Under the Influence: Mogwai

Mogwai's Barry Burns walks us through five of the bands who have helped influence and sculpt the Glasgow quintet into the aural beast we fear today.

Feature by Barry Burns | 08 Sep 2008

1) De Rosa. This Scottish Chemikal Underground band were one of the reasons we wanted to record with Andy Miller again after his brilliant work on their debut album Mend. Every song on this album is a total belter and I was lucky enough to get to play on their forthcoming album too. Martin, the singer, sang at my wedding earlier this year too, fact fans.

Video: Camera

2) Composite Profuse. This is a guy called Valerio Lombardozzi who makes really good electro records on his label Minimal Rome. It's the best vocoder electro I've ever heard and I have a feeling he knows his minims and relative minors because it's almost proggy.

3) Crystalized Movements. An old Connecticut band from the early 80s and onwards that took influences from 60s psych and 70s punk. Often sounds like 2 big guitars having a lovers tiff. I've been listening to their music a lot for the last 6 months and I intend to rip it off for the next Mogwai album.

4) Les Savy Fav. I'm much more a fan of their last album, Let's Stay Friends than anything they've done before (read: it was pretty shite) but as far as good old enjoyable guitar music goes, I can't get enough of it. They put on a great show too and all their detractors can just bolt.

Video: Brace Yourself

5) DeSalvo. Another Scottish band with 'De' at the start of their name. They are signed to our own label, Rock Action Records, and they will completely and utterly destroy your life until you want to kill your family with a premium nail gun. Some of the nicest people I've ever met, though.

Video: Oedipus Rising

The BatCat EP is released on 8 Sep and new album, The Hawk is Howling (reviewed here), is available on 22 Sep via Wall of Sound

Mogwai play The Corn Exchange, Edinburgh on 21 Oct

http://www.mogwai.co.uk