I think this may actually be my favourite Mogwai album, which – given their
really quite mighty back catalogue – is no mean thing. As one of pock-rock’s finest, Mogwai of course have experimentation
in their very DNA, but this is really quite exploratory even for them and
represents both a notable shift from the style of their recent records and an
even bigger leap away from their early work.
It’s worth pointing out, first, that Rave
Tapes certainly has nothing to do with rave music. But it is, at its heart, and electronica
album rather than a rock one, despite the omnipresence of guitars and drums. Most of the album feels rather more laptop
than lead guitar. It is a dreamy, open
album with vast but under-populated soundscapes. At times it bursts into life, and more
familiar Come on Die Young style ‘classic’
post-rock territory: see ‘Hexon Bogon’, or my favourite track on the record,
the pounding ‘Master Card’. However,
it’s actually tracks like the driving electronica of ‘Replenish’ that more accurately
represent what Mogwai are trying to
do here. This is an amazingly realised
musical journey, and for the first third of 2014 was undoubtedly my album of
the year. It’s slipped down the list a
bit since then, but remains a firm favourite that I play regularly. Rave
Tapes is the first truly great album on the list this year, and one that
I’ll come back to for many years to come.
Having said this, when I draw up my list each year, there’s always a
cut-off point between the truly amazing records each year and ‘the rest’. In 2014 Rave
Tapes existed in an odd netherworld of its own between these two
realms. I like the album significantly
more than ‘the rest’, but there were also five records that were vastly superior to it: in other words,
its placement at 6th was the easiest decision I’ve ever made when
writing these lists!
sample
track: Master Card