Mogwai - The Hawk Is Howling

With no child-like passages about ‘spaceships over Glasgow’, or indecipherable, forlorn vocoders, The Hawk Is Howling stands as Mogwai’s first wholly instrumental album. Furthermore, there’s precious little sentience that can be gleaned from titles like I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead. As ever, it’s all about that primal, elusive, emotive response, and like their celluloid namesakes, Mogwai continue to be an unpredictable beast. Listen to Danphe and the Brain in the wrong frame of mind at the wrong time of night and its haunting guitar motif - eddying throughout unnoticed until the calm centre of the storm - could tear away at your soul. However, salvation is just around the corner with The Sun Smells Too Loud, almost certainly the bands cheeriest moment yet. Lead single Batcat meshes the sonic dissonance of Like Herod with the austerity of Glasgow Mega-Snake; a frightening prospect. As such, you’ll be forgiven for exhibiting a certain level of ennui, but amidst the beautiful cacophony and malevolent calm, it’s clearly business as usual for the post-rock overlords. [Darren Carle]

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Batcat