"The Bad Fire"

Mogwai: Lighter music in darker times

Intense sounds don't always need words - as Mogwai prove once again on their new album "The Bad Fire".

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/PIAS, Steve Gullick)

Persistence pays off: For 30 years now, Scottish post-rock band Mogwai have been delivering largely instrumental tracks that unfold between subtle melodies, an atmosphere that opens up vast landscapes and brutal bursts of heaviness. Not necessarily a sound suitable for the masses, and yet they reached number 1 in the British charts with their tenth album "As The Love Continues" in 2021. Now there's more to come.

"It was weird," recalls guitarist Stuart Braithwaite of the unexpected success in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. "We never thought of anything like that or even expected it. But of course it was nice for us. It's good that every now and then a strange album can be number one," he smiles in the APA interview. In a time of prescribed pause and introspection, the Mogwai cosmos seemed to many to be a welcome refuge. "There aren't many bands that have been around as long as we have and still get so much attention for a new album. It's definitely given us a boost."

Emotional sound paths
This should now also be noticeable on "The Bad Fire": The new record picks up seamlessly where its predecessor left off and offers dreamy passages such as the opener "God Gets You Back", which has plenty of groove, but can also rock straightforwardly, as "Fanzine Made Of Flesh" proves. On the other hand, "If You Find This World Bad, You Should See Some Of The Others" proves how sensitively you can go from very quiet to really loud. This piece is allowed to develop for more than seven minutes, initially with carefully placed guitar harmonies and subtle drumming, before the horizon turns blood-red towards the end and everything disappears in a wall of sound.

The songs were developed last year, and the process was very similar to the last time, with ideas first being worked on individually before being worked out together. "The reasons were different this time, though," says Braithwaite. "Barry (Burns, editor's note) took some time off for his family because his daughter was ill. It took some time before we were all back together again. It was the same with the pandemic." In the end, Braithwaite, Burns, Martin Bulloch and Dominic Aitchison went into the studio with producer John Congleton and recorded the ten tracks.

Brighter music than before
Looking at Mogwai's second creative phase, it is particularly noticeable on the more recent albums that their penchant for hard guitar music with cathartic moments has been toned down in favor of a more optimistic tone. Do dark times perhaps call for lighter music? "Probably," Braithwaite ponders. "It's difficult for us to analyze or put our finger on it. But yes, the world is in a shitty situation right now. Personally, we've also had some difficult phases recently. Maybe that's why we've carried a hint of optimism into these songs."

But Mogwai wouldn't be Mogwai if they didn't counteract such an approach with absurdly funny titles. The album name, a Scottish expression for hell, also falls into this category. How does that fit the music? "To be honest, we didn't give it much thought," laughs Braithwaite. "We just thought it was a funny title. Of course, now it's in the context of all these difficulties. We tend to evaluate it after the fact. Only then do we connect the dots, you could say." Consequently, you don't have to semantically dissect the very elegiac "Pale Vegan Hip Pain" or the enormously upbeat "Lion Rumpus", but can simply enjoy the rousing songs.

New things are more important than nostalgia
And this is likely to remain the case for some time to come, even if Mogwai have now reached quite a respectable age. "I'm proud of it," says Braithwaite when asked about this year's 30th anniversary. "But it's not as important as a new album. New music is always more important than nostalgia. But it's certainly an achievement." Looking back nostalgically is not the group's greatest strength anyway, even if Braithwaite wrote down his memoirs a few years ago with "Spaceships Over Glasgow". "The four of us don't have the best memories," smiles the musician. "Although mine is certainly the worst. When Martin and Dominic talk about a particular gig in detail, I often can't remember it at all."

Regardless of this, music remains a vehicle for him to escape the gray everyday life. "It's a way of looking inwards so that I don't always have to expose myself to the horrors of the outside world. And, of course, artistic expression is a very powerful tool against fascism. If more people made art, there would probably be fewer wars." So "The Bad Fire" also contributes a little to a balanced world.

APA/Christoph Griessner