LES REVENANTS (OST)

Its important to note that I know nothing about this band other than this album. I came across this when watching the brilliant French TV series for which this is the soundtrack. For those who don't know it's about people coming back from the dead although not in some Zombie apocalypse scenario but rather in a more standard drama. Its weird and played dead (excuse the pun) straight in typical French dead pan(oh sorry again) style. Slow atmospheric creepy and totally absorbing. And that basically describes the music. Its slow melodic and full of subtle melodies. No long tracks and no massive flourishes instrumentally. Each track is beautifully structured although I couldn't name a stand out piece. I suppose this could almost be seen as the commercial end of post rock but that would be to do it a disservice. How does it stand up against their other releases? Absolutely no idea as said before. That will be for someone else to judge.

The TV show wasn't a masterpiece, the plot had a huge number of logical faults and the authors didn't have any idea of how to explain it, so a lot of things remained unexplained and incomplete. But the atmosphere of that French village on the alps, with people coming back from death and resurrecting several times and a number of related misteries was able to keep you sit in front of the TV.

Well, one of the reasons is that the music composed by MOGWAI was perfectly fitting in that atmosphere. It was so integrated that I can't imagine watching it with a different soundtrack. In example, the Americans, maybe Netflix tried a remake, but unfortunately the actors were "standardized" to the American style and the soundtrack...well I don't think I resisted more than 15 minutes to the whole.

So back to Mogwai: this was not a horror movie even though there's a thrilling atmosphere, and the musical comment is not that of a horror movie, but it's like a light nightmare. The music can show all the dark side of the story, which include serial killers, religious fanatics, alchoolist parents, almost all the possible dark aspects of the human nature, but there's some melancholy, sense of wonder, so a number of sensation that the music is able to create, not just comment.

I don't know if I would have appreciated the movie without that music and vice versa. Keeping the two things separated isn't easy. I can say that I enjoy listening to the album "alone". All the tracks, except one, are instrumental, slow, atmospheric and dark but not too much. The non-instrumental track is a sort of slow country melodic song in the vein of Roger WATERS solo stuff, but without him screaming as usual.

I actually heard the Mogwai debut only, and I didn't like much. This TV stuff had the merit of making me appreciate their music and their other works. (I still don't like the debut, anyway).

So I don't know if I'm suggesting/reviewing the album or the movie. let's say both. The story is inconsistent, but the atmosphere and the OST are great.