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| Track list: 1. Batcat 2. Stupid Prick Gets Chased by the Police and Loses His Slut Girlfriend 3. Devil Rides Running time: 14 minutes Released: 2008 |
Batcat. I was blown away by the sheer noise of this track on a couple of occasions, once so much so that I misidentified it as something else in a classic case of hearing what I wanted to hear not what was actually there. The other two tracks I do not recall at all, and I suspect it is not worth me keeping two copies of the title track (I have The Hawk is Howling, too) but we shall see.
The start is electric, but it is not until the snarl of the theme and the percussion arrives that the wall of wailing noise really establishes itself. This recording of Batcat seems to lack some of the edge that I associate with the album version... maybe I am mistaken about its volume and power, I will get to find out eventually, but this is definitely very slightly unfamiliar. I listened to The Hawk is Howling a lot when it came out so that is a surprise to me. Still, the basic structure is the same - five and a half minutes of constant roiling noise that smashes you in the face and pins back your ears. Every so often a more tuneful passage is incorporated into the mix, but this is a track not at all about melody. Cacophony, controlled aggression. I like it a lot as a change from my comfort zone - not much of what I listen to has this much sheer volume to it.
Track two is, I guess, meant to be a funny title. I might have seen it as such a few years ago, but now not so much. The idea it conjures is amusing, the unnecessary misogyny of chucking in "slut" is not. I am all for insults but... As for the tune? Much more melodic than Batcat, softer and tuneful in a way that does not really seem to gel with the violence of the title. There is no sense of the urgency of a chase, or the sorrow of a breakup here, though there is an awful hanging note to end which is held for far, far too long. Maybe that is meant to be the regret/remorse? Devil rides is stripped back musically, but has a vocal. The tune is pretty neat (reminding me more than a little of a couple of other Mogwai tracks the names of which escape me just now) but the song I have less time for. Or, well... the singer. His voice has a horrible edge to it that rubs me up the wrong way. I am pretty sure it is not one of the group, but someone brought in for that song, since Mogwai's other vocal tracks do not engender that sense of unpleasantness.
Anywho - no deletions just yet. With my ears still ringing after Batcat despite the two songs since, I will wait and compare the versions when I hit the album proper.
The start is electric, but it is not until the snarl of the theme and the percussion arrives that the wall of wailing noise really establishes itself. This recording of Batcat seems to lack some of the edge that I associate with the album version... maybe I am mistaken about its volume and power, I will get to find out eventually, but this is definitely very slightly unfamiliar. I listened to The Hawk is Howling a lot when it came out so that is a surprise to me. Still, the basic structure is the same - five and a half minutes of constant roiling noise that smashes you in the face and pins back your ears. Every so often a more tuneful passage is incorporated into the mix, but this is a track not at all about melody. Cacophony, controlled aggression. I like it a lot as a change from my comfort zone - not much of what I listen to has this much sheer volume to it.
Track two is, I guess, meant to be a funny title. I might have seen it as such a few years ago, but now not so much. The idea it conjures is amusing, the unnecessary misogyny of chucking in "slut" is not. I am all for insults but... As for the tune? Much more melodic than Batcat, softer and tuneful in a way that does not really seem to gel with the violence of the title. There is no sense of the urgency of a chase, or the sorrow of a breakup here, though there is an awful hanging note to end which is held for far, far too long. Maybe that is meant to be the regret/remorse? Devil rides is stripped back musically, but has a vocal. The tune is pretty neat (reminding me more than a little of a couple of other Mogwai tracks the names of which escape me just now) but the song I have less time for. Or, well... the singer. His voice has a horrible edge to it that rubs me up the wrong way. I am pretty sure it is not one of the group, but someone brought in for that song, since Mogwai's other vocal tracks do not engender that sense of unpleasantness.
Anywho - no deletions just yet. With my ears still ringing after Batcat despite the two songs since, I will wait and compare the versions when I hit the album proper.
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