Mogwai | Kathryn Joseph | Fabric
O2 Academy, Leeds
twenty second February 2025
Mogwai take us down into the guts of The Unhealthy Hearth and ship a cathartic set of Glaswegian post-rock.
Earlier this 12 months Glaswegian post-rock giants Mogwai launched their eleventh studio album, The Unhealthy Hearth. Appropriately sufficient for 2025, the title is taken from a nickname for hell. Now, simply take a second to contemplate that it’s been over 27 years since they unleashed their debut album – Younger Staff – upon an unsuspecting world. Since then, these plucky younger upstarts have turn into one thing of a post-rock establishment.
Tonight’s viewers is an actual mixture of ages with individuals bringing their children alongside for the present. It’s heartening to see the Mogwai dwell expertise being handed all the way down to the subsequent era: let’s simply hope they’ve some earplugs at hand.
The night begins with a efficiency from fellow Glaswegian outfit, Fabric. The band signed to Mogwai’s Rock Motion label a few years in the past and are at present on the verge of releasing their third album, Pink Silence. Twin siblings Rachel (guitar/ vox) and Paul Swinton (guitar) are joined by a drummer for a set of restrained, rhythmic and quietly hypnotic indie pop.
The delicate instrumental interaction is infinitely calming, Rachel’s soothing vocals offering the ultimate piece of this fantastically constructed puzzle; a fraction of Younger Marble Giants minimalism right here and a dream pop melody there. Take the quiet glory of Ladder – which incorporates some significantly pretty harmonics – or the breezy brilliance of Polaroid. They wrap up their quick however satisfying set with the ace Demo Love, the primary tune they ever launched. After tonight, I’ll actually be taking a deep dive into their discography.
It’s all the time a pleasure to stumble throughout one thing that feels really singular and Scottish songwriter Kathryn Joesph is one such shock. I truthfully don’t know the way she’s handed beneath my radar for therefore lengthy. Accompanied by a keyboard, this self-described “disgusting previous witch” has me hooked from the beginning. Sure, I can hear the idle chatter of the again rows however anybody paying consideration is quickly beneath her spell. “Bones you’ve thrown me and blood I’ve spilled” she sings over beautiful, jazz-inflected keys, her voice shivering and soulful.
Having seen just a few children within the crowd, she’s attempting her damnedest to not swear. She just about manages it too. An exception is rightfully made when she mentions her final file and the way it’s about individuals coping with abusive conditions. Now, she tells us, she watches abuse unfolding on a mass scale in Palestine and all she has are her “small, offended as FUCK songs.” She finishes her set with an intensely highly effective tune about being a survivor. That is the fervour and humanity I wanted to listen to.
Mogwai make music that unfolds like a very good ebook – a affected person, detailed and wholly immersive expertise with some really explosive chapters. Like all attention-grabbing artwork, the band create one thing that pulls you in and virtually stops the circulation of time. We’re eased in with the synth-heavy majesty of God Will get You Again. If the band are in a position to see the group via the smoke and neon lights, they’ll see rows of comfortable, mesmerised faces. Blissful.
I’ll admit, I’m not but overly accustomed to the brand new file however what higher strategy to turn into acquainted with these songs then by listening to them dwell? The band are bathed in crimson mild for the swirling vortex of Hello Chaos. Put together your self pricey reader, we’re heading for the guts of the dangerous fireplace. If You Discover This World Unhealthy, You Ought to See Some Of The Others is delivered with the triple guitar menace of Braithwaite, Barry Burns and Alex Mackay. Mournful minimalism to thick waves of sound. Nobody does quiet-EXTREMELY LOUD-quiet fairly like Mogwai. These tune titles are fairly untouchable too.
The brand new materials is reassuringly mind-blowing, however this can be a band with an undeniably spectacular again catalogue. Take Me Someplace Good is unbelievably lovely, whereas Ritchie Sacramento faucets into some surprising sense of sun-drenched nostalgia. I shut my eyes and let each be aware wash over me: it’s rattling close to overwhelming. This music actually is the soundtrack to our lives.
I go searching throughout Christmas Steps and see a close-by teenager standing together with his mouth agape. I do know the sensation. Mogwai stay unarguably epic. New Paths to Helicon, Pt. 1 appears like I’m wading via an ocean of stars, the entire universe instantly at my disposal. The observe finds Braithwaite on bass and Dominic Aitchison on guitar; there’s merely no mixture of Mogwai that doesn’t work. Drummer Martin Bulloch stays the band’s unsung hero as he supplies that unshakable spine.
There are quite a few, spine-tingling highlights all through the evening however it could be considerably sacrilegious if I didn’t point out one specific tune. Whereas Mogwai are fairly able to taking us someplace good, Like Herod stays an intense and hellish bombardment. I swear I really feel my soul depart my physique when the EXTREMELY FUCKING LOUD half kicks in. It sounds just like the band are wrenching the strings from their devices. Earlier within the evening, somebody shouted that the venue is freezing, so it’s good of Mogwai to show the Academy right into a raging inferno of sound.
Yow will discover Mogwai on Bluesky, Instagram, Fb and Bandcamp.
Fabric are on Instagram, Fb and Bandcamp.
Kathryn Joseph is on Instagram, Fb and Bandcamp.
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Pictures by Neil Chapman (Unholy Racket). You may go to his writer profile for Louder Than Warfare and discover him on Fb and Instagram.
All phrases by Andy Brown. You may go to his writer profile and browse extra of his critiques for Louder Than Warfare right here.
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