Glasgow, UK · post-rock

Mogwai

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Glasgow's volume worshippers — instrumental post-rock that goes from whisper to avalanche, thirty years of earplugs earned.

Mogwai formed in Glasgow in 1995 when guitarist Stuart Braithwaite and bassist Dominic Aitchison, who had met four years earlier, brought in schoolfriend Martin Bulloch on drums. The name comes from the creatures in the film Gremlins; in Cantonese the word means roughly 'evil spirit'. Guitarist John Cummings joined soon after, and pianist and multi-instrumentalist Barry Burns arrived for the band's second album.

Mogwai typically build lengthy, largely instrumental pieces from quiet, repeated guitar figures into extended stretches of distortion and volume, with melodic bass lines running underneath. The catalogue has since expanded to include synthesizers, electronics and occasional, often heavily processed vocals, and violinist Luke Sutherland has added strings and voice to records and live shows since the mid-1990s.

The band's 1997 debut, Mogwai Young Team, featured a guest appearance from Aidan Moffat of Arab Strap and reached No. 75 in the UK. Come On Die Young followed in 1999, reaching No. 29, and Rock Action in 2001, a more electronic record with guest vocalists including David Pajo, Gruff Rhys and Gary Lightbody, reached No. 23.

Mogwai's tenth album, As the Love Continues, reached No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart in 2021, their highest placing to date. Alongside studio albums, the band has written scores for film and television, and releases music through its own label, Rock Action Records, having previously been signed to Glasgow's Chemikal Underground. Live, they remain known for playing at genuinely punishing volume.

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post-rock