Singles

Mogwai - Batcat

Miss Fliss 01/09/2008

Rating: 2.5/5

I've always appreciated the way Mogwai's moniker has epomised their schizophrenic aesthetic - gentle, plaintive, almost classical music, swelling up into an almighty well of malevolent, feral violence. To put Batcat into context, what we have here with the lead EP track, is not the quiet-loud-quiet-loud dalliance of yore but a straight up chaos of noise histrionics. The Black Sabbath influence runs amok as our ears are blasted violently with this creeping splayed limb wild rock action. It's certainly a beast and you can imagine it being a rip-roaring riotous prospect produced live. But on record, I can't help feeling there is something awry. I gave Mr Beast my first re-listen since release, and I realised that the Mogwai I like is the slow seething, epic teasing build up into menacing aural violence.

WhereasBatcat goes straight for the jugular - relentlessly. There is no change in pace, no chance for the music to breathe, just full-frontal vicious attack. In theory, this could be phenomenal, but in actuality, Batcat is a tad on the dull side - noisy and loud for the sake of it, a bit loud-Mogwai-by-numbers. I haven't heard a bad word said about the single yet, but I can't myself help but feel it is at best average. When Mogwai sampled Iggy Pop stating with heart and soul the words: What sounds like a trashy load of old noise, is in fact the brilliant music of a genius cannot be applied here however much I want it to.

Watch the video here