CD Reviews

Mogwai | A Wrenched Virile Lore

Sub Pop (2012)

By RYAN REED | December 4, 2012

2.0 Stars

If you're like me, your hard drive is littered with random remix albums, and you have little to no clue how they got there. The remix album is to music what the DVD commentary is to film — both seem fun at first, but they're ultimately exhausting. We go through the motions once out of obligation, and we rarely emerge enlightened. And so it goes with Mogwai's A Wrenched Virile Lore: a broad range of electro producers, ambient knob-twiddlers, and singer-songwriters re-assemble the Scottish post-rock champs' most recent studio album, the excellent Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will, mostly with shitty bonus-feature-styled results. Klad Hest gets major points for naming his "Rano Pano" remix "Mogwai Is My Dick," but the track itself adds up to little more than sterile 8-bit Nintendo synth buzz and frenetic drum loops. Xander Harris's dead-end version of "How To Be a Werewolf" never even feigns urgency, milking a two-note bass loop over faded synth fuzz and corny programmed cymbals for what feels like a merciless eternity. Meanwhile, Cylob removes the busy orchestral grandeur of "White Noise" but amplifies the original's core melody with a sleepy vocoder — a promising start that ultimately derails into remix-y repetition. Sandwiched between are three breathtaking moments of clarity: extreme-metal heavyweight Justin K. Broadrick "re-shapes" "George Square Thatcher Death Party" into a dreamy synth-pop vocoder lullaby; Robert Hampson's 13-minute "La Mort Blanche" is, weirdly enough, the most economical track here, blending artful, Eno-styled ambience with a bass-driven dream-pop coda. And wait — what's this? A remix with an original thought? RM Hubbert's "Mexican Grand Prix" supplants Mogwai's electronic kraut-rock propulsion with organic intimacy via spiraling classical guitar chords. Still, all in all, Virile Lore feels more "deleted scene" than "director's cut."

Slideshow: Mogwai live at the Wilbur Theatre
Mogwai live at the Wilbur Theatre, May 1, 2009
The Big Hurt: Bieber goes 3-D
This one is a few weeks old, but I think it bears mentioning: one of the dudes from COLOR ME BADD — the second-most-piratey-looking dude, if that helps — was arrested on charges of being a lady hitter. Another part of my youth destroyed; another piece of my soul yanked from my body.
Nite Jewel | One Second of Love
Los Angeles songstress Ramona Gonzalez began home-recording dark dance music in 2008, attracting the attention of blogspots and boutique labels with her soulful voice, lo-fi post-disco beats, and distinct sense of weirdo minimalism.
Metric | Synthetica
Of all the Canadian acts that stumbled onto the scene in the early aughts, Metric have been the most consistent in putting out quality material.
Purity Ring | Shrines
Ever imagined what it would be like to hear an angel-voiced woman recite a book of fairy tales in the back of a nightclub at 2 am as drowsy synth lines float through the speakers?
What's F'n Next? Divine Fits
When asked to name the best note for a one-note song, of course Britt Daniel is already sitting at a piano.
Beach House's artful myth
Victoria Legrand opened her notebook and saw the word "Myths." "There were no other words on the page," says the Beach House singer and keyboardist. VJust JMythsM. . . . I hadn't even remembered writing it. It was magical. A total sign."
The Soft Moon | Zeros
Feeling disassociated, darkened, distressed, or just plain different this fall? Don't fret or suffer like the only hope out there for getting lost musically is by listening to early Depeche Mode or jumping on the Kraftwerk revival bandwagon.
Robyn at the State Theatre, January 29
With each of her three 2010 Body Talk EPs armed with a single-of-the-year contender (in the just-slightly-ironic, pop-chart-averse blog-critic sense), it's been hard to ignore Swedish pop star Robyn's status as in indie icon these past 12 months.
Taboo + Ancestral Diet at the Apohadion, March 8
When I entered the Apohadion, the room was nearly dark and the stage was empty.
Ritualz | Ghetto Ass Witch
A genre of music based in darkness is always the most sensitive to light, especially the kind of illumination that comes from the scorching laser beam of pop-culture attention.
Less

Topics: CD Reviews , Mogwai, Mogwai, fuzz, More

| More

Most Popular

The Current Issue

Table of Contents

Cover Archive

Masthead | Authors | Contact us

Blogs

Where To Follow Me
Talking Politics | March 24, 2013 at 11:09 AM

Mo Takes His Turn
March 21, 2013 at 12:59 PM

[Q&A] KMFDM's Sascha Konietzko on art, Columbine and having balls
On The Download | March 18, 2013 at 3:22 PM

See this film series: The Belmont World Film Series @ Studio Cinema in Belmont
Outside The Frame | March 18, 2013 at 11:00 AM

See this film: This is Spinal Tap [with post-film talk by expert from Acoustical Society of America] @ the Coolidge
March 17, 2013 at 12:00 PM

ARTICLES BY RYAN REED

WAVVES | AFRAID OF HEIGHTS | March 18, 2013
"I Can't Dream," the closer on Wavves' fourth studio album, opens in a drunken lo-fi stupor — Nathan Williams warbling bratty, tone-deaf nonsense over hissy acoustic power chords.

THE VIRGINS | STRIKE GENTLY | March 06, 2013
After a half-decade of semi-obscurity, frontman Donald Cumming is redefining his band as the hipster sultans of swing.

ATOMS FOR PEACE | AMOK | February 26, 2013
Kid A , Radiohead's confounding electro-rock masterpiece, is officially hitting puberty.

ATLAS GENIUS | WHEN IT WAS NOW | February 20, 2013
Atlas Genius are schooled students of modern pop architecture, seamlessly bouncing from Coldplay-styled acoustic rock to fizzy Phoenix funkiness to deadpanned Strokes-ian guitar chug. But When It Was Now is more like an alt-pop NOW compilation than a joyous synthesis.