Mogwai
Zidane - A 21st Century Portrait
Label
Play It Again Sam UK, 2006
Oct
25
2006

 The soundtrack to an ethereal vignete of French soccer superstar, Zinedine Zidane, this full-length takes Mogwai away from its recent metallic influences on Mr. Beast and back to the smooth, melancholic flow from previous albums.  Zidane illicits a calm awe of the legend through slow-motion thunder and airy facets of post-rock.  
As the movie lifts Zidane from sports figure to sports god, Mogwai's efforts increase the modern cowboy appeal with a pensive, dream-like tone, making it seem like Zidane carries the weight of the world with every step.  Even though we all probably think of the head-butt first, this movie and soundtrack, combined, paint a harmonious portrait of Zidane - far from some sensationalist sports biography - setting a relative new standard in what can be done in a profile of a sports figure.

Each track of Zidane has a slow pace, emphasizing each step and brow furrow with an inhuman magnitude.  Like a swaying giant, "Terrific Speech" features a sluggish guitar riff and somber drums while high-pitched mechanical noises wash the background.  "Terrific Speech 2" is lighter with similar drumming, but a clearer atmosphere and soft piano.  There's a slightly antagonistic feel to these two tracks, as if something disturbs Zidane, though the array of expressions is above all else: calm.

The opening track, "Black Spider" sets a reserved tone, perhaps shying away from overzealous energy that's already all-too-commonly associated with sports and that Mogwai is capable of unleashing.   A sparse drumbeat underlines glassy guitar - never rising above a cooled intensity.   The final track, "Black Spider 2" is 30-minute montage, featuring an icy sound similar to "Black Spider" for a few moments.  It then goes into silence, and awakes back into a fuzzy, echoed shell-noise that eventually gets pushed by ominous organs for about ten minutes.  The album then ends passive/aggressively on a distorted industrial current.  

For a soundtrack, this is successfully experimental, with a mood that goes hand-in-hand with the unusually mellow film technique that's highlighting such an austere figure.  There's no doubt that it's a smooth move by the Glaswegians, and this is far more intimate than a vast majority of movie soundtracks.


Related Articles:
Album Reviews » Mogwai : The Hawk Is Howling

Comments (0)

Write comment

smaller | bigger

busy
 
 

QRO's Lala.com Radio

Archive

0-9  | A  | B  | C  | D  | E  | F  | G  | H  | I  | J  | K  | L  | M  | N  | O  | P  | Q  | R  | S  | T  | U  | V  | W  | X  | Y  | Z

NYC Concert Calendar

« < March 2010 > »
S M T W T F S
28 1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30 31 1 2 3
NYC Concert Preview Guide

Random Album Review

Flight of the Conchords
Flight of the Conchords
 “New Zealand’s former fourth-most popular guitar-based digi-bongo a cappella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo” jump from screen back to record with their hilarious and catchy self-titled LP.
Read more More...
 
Also:
Passion Pit : Manners
Blonde Redhead : 23
Green Day : 21st Century Breakdown
Yeah Yeah Yeahs : It's Blitz!