and Mogwai have in common?
Carl Jung penned Modern Man in Search of a Soul and Mogwai answered with their untouchable debut Young Team.
I’m not attempting rock journalism here, just making a connection, as minorly connected as Dark Side of The Moon is to The Wizard of Oz.
In the liner notes of Mogwai’s 10-year Anniversary re-release, Keith Cameron (writer for MOJO) quotes Frank Zappa’s thoughts on rock journalism:
“People who can’t write, preparing stories based on interviews with people who can’t talk, in order to amuse people who can’t read.”
Keith follows, sighting the lyrics from Mogwai’s opener on Young Team, Yes! I am a long way from home.
“Music is bigger than words and wider than pictures. If someone said Mogwai are the stars, I would not object. If the stars had a sound, it would sound like this…”
Keith finds it problematic to appraise Mogwai’s “ineffably profound music." He likens it to standing in the middle of 75 mph traffic and waving one's hands in the air, hoping drivers will avoid running you down. It's, as he says, foolish and hazardous.
Agreed words can do nothing for this music. Pitchfork gave it a 9.7 out of a possible 10 a year after its original release in 1997. Since the new release improves on this, by filling in the quiet original engineering, with digital re-mastering, it’s only gotten more immense in every way.
So, there’s nothing to say. I attempted to write a wordless review, for mostly wordless music, and failed all those people out there who can’t read.
