RAVE TAPES

Mogwai is currently one of the most creative, consistent and honest bands on the post-rock scene. I've listened all their releases during the last years and I got to say that I really like their pretty unique and easily indentifiable style perhaps there are some albums which I don't enjoy much most of their discography is 4 to 5*(following PA ratings).

I was waiting for 'Rave Tapes' expecting some steps beyond the previous and brilliant 'Les Revenants' and even when there are some powerful structural elements present in 'Rave' the truth is that I feel certain lack of inspiration here perhaps is not a bad album. In fact there are some great moments everywhere but (at least for me) not great songs such as in 'Happy Songs'', 'Mr. Beast' or 'Hardcore Will Never Die'' just to mention some of Mogwai highlighted releases.

Into this numerous Mogwai thrilling moments on 'Rave' I got say that 'Remurdered' is one of the jewels of the album perhaps the slow and unnecessary long intro' Same thing 'Simon Feracious', a great song with some unnecessary sections. 'Master Card' surprises me with a very hard and dark atmosphere along with 'The Lord Is Out Of Control' which reminds me some of the best late 90's Mogwai moments.

Resuming: A classic Mogwai album, very enjoyable but not at the top of my favorites but if you like the atmospherical instrumentals fullfilled with guitars and sober effects , this one will be your kind of release' 3*

There are some albums which are very good for me, but which I don't think I'd rate that highly as a critic. This is one of them. I personally love it and for me alone it would be 4 stars if not more. However, the things I like about this album are hard to explain and very irrational. Some tunes, sounds and rhythms get close to the heart and some don't, for mysterious reasons, in a highly individual manner. It's always an impressive experience how far one person's taste in these respects can be different from another one's, while about a number of more "rational", explainable criteria they could agree.

This album speaks to me in this very individual way, it gives me some kind of "coming home" feeling with its somewhat melancholic but still forward driving, peaceful but also powerful songs. The tunes just work for me. Then, there isn't much innovation on this one and hardly anything that I could explain that'd make it stand out from other Mogwai albums. It's mostly instrumental, not very eventful, mostly rather keyboard- than guitar-driven, with loud drums and the mix of heaviness and relaxedness that is characteristic for Mogwai. It could easily be discarded as "nothing special" except it is something special for me for I don't know what reason. The magic of music ("No medicine for regret" is the number one example for me but most of the others also work well). The most postive thing I can say is that Mogwai just do what they're good at, in a mature and confident fashion. Mogwai do Mogwai, and they do it well.