In 1997, a powerful, seminal record placed the Scots Mogwai at the forefront of a style that was to be baptised as post post-rock, which included sounds as diverse as Stereolab, My Bloody Valentine, Laika, Autechre and Tortoise. Young team, whose careful re-edition the group has been playing live and in full over the past year, was a guitar-led surprise in which intensity was of the essence: ambient echoes and slow, recurring rhythms that rose in terrifying, screeching crescendos, giving us a glimpse of the darkness of Joy Division, the slowcore of Slint or the noise of The Jesus & Mary Chainand Sonic Youth.
Come on die young (99), the influential and acclaimed Rock action (01), the debated Happy songs for happy people (03) and Mr. Beast (06) helped consolidate a status that the group had mostly established on the basis of their infernal live performances — their captivating feedback session at the AV Festival 2003 at Sohail castle was truly dazzling —, in which they challenged listeners with waves of distortion interspersed with placid landscapes.
The return of the fierce Glasgow boys with The hawk is howling (08) is a change towards mid-tempos and havens of calm —an apparently temporary and fleeting rest in their zeal for experimenting at the limits of noise.

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