Atomic (soundtrack)release date: Apr. 1, 2016
format: digital (10 x File, FLAC)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,27]
producer: Tony Doogan
label: Rock Action Records - nationality: Scotland, UK
Original soundtrack by Mogwai to the documentary "Atomic, Living in Dread and Promise" (Aug. 2015), a film about nuclear history by Mark Cousins. The album sees Mogwai exploring a style with strong bonds to 1970s krautrock and electronic music by Kraftwerk and Godspeed You! Black Emperor (e.g. "Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven!" from 2000), and by doing so, the album doesn't follow the path of the bands most recent releases.
The album is the band's first in a new line-up (the first in 16 years) after founding member John Cummings left the quintet in 2015 to pursue a solo career, so here the band has been reduced to a quartet of Stuart Braithwaite, Dominic Aitchison, Martin Bulloch and Barry Burns. It's 48 minutes of primarily progressive ambient music with a commemorating touch of the aforementioned German styles blended with ambient post-rock.
Atomic is not really great but nor is it of irrelevance. It's thematically narrow and stringent music, which possibly serves its purpose, but as a standalone release it lacks diversity as well as polarity; however, imho, it outshines most of their previous soundtrack albums.
Later this year (Oct. 2016) Mogwai also contributed with four compositions for the soundtrack to the documentary "Before the Flood" by Fisher Stevens.
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[ 👉Pitchfork 7,1 / 10, 👍Drowned in Sound 3,5 / 5, The Guardian 3 / 5 stars ]
