Mogwai:
Les Revenants:
Rock Action:
Out now
8/10
Written for a French TV thriller-series, you somehow imagine Les
Revenants to be as bleak as The Killing or Wallander.
Opening track Hungry Face is a short monochrome introduction into what lies within the following
47 minutes of entertainment, most of it downbeat, brooding, sinister and
downright depressing, but in a good way. After all, you wouldn't soundtrack a
plot about resurrected zombies rampaging through a sleepy village with the new
Jessie J album or outtakes from David Guetta's latest mixtape.
Mogwai are the
perfect foil for some impending horror show, as demonstrated on the mildly
unsettling The Huts and Modern or the funereal Kill Jester. If David Lynch made a film about the Hebrides,
he'd pick on these guys to make the unworldly, beautiful landscape come across
as that bit more unwelcoming. Try This Messiah Needs Watching - the tinkly melodies juxtapose the menacing basslines perfectly with an
air of impending doom. Basically, the pretty crofter's daughter is about to be
mummified by the zombies in the loch and Mogwai sound ready.
Relative Hysteria and Fridge Magic continue the icy theme, while the traditional What Are They Doing In Heaven Today sways gently like an old Americana folk-song before the
previously-issued single Wizard Motor concludes the album in a more typical Mogwai fashion - grinding guitars,
ankle-deep bass and crisp gunshot drums. Hey, it's almost a theme song in
comparison to the rest of this oddly-alluring album.