Mogwai - 'Burning'

Direct link to the good stuff: Mogwai - Fear Satan http://youtu.be/pS9_qqt_gBQ?hd=1&t=27m30s


 The Scottish band Mogwai performs an incandescent show in front of a stunned crowd. As if time stood still, the audience is transported along by musical waves, both poetic and violent. 'Burning' dives into this wild sensual flow. Directors Vincent Moon and Nathanaël Le Scouarnec guide us into a dream where there is no tomorrow. This is a black and white experience of the senses carved by the raw emotion of this pioneering band that doesn't need any words to touch the heart of its listeners. Layered and innovative, the movie has its finger firmly on their pulse, a sonic adventure between hope and rebellion. A lifetime of feelings in just one night. Written by Anonymous


How many people have walked out of great concerts saying something like, "Wow, I wish they'd make a live album"? The perverse, hidden truth of that idea is that no live album can ever live up to the experience that just impressed you so much. Live albums work as souvenirs for the faithful and sometimes as introductions for the novice. But anyone who has seen Mogwai live and had the top of his head peeled off by its rendition of "Mogwai Fear Satan", anyone who left that concert wishing that Mogwai's studio albums lived up to the sheer furious Ragnarok of the band's live presence .


Mogwai's in-concert document, Burning, features not a single master shot. Not only that, there's no between-song banter; no from-the-stage shots of the indefinable crowd rising as singular, cheering mass; no attempt, even, to fake. Caught 'Live!'


Still, it's far more fun to watch the DVD: to see the fingers on strings, the light on cymbals, the discreet glances shared between Mogwai's members; to, even better, see the individual faces of audience-members, all tranced-out bliss or stupid big smiles. Burning personalizes the experience for all involved: the band, the crowd, and, best of all, for the viewer stuck at home watching this thing.


The movie, directed by Vincent Moon and Nataniel La Souanec, features footage of the band from their three Music Hall Of Williamsburg gigs in Brooklyn.


Speaking of the release, frontman Stuart Braithwaite told that it wasn't the first time the band have attempted to record a live DVD.


"We actually tried to do something like this before, in Japan on the 'Mr Beast' tour (in 2006)," he explained. "We flew out all the recording equipment and set it up for the show, only to find out afterwards that one of the guitar mics wasn't plugged in! So we had, like, four fifths of Mogwai on it. I remember hearing it and thinking, 'My guitar sounds terrible there, why's it so bad?!' and then someone came in and told me the sound was actually coming through the vocal mic because no one had mic'd the guitar up!"


Recording 'Burning' was far easier according to Braithwaite, not least because of director Moon, whom the frontman was full of praise for.


"He's a really good guy and I think he really gets what we're all about. He's an eccentric guy, but he's really hard working and he's got an amazing outlook," he said, adding: "It's not a traditional music film...there's a few abstract things of us walking around New York and a few little montages. There's no speaking in it at all, either."


Songs featured in 'Burning'


00:00min - The Precipice
05:55min - I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead
12:20min - Hunted By A Freak
17:20min - Like Herod
20:40min - New Paths To Helicon Part 1
27:35min - Mogwai Fear Satan
34:55min - Scotland's Shame
40:25min - Batcat
46:20min - Credits

Uploaded by DarkoEddie on 21 Feb 2012