Punk Rock (Quiet Version)

Considering the contemplative moods he conjured for the Rev's Deserter's Songs, it's not hard to notice the stamp of Fridmann on Come on Die Young. Martin recognizes the influence, but points out that Fridmann just took Mogwai's sound where it always needed to go.

"I don't think he changed anything...but he made it sound bigger. To be honest, I don't think a lot of the early recordings did [our] songs justice. We were happy with them then, but I think [Die Young] just sounds bigger. And warmer."

Clearly one thing Fridmann did bring to the table was a big pile of instruments. Martin suggests that his guitar-mangling mates were willing, if slightly confused.

"We used everything!" he laughs. "Mad space echo stuff, chimes, a trombone...daft things. We experimented.



"We used a lot of digital stuff we've never used before, which really helped us. It helped the quiet parts. On Young Team, on the quiet parts, you couldn't really tell what the fuck was going on, because there was too much hiss."

Ahh, quiet parts. There are more of them on Die Young. In fact, it's almost one big quiet part (with some notable exceptions, including the magnificent closing crescendo on "Ex-cowboy"). The boys who once bounced soundwaves off each other like ping-pong balls now embrace open space, with the result sounding like a rough-hewn Tortoise without the jazzbo tendencies.

So were they aiming for a cleaner sound?

"Yeah, well, we've also learned to play better," Martin admits. "It wasn't so much a conscious decision.

We thought the quiet-loud Mogwai sound on Young Team had become a cliché, it had been done to death. So we concentrated on the more on the actual tunes, rather than on that Mogwai dynamic effect."

One wonders how the kinder, gentler Mogwai will come across live. "One thing we've learned is that you have to captivate an audience, you have to capture their attention," he says. "So we still play a lot of the louder, more raucous songs. "And who knows? Maybe the next album will be totally avant garde. An hour of white noise."

Mogwai don't fear techno

Speaking of avant garde...Mogwai have staked a claim as one of the few guitar-oriented bands to legitimately embrace electronic music.

The "Mogwai Fear Satan" EP and subsequent Kicking A Dead Pig remix album were the result of inspired thinking by German techno nutter label Eye Q, who approached Mogwai with plans to sick some left-field producers on a few songs from the Young Team album. The boys took to the concept right away - but were even more pleased when they heard the results.

"It sounded like a good idea," Martin recalls, "and it came out [even] better than I thought it would. I think it's a really good album. I love Alec Empire's mix."

It might sound like an easy grab for techno cred - but a listen to Kicking A Dead Pig, and especially the "Fear Satan" mixes, should stop any accusations of dilettantism short of the mark. Not only is the music well matched to the mixers, but quality control standards were obviously in place.

"We turned quite a lot of them down," Martin notes. "There was one group, and I won't say the name, but they did [an acoustic version of ] "Helicon 1" that was fucking terrible. We thought, if that's your interpretation of our song, then fuck off. It was one of the worst things I've ever heard."

Besides Alec Empire's blistering track, other perfect pairings include the m-Ziq remix of "Mogwai Fear Satan," featuring Mike Paradinas beat-matching his programs with Martin's acoustic drum rolls. The m-Ziq connection makes one wonder how good Mogwai could sound with a certain Cornish maestro of mayhem at the mixing board.