release date: Oct. 21, 1997
format: digital (19 x File, FLAC Deluxe Edition)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,72]
producer: Paul Savage (recorded by)
label: Chemikal Underground - nationality: Scotland, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Yes! I Am a Long Way From Home" - 2. "Like Herod" - 5. "Tracy" - 7. "With Portofolio" - 8. "R U Still in 2 It" - 10. "Mogwai Fear Satan" (official shortened video)
Studio album debut by Scottish post rock band Mogwai following the full-length compilation album Ten Rapid released 6 months earlier is recorded by Paul Savage (track #7 by Andy Miller) released on a small independent Scottish label. During the recording sessions for the album the band was expanded to a quintet by the inclusion of Brendan O'Hare (former drummer of Teenage Fanclub). The band is made up of Stuart Braithwaite on guitar, John Cummings on guitar, Dominic Aitchison on bass, Martin Bulloch on drums, and with new member Brendan O'Hare credited on piano and guitar. The album was originally released as double vinyl lp and 1-cd issues as the playing time exceeds 64 minutes. The standard issue comes with ten tracks and the single compositions vary in length from 01:34 to 16:20 minutes - with nearly all of the remaining tracks revealing likewise unconventional playing times (except #6 and #7 at 3:28 and 3:11 respectively). Shortly after the album release, new member O'Hare was dismissed from the band, who then continued as a quartet the following year.
Needless say, the music is with a certain dominance of guitar-sound in a band with three guitarists but that's by no means to say guitars take up 3/5 of the music. All but one track on the album are instrumentals - with lead vocalist Aidan Moffat of Arab Strap featuring on track #8. Being mostly instrumentals, the compositions are, however not without vocals. Several tracks are composed with speaking parts as a form of background noise, some of which are samples, and generally speaking, noise does amount for a central portion of both the single composition as well as the album as a whole. Tracks may start out gently, with few instruments playing softly at low key when it all explodes as a wall of noise rock before it then returns as sudden as it erupted - like an abrupt change of weather.
Mogwai Young Team is a strong debut from one of the most poignant bands of the post rock genre. This isn't just another band copying My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, Slint, Talk Talk, The Cure or any other artists in shaping its own soundscape. They set a new set of standards within the alt. rock genre and show us that contemporary post rock is more than Sigur Rós and that playing post rock doesn't necessarily mean "more of the same". This debut album is already a modern classic. The band may have produced better albums since, but it's remarkable how original and how much of a whole this album really is. It's a certified grower.
Recommended.
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