Album Review: Mogwai

Mogwai have always been one of the most accessible bands in the post-rock camp, in no small part because they're as much rock as post-. While they've progressively shed the structures of the traditional rock song, they don't abandon the primal guitar/bass/drums combination, and they've been influenced as much by the Smiths and the Pixies as by My Bloody Valentine. Their newest release presents four new compositions and two tracks previously released on the import-only No Education = No Future (F**k the Curfew). A more restrained, ambient Mogwai emerges here: on four of the tracks, percussion is barely apparent. Chiming guitars and a somber bass make for an elegiac sound on "Stanley Kubrick" and "Burn Girl Prom Queen," while a piano provides the melody for "Christmas Song." The band's primary strength is its sense of tension: they have an ability to balance melody with noise akin to the Velvet Underground. On this release, as on their last album (Come On Die Young) the element of noise has largely been moved to the background, though it shines through on the final song, "Small Children in the Background," where a plaintive guitar line trudges through squalls of feedback. One of Mogwai's finest songs, it nicely balances an otherwise ethereal EP. B