MY FATHER, MY KING

Am i wasting my time doing this review?

I said that because of this: My Father My King is not a studio album, but a single which was released in 2001, with onl the self titled album, this same EP was also released in Australia and New Zealand but with a two more songs ("you dont know jesus", and "Helicon 1" both songs live).

Actually what im going to review is only one song, it could be ridicolous, for example you can review Mike Oldfield´s Amarok, which is One-song-album indeed , but it´s totally different because of the lenght, Amarok´s total time is one hour, My father My King are 20 minutes,but 20 minutes of great music.

So the answer to the first question is a clear NO, i am not wasting my time doing this review, because 20 minuutes are eough to enjoy music, which is also well done andvery well created. As we know Mogwai is a Post - Rock band which has done some good albums such as Rock Action or Happy Songs fo happy People (anyway this is not my favorite post rock band at all), so you can imagine the sound of this single - song.

My Father My King is a 20 minute song which has that typical guitar sound of post rock bands, it could be maybe repetitive, but actually that repetitive sound makes this kind of music great, another fact is that during the song we can find mood changes, all done by great guitar sound, from soft sound making a sad emotion, to explosive guitars that makes you move your head and scream , all the song has a similar sound between it´s parts, (the song is not divided in parts, but when i listen to it i can cut it and imagine that is divided), i find it so emotional, and after all i think it is a great song.

Because it is a single, which has only one song, i should give it only 2 stars (for fans only), but because i really enjoy this 20 minutes, i will give it 3 stars!

4.5 stars. I love the title of this EP. This is their interpretation of an old Jewish hymn that was sung at their New Year's fetival.They have translated the Hebrew words into English in the liner notes. They basically ask God to end famine, hate, oppression and war from the earth and to bless themselves and their children. It opens with a confession of sin and asks for compassion. This is a 20 minute song that they often ended their concerts with.

It starts out quiet as it slowly builds to almost a full sound 1 1/2 minutes in. 3 1/2 minutes in the sound is fantastic ! And a minute later they are kicking ass ! This is a powerful wall of sound. 6 1/2 minutes in the sound starts to soften until it's down to a whisper 8 minutes in. It's building again. 10 1/2 minutes in they have unleashed an explosion of sound that is almost frightning. This is as heavy as hell, and the lava flows for 6 minutes ! After that it's like a train that takes some time to come to a stop as the heaviness gradually grinds to a halt.

This is a must have for all Post-Rock fans and especially MOGWAI fans. A truly amazing and gratifying listen. Almost perfect.

"My Father, My King" is an EP released in 2001 by UK, Scotland, Glasgow based post rock act Mogwai. "My Father, My King" was released around the same time as "Rock Action (2001)" and "Happy Songs For Happy People (2003)", which are widely considered some of the band´s best releases.

The EP only features one track but it´s 20:13 minutes long which should, as far as I remember, make it the longest track the band has made so far. Around the time of the two above mentioned albums Mogwai had developed a rare sense for melody that´s become their trademark and I was hoping that "My Father, My King" would be in the same vein as the tracks on those two albums. It´s rather different though. This is a very slow building post rock track. Very repetitive and quite frankly a bit to long for it´s own good. The material on "My Father, My King" could easily have been destilled to a 5 minutes long track. I´m sure that 5 minute track would have been great but 20 minutes are simply too long when this little happens. I know this kind of music is suppossed to take you on an emotional rollercoaster, and sometimes it does work when the climaxes and the more mellow parts compliment each other, but the track just gets too repetitive in the end. And what´s with the that noisy ending? That´s plain annoying. All complaints aside I do enjoy the really heavy section of the track very much. These guys are so great when they decide to play some heavy stuff.

The musicianship and the production are as usual of high standard when we´re talking a Mogwai release.

I can´t say "My Father, My King" is exactly what I had hoped for and honestly I have a hard time appreciating what the band have cooked up for us this time around. That doesn´t mean it´s not a quality product though and I´m sure fans of the more repetitive, longdrawn post rock style, who possess more patience than I do with slow building tracks, will enjoy this EP more than I do. A 2.5 - 3 star (55%) rating is warranted.

This has to be a mistake: only six reviews so far, and half of those only a rating, for a truly epic piece of music easily accessible in its entirety on the band's page here at Prog Archives.

All right, so it isn't exactly an essential experience, and especially not for old school Progheads still dragging their heels in a mid-1970s symphonic rut. But Mogwai's year 2001 single is the quintessential primer for open-eared newcomers, and could easily have been subtitled "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Post-Rock (*...But Were Afraid to Ask)".

Over it's gradually unfolding twenty-minute length the song - entirely instrumental, of course - spotlights all the stylistic conventions (or clichés, if you insist) of that very loud musical movement, including the majestic tempos, the steady 4/4 rhythm, and the slow thematic development, typically reaching a climax in an apotheosis of pure noise: fuzzed-out guitars, lots of crashing ride cymbals, and so forth. In this example the song ends in a sustained wall of feedback lasting several minutes, and finally halted with the abruptness of a pulled plug...hardly surprising, given the alarming surge of energy beforehand.

The haunting melody was borrowed from a Yom Kippur prayer (Avinu Malkeinu, not often heard in Presbyterian Glasgow), here given a suitably melancholy arrangement building from an almost subliminal intro to a level of power strong enough to incinerate the Temple of Solomon. The band's own description of the music is, "two parts serenity and one part death metal", but it's possible they have their ratios confused.

Arguably the song is too simple to justify its length; it certainly overstays its welcome long before the extended non-resolution. But on the other hand there's no reason why it couldn't have continued for another twenty or thirty hypnotic minutes. If more liturgical music were given a similar treatment, I might happily reconsider my longstanding religious skepticism.

Mogwai bill this a "companion piece" to the Rock Action - actually, I think it overshadows that album a little. My Father My King is an instrumental which the band had used to close their concerts for some time before tackling the task of recording it. Sure, maybe it is Mogwai's way of saying "We can do 20 minute tracks too, so don't think Godspeed You Black Emperor proved anything with Lift Your Skinny Fists!", but even so as far as 20-minute heavy post-rock workouts go it's pretty impressive. In fact, it's probably Mogwai's best non-album track altogether. Play it loud and play it with patience.