Scotland Rules: Mogwai's Rock Action

Scott Thill

Whoever said less is more never met Mogwai, the unconventional instrumentalists whose newest album, the aptly-titled Rock Action, hit the stores -- probably the independent ones a bit harder -- in April. Because although the Glasgow, Scotland quintet usually abstain from adding vocals to their songs -- a major taboo in today's musical landscape -- their songs are always the heavier for it.

So Mogwai has actually given their version of more -- in this case, both vocals and instruments -- on Rock Action: a floating banjo sneaks its way onto the extended caboose of "2 Rights Make 1 Wrong," a maddening synthetic drum pattern beautifully pollutes the otherwise pristine "Sine Wave," and there’s a voice to be found on almost every song.

But, unlike the majority of rock actions filling the conventional and unconventional airwaves as the century’s stomach turns, Mogwai’s newfound use of vocals seems to serve the same purpose that any of their other instruments fulfills, and that is the perennially undervalued essence called atmosphere. Which just makes the meaty title of their latest trip through mood-filled melodica that much more hard-hitting.

Heady talk, but what the hell. Rock Action is an amazing if short collection of Mogwai’s better traits, and in "Dial:Revenge," the group might have found what may be considered its most approachable pop song. Well, it’s pop in the sense that it’ll be played on Real.com’s Spinner but hey, you take what you can get. "Dial:Revenge" is an excellently-crafted turn of semi-acoustic melody, sung in plaintive Welsh by Gruff Rhys of the Super Furry Animals, and it even comes in under the Mogwai radar at three minutes and 28 seconds. There’s less is more for you.

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But that is not to say that the lengthy exercises are missing from this latest release -- what kind of rock action would that be? "You Don’t Know Jesus," coming in two seconds over eight minutes, recalls the soft-loud schemata found in other extended pieces, such as the powerful "Christmas Steps" off of their previous effort Come On Die Young or "Like Herod" from the earlier Young Team. Its relentless downstrums, buttressed by a pounding beat from the band’s musical epicenter, drummer Martin Bulloch, will have you seeing visions of apocalypse all night.

Rock Action’s other lengthy exercise, "2 Rights Make 1 Wrong," is a sprawling enterprise held together by Stuart Leslie Brathwaite’s catchy-as-hell guitar hook, which turns inside and outside of itself for close to ten minutes. Meanwhile, the rest of the band lays it on thick with some amazing musical accompaniment: the aforementioned banjo, Michael Brawley’s gut-wrenching strings and horns, and more.

It's a rewarding experiment that the rest of the music world could stand to spend a little time paying attention to. Mood music has never sounded so good.

Scott Thill -- a media fanatic who finds the time to write on everything that does not include the words "boy band" -- is a gainfully employed dotcom editor currently finishing his first novel, The Dangerous Perhaps.