracks create the Jekyll & Hyde dichotomy that accurately captures the essence of Mogwai’s sound: instrumental pieces showcasing the interplay of quiet and loud (and then quiet and loud again) and finding the dynamic balance between the delicate and the brutal. The E.P. as a whole offers that balance, but the tracks alone are lacking that interplay.
Referring to The Hawk Is Howling, keyboardist/flutist/humorist/guitarist/Mogwaist Barry Burns quips via the band’s website: “If and when you allow yourself to hear these bitching jams you’re going to want to buy some seriously good crystal meth just to take the edge off.” And if the Batcat E.P. is any indication, the full-length will undoubtedly deliver. Just tell the judge that Mogwai made you do it, it worked for me when Mike Watt made me do whip-itz…
Mogwai. Enjoy:
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Tags: Mogwai
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The song “Batcat” is fucking heavy and awesome. Maybe you could say… Heawesomevy