Atomic is an original soundtrack album from the BBC documentary Atomic, Living in Dread and Promise. Directed by Mark Cousins, the documentary uses archival footage to explore the dichotomy of both dread and promise offered by the nuclear age. It’s not Mogwai’s first documentary score – a memorable earlier example is 2006’s Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait – but this time the soundtrack’s been reworked into a standalone Mogwai album.
The album opens with a soft drone that sounds similar to a didgeridoo and the gentle plucking of guitar strings. Then, with the same majestic inexorability of a sunrise, the piece develops into a spectacular song called Ether. Scram continues the momentum of the prior track, but differentiates itself with a warbling synth effect that drags the music into a far more lateral sphere. This mode continues throughout the album, with all songs linked by an overarching texture, but differentiated by colour palette.
Are You a Dancer is the only song that appears to be wholly driven by organic instruments, most prominently a violin that overlays clean guitar. This somewhat anomalous offering is reminiscent of post-rock contemporaries Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
When comparing it to previous Mogwai albums, Atomic could loosely be seen as merging the intensely emotive character of The Hawk Is Howling (2008) with the clean tech-centricity of Rave Tapes (2014).
BY DAN WATT
