They're Human? Mogwai At Rock City Review

Words: Tom Gensler

CREDIT: Steve Gullick

Music is a beautiful thing. Music has this incredible and really sublime ability

to speak to people, to engage with people, even if the lyrics aren’t traditional, or if the

language isn’t the same as the listener’s. Some acts and some artists, have this insane ability to make music that transcends basic ideas, taking sonic ideas and chords and

abstract, and often very softly pronounced, ethereal lyrics. Scotland’s experimental post-rock legends Mogwai have that ability. The sounds they make are just drenched with echoes of the human experience, even though the titles or structures of the songs may suggest otherwise. They have lent their talents to both the big screen and the small screen, too, creating enticing and, often intoxicating, soundtracks for projects like Before The Flood

(done in collaboration with the genius behind Nine Inch Nails: Trent Reznor and Atticus

Ross), and, more recently, the BBC drama The Bombing of Pan Am 103. Their creative

spark, drive and wide-screen musical feel lends them to this space well, however, the live setting is where the band’s music truly thrives and takes on a whole new life. They have been embarking on a massive world tour, possibly the biggest yet, and we caught them at Nottingham’s legendary Rock City on the final UK leg of the tour, where they were joined by the extremely cool Forest Swords.

I don’t have the best eyesight, so I couldn’t quite see what Forest Swords was actually

doing, or his setup, but I’m going to take a guess. Matthew Barnes, the visionary behind

the intense, ambient project, has such a good ear for samples and synths that just work, providing for an intriguing and fun 45-minute support slot. So, what do I think he was doing? I think he had an i-pad or macbook, or a very bendy laptop on stage, alongside a

variety of three or four MIDI synths, and was using them all to mess with input

signals and various samples with some sort of unifying algorithm to produce one sound

that encompassed everything, and then adding to and detracting from it. I’m probably very

very wrong, but the result was extremely impressive and the sound was really beautiful

and transformational, and the process to create it and balance it all seemed very intense

and complicated. There’s an inhuman quality to the sound that’s amazing, and you can tell

just how appreciative Matthew is throughout the set.

There’s something rather inhuman about Mogwai. Their music sounds cosmic, like the siren song of far-off planets and satellites endlessly spinning in each other’s orbit, taking part in an existentially futile mutual agreement of sorts. They are like spacemen returning from the cold void with a new understanding of sound, and translating it into something that we mere humans can understand. The band are sort of spearheaded, and represented by the titanic Stuart Braithwaite, and even though he doesn’t sing much, if at all, he’s the defining presence to the world, and especially the media, but I see them all, the six on-stage members, as one hive-mind machine producing sonic radiation.

The band enter the hallowed Rock City stage to a beautiful roar from the crowd, a warm

and welcoming signal of arrival. They tear straight into the brilliant God Gets You Back, the opener to their latest album, 2025’s The Bad Fire. The building-up of this song is breath-taking, and it's the perfect song to open up the album, which is a huge sonic high for the band, but it's an even better way to pave the way for the musically sublime set to come. There’s a sense of freedom to the music of Mogwai, a freedom often found in the expansive structures of songs. They let these big open breakdowns flow, allowing for both subtle improvisation and great audience connection. Again, music is beautiful. Everyone will hear these long, beautiful, drawn-out and intimately reflective segments but experience them in different ways, and gain different feelings from them, but be connected in that it's shared with a room full of like-minded people; they’re all drawn to this place, this band, this energy, this music. Sometimes, it's easy to fall out of love with music when you’re in the industry, but Mogwai craft something truly special that’s impossible not to get completely lost in, it really draws you in in an unimaginable way. Their set is a euphoric sonic labyrinth.

Every song is incredible, and most songs are indistinguishable, which to some might be

a negative, and yes I agree that on paper that might not seem like the most attractive

quality. But, at a Mogwai show, that’s the last physical thing you’re thinking about, that’s just

how expansive the sound is. The sound crew at Rock City deserve everything for just how good the balance of everything is in the mix, as it's a huge factor in the sound of Mogwai, the balance of everything. For them to keep it up over this extended set is incredible, and this could be the best sounding set I’ve ever heard at Rock City.

However, some songs really cut above the others, especially Ritchie Sacramento and

Fanzine Made of Flesh. Ritchie Sacramento is taken off my personal favourite Mogwai

Album, As The Love Continues, and starts off as this drawn-out synth epic and then evolves into one of the most beautiful sounds the band have ever created. The way this song spirals into a vast unity is fantastic. Fanzine Made of Flesh is another favourite, off of The Bad Fire. It feels like it's been around forever, it sounds like a sublimely weathered early Mogwai song, but has this push to it, this drive, that really sets it apart. It's also got these alien message-like vocals, that are very deep into the mix, soft and resounding, but live, it's just perfect. The translation into the live setting is flawless. Mogwai are breathtaking. Their music is like cosmic reflection, it's like reliving every moment of your life over and over again in every song. It's impossible not to think, not to be transported.

This was a perfect set from Scotland’s finest. They are truly masters of what they do, a band who thrive on creating some of the most inspiring and thought-inducing sounds I’ve ever heard. You don’t go to see Mogwai; you experience them. The set feels like the soundtrack to a beautiful alien world, a joyous ignorant celebration of all things, but also a sonically expansive reflective piece, all at once. How they make human music that is so alien but so real is a mystery. It's a transformative experience.