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Album Details

• Artist: Mogwai
• Album: Government Commissions: BBC Sessions 1996-2003
• Label: Matador
• Year of Release: 2005
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2005-03-01

You can't be in a hurry when you listen to Mogwai. This band has now been around for almost a decade and have captured many an indie fan's heart. Their charm lies in their almost over simplification of the loud soft instrument (and sometimes vocal) arrangements. They will be going all soft and then without any notice, hit the listener over the head with a wall of guitars. Government Commissions: BBC Sessions 1996-2003 collect all the John Peel sessions (5 in total) that Mogwai recorded. The songs are live in their presentation, something that is really hard to believe because there is nary a mistake made on the 10 tracks here. There is not a lot of the loudness we have come to respect Mogwai with but they still break out of the gentle mold on tracks like "Like Herod" from Young Team. And speaking of Young Team, "R U Still In 2 It" starts out all gentle like a Smashing Pumpkins track ("Mayonaise") and pretty much stays that way until the end. The end drones on a bit but this is the most magnificent song on Government Commissions. "New Paths To Helicon Pt. 2" is equally as beautiful with it's guitar line caressing you through the all to brief song. "Secret Pint" (pulled from is a little different with percussion being the leading part of this song. The nice thing with Government Commissions is that it's not an album just for completists. This is a fine compilation of some of Mogwai's finer moments. It's a great album that shows just what these guys can do.

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