Mogwai Special Moves LP & Burning DVD (Rock Action)
5/5
By: Jen Long
Special Moves is the new live album from post-rock kings Mogwai, but it’s not as simple as you might think. Just as how the Scottish quintet seem to take every part of their music that one special step further; they’ve done the same here. Along with the record you get a DVD, Burning. Directed by Vincent Moon and Nathaneal Le Scouarnec. Yeah.
Special Moves was recorded across a three-night residency at the Williamsburg Hall of Music last year. It is Mogwai. There’re no tricks or twists here; you’re going to get exactly what you should expect, which is just over an hour of some of the most guttural, mind-crushing, powerful and moving music committed to polycarbonate.
No excuses have been taken, no corners cut. The production on this live record is of studio quality to the point that when applause creeps in during songs it almost sounds wrong. But that’s not to say it lacks atmosphere, quite the opposite in fact.
This is the kind of record that you beg to be involved with. It’s not enough to put it on the stereo at work and sit back for 70 minutes feeling a little lighter. This record had me driving through pitch black A-roads in the pouring rain at mildly illegal speeds. It had the stereo of my work’s pool car cranked to such an ear shattering volume that at times I did wonder whether I was hearing guitar effect or the speakers collapsing to an early grave. The moment in ‘Mogwai Fear Satan’ where everything falls out only to return with terrifying venom nearly sent me skidding across the road in shock. This record is dangerous.
The accompanying DVD is something of a smoother ride. The real brilliance is that it’s a work of art in its own right. This isn’t some back tray, three songs on two static camera limited bonus exclusive package deal. It’s as affecting as the record.
Live footage is edited together with a series of establishing sequences and half-speed crowd shots. It kind of reminded me of that BBC Blur documentary in the way I was watching it thinking ‘This can’t be really live? How did they make it so… beautiful?” Guitar strings glisten as they swing in and out of focus. The cameras glide across the stage with an elegance that feels poetic. It was like watching one of those really epic wildlife documentaries where even though I know it’s just a zebra or something, I still feel a bit emotional.
Records like this don’t come along too often. Live records like this, almost never.
Mogwai Live at Field Day 2009
Artists in this article: Mogwai
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