FOR the last 17 years Scottish post rockers Mogwai have been weaving a tapestry of music, and many have been sucked into their dreamy world. If you follow the journey of that tapestry you will realise how consistent their music has been, and how much they have influenced their genre.  Now, three years since their last, they bring us their eighth studio album ‘Rave Tapes’.

When people talk about new albums they always deliberate on whether the album is a return to form, whether the direction is too different or too similar, and that is fair enough because a new album should be faced with these questions. With Mogwai though, it’s different.

The sound they sold to the world back in 1997 with their debut album ‘Mogwai Young Team’ was their very own sound. Sure it drew influences from bands like Slint, but the album was uniquely Mogwai. So that brings us to ‘Rave Tapes’, an album that isn’t vastly different to their previous work, but is yet again another brilliant addition to the design of the their tapestry.

The album opens with the track ‘heard about you last night’, which is an amazing piece of chilled out ambient music. A gentle broken-chord riff breaks in on the electric guitar after about a minute, and from there you know you’re in safe hands.

The album has very few low points, but a particular high is the song ‘Remurdered’ which focuses on an ominous piece of piano that sounds like it’s came straight from a horror/sci-fi film. The second half of the song takes a slightly darker and madder turn, but here the piano is let loose to great effect.

Then there is the song ‘deesh’ which is epic and triumphant, and that’s followed by the slow lamentation that is ‘blues hour’, with its beautifully emotive piano line.

The stand out song though is ‘Repelish’. The song is coupled by a voice over from an American conspiracy theorist claiming that Led Zeppelin’s song – ‘stairway to heaven’ – is harbouring subliminal satanic messages.  It ties in perfectly with the vibe of the song, a slow, suspicious sound.

All in all ‘Rave Tapes’ delivers what Mogwai do best, songs that catch an emotion and display it perfectly through the music. Whether it’s the best Mogwai album or not isn’t important, because by itself it’s as interesting and diverse as anyone can hope a collection of songs to be.