ARCHIVE
MOGWAI
Mogwai Young Team/ Come On DieYoung (reissues, 1997, ’99) CHEMIKALUNDERGROUND 8/10, 9/10
The Scots’ noisy, surprising first two LPs.
By Sharon O’Connell
Mogwai : the only way wasup
ANDY WILLSHER
IN any assessment of Mogwai’s debut album their youth warrants mention, even outside of the title’s reference to Glasgow teens with criminal gang affiliations. At the time of recording, guitarist John Cummings was just 18, the others not a whole lot older, but by any measure Mogwai Young Team is an impressive first, a foundational record that not only supported future extensions to, and experiments with, their sound but also featured one track (“Like Herod”) whose devastating quiet/loud dynamic stands as an exemplar in the field, 25 years on.
Recorded by Chemikal Underground label boss Paul Savage for £2,000, the sessions were, by all accounts, disorganised and rushed. This was largely due to the release deadline they’d naively set themselves, but also because at the time personal relationships were fraught. The fact that they ran with a set of new, much longer songs, rather than re-record their early seven-inches added to the difficulties – not that they show. As with most debuts, Young Team is a channelling of its players’ affections and ambition: The Cure, Sabbath, My Bloody Valentine, Swans, Fennesz, Satie and (though less determinative than is often claimed) Slint all play a part in these moody, postrock instrumentals. They’re more spirit guides than anything, though, and the record’s elemental force is all Mogwai’s own.