REVIEW: Mogwai - Earth Division

Mogwai
Earth Division
(out of 5)

Mogwai put out one of the best records to be released so far this year with Hardcore Will Never Die, and this four-song offering features off cuts from that masterpiece.

However, whereas Hardcore Will Never Die showcased Mogwai’s cosmic-soundscapes in all their grandeur, Earth Division presents a far more subdued approach. Indeed, the full-length did have its more restrained moments, not least of all on ‘Letters To The Metro’, which was imbued with the kind of delicate allure that characterises Earth Division, but the two records are still very different affairs.

The piano and strings-driven melancholy of the EP’s opener ‘Get To France’, leads into the quasi-orchestral ‘Hound of Winter’, which is, for all intents and purposes, a folk song chaperoned by harmonica and acoustic guitar and one that immediately evokes a very different feeling of despondency.

The stranger on the EP, ‘Drunk and Crazy’ is far more traditional in its approach, though the execution is anything but. The song starts saturated in fuzz, before dramatically giving way to a chamber music interlude. The two elements then gradually build, enhancing one another in an enduring crescendo discovering the apex of the EP. Finally, reminiscing on the tone from ‘Get To France’, the EP’s closer ‘Does This Always Happen’, guides the listener from the former’s melancholy to a state of reserved contentment through the masterful interplay of electric guitar, piano and strings.

On it’s own therefore, Earth Division is expertly arranged and undeniably charming. However when viewed in context, the EP still suffers in the shadows of its phenomenal full-length predecessor.


By Paul Comrie-Thomson