Their first foray into soundtracking came in 2006 when they created a stirring score for Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, a documentary about French footballer Zinedine Zidane. However, the Atomic LP is of especial significance to the band.
“I just hope that people hear the album and then want to see the documentary,” says multi-instrumentalist Barry Burns. “It is obviously important to us as a band that we made the music for it, but I think that people should see the film because you sort of forget the importance of the message because it has been such a long time since a significant atomic event.”
Atomic’sopening song, Ether, begins with a dull drone that gradually builds into a glorious twinkling melody. Burns says that this section of music serves a symbolic purpose. “It does sound like the dawn of time or something like that, pretty hopeful as well, whereas the rest of Atomic is not so much like that. But Ether gives us a hopeful beginning.”
The album boasts a technology-enhanced sheen, which is an element that’s been inching into the band’s sound ever since their 1997 debut, Mogwai Young Team. The move away from organic sounds became especially apparent on 2014’s Rave Tapes, and Burns says his love of technology has been a big factor in the change.
“I mean we’re all quite interested in synthesisers, everybody just really likes to use anything that we can find that makes it easier to make a different sound from the last record. We always just pick up stuff. And John [Cummings], who has left the band now, he used lots of technology. We all like it.”
The band’s studio sound really started to shift following 2008’s The Hawk is Howling (2008); becoming apparent on 2011’s Hardcore Will Never Die andeven more conspicuous on Rave Tapes. Despite insisting it was a group decision, Burns concedes that the band’s innate curiosity played a big role in bringing about the sonic evolution.
“I guess it does help that I have all this stuff lying around the house, but as soon as we get in the studio – and it depends which studio – there is always new toys that we mess around with. You are always going to get improvisation in the instruments that we use, so Mogwai’s sound on each record is as much circumstantial as it is intended.”
While the expansion of Mogwai’s sonic character is now a fact of life, Burns says there’s one band member that resists the use of technology more than the others.
“He will hate me for saying this, but Martin [Bulloch] the drummer. He likes to play with the toys, but he doesn’t like to operate them or read manuals. But I think it would be very harsh to call him a luddite.”
BY DAN WATT
