SOUNDTRACK: MOGWAI-Come on Die Young (1999).
Mogwai’s second full length record goes in a slightly different direction than Young Team. Although it is still full of somewhat lengthy instrumentals, for the most part, the loud and quiet dynamic that they’ve been mastering over their EPs and Young Team is dismissed for a more atmospheric quality. There’s also a few vocal aspects that comprise some tracks. One in particular is very puzzling.
The disc opens with “Punk Rock.” The music is actually not punk at all; rather, it’s a pretty melody that plays behind a rant about punk rock spoken by Iggy Pop. It’s followed by “Cody,” a kind of sweet slow song. This one surprises even more because it has gentle vocals which are actually audible. The track is surprisingly soporific for Mogwai.
And then comes the real puzzler, “Helps Both Ways” is another slow track. But this time in the background is a broadcast of an American football game. The announcers begin by telling us about an 89 yard run that was called back due to a penalty, but the game stays on throughout the track. And I have to admit I get more absorbed in the game than the music. After these few quiet tracks,”Year 2000 Non-Compliant Cardia” is a little louder (with odd effects). It’s also much more angular than songs past.
“Kappa” is the song in which I realized that much of the songs here are more guitar note based rather than the washes of sounds and noise. “Waltz for Aidan” is indeed a waltz, another slow track. It’s followed by “May Nothing” an 8 minute track which, despite its length, never gets heavy or loud or noisy.
“Oh! How the Dogs Stack Up” changes things. It features a distorted piano which creates a very eerie 2 1/2 minutes. And it leads into the 9 minute “Ex Cowboy.” Although the general feeling of “Ex Cowboy” is mellow, there are some squealing guitars and noises as well. By about 6-minutes the song turns really chaotic, its “Chocky” is another 9-minute song (the disc is very backheavy), there’s noise faintly in the background as a simple piano melody is plucked out. It’s probably the prettiest melody on the disc, and the noisy background keep its unexpected. The disc more or less ends with “Christmas steps.” This is a rerecording of the awesome track from the No Education = No Future (Fuck the Curfew) EP. It is shorter but slower and it sounds a little more polished than the EP. I actually prefer the EP version, but this one is very good as well (it’s honestly not that different).
“Punk Rock/Puff Daddy/Antichrist” ends the disc with a fun track sounds like a drunken Chinese western It’s two minutes of backwards sounds and is actually less interesting than its title.
This is definitely their album I listen to least.
[READ: March 15, 2011] Icelander
It’s hard to even know where to begin when talking about this story. So I’ll begin by saying that even though it was confusing for so many reasons, I really enjoyed it (and the confusions were cleared up over time). This story has so many levels of intrigue and obfuscation, that it’s clear that Long thought quite hard about it (and had some wonderful inspirations).
The book opens with a Prefatory note from John Treeburg, Editor (who lives in New Uruk City). The note informs us that the author of Icelander assumes that you, the reader, will be at least a little familiar with Magnus Valison’s series The Memoirs of Emily Bean. As such, he has included notes for clarification. He has also included a Dramatis Personae. The characters in the Dramatis Personae are the characters from Valison’s series (not necessarily Icelander), and are included here for context. He also notes that his afterward will comment on the disputed authorship of this very novel.
The Dramatis Personae lists the fourteen people who Valison wrote about inThe Memoirs of Emily Bean. Except, we learn pretty early on that the The Memoirs were based directly on the actual diaries of the actual woman Emily Bean Ymirson. Emily Bean died in 1985, but before she died she was an extraordinary anthropologist and criminologist. She kept meticulous journals of all of her exploits, and Valison fictionalized it (to some people’s chagrin, but to general acclaim).
Emily Bean was also the mother of Our Heroine. Our Heroine is, indeed, the heroine of Icelander, although her real name is never given. We learn pretty early on is that Our Heroine’s friend Shirley MacGuffin has been killed. MacGuffin was an aspiring author (whose only published work appears on a bathroom wall). Her final text was meant to be a recreation of Hamlet. Not Shakespeare’s Hamlet, but Hamlet as written by Thomas Kyd. And, indeed, Kyd’s Hamlet predated Shakespeare’s.
There’s also a lot of excitement with The Vanatru. The Vanatru lived underground, and had a serious quarrel with surface dwellers who worked hard at keeping them down. The Queen of the Vanatru is Gerd. She controls the Refurserkir, an inhuman race of fox-shirted spirit warriors who appear literally out of nowhere.
Okay, so how confused are you now? (more…)
I Just Read About That... 