eMusic Review 0
French footballer Zinedine Zidane's divine technical abilities elevate his sport into the realm of art. Mogwai approach rock music with similarly exalted ideals; like Zidane, they're extremists, navigating the disputed zones between beauty and violence. So filmmakers Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno made a perfect union when choosing the Glaswegian quintet to soundtrack their conceptual study of "Zizou." After 10 years of mostly instrumental melodrama, Mogwai's instincts for the minutiae of mood are so acute they can feast on the barest melodic scraps — a humble six-note motif underpins "Terrific Speech"; "Wake Up and Go Berserk"'s steel guitar cloud glowers in magnificent stasis — and seem to have approached this commission as an exercise in sustaining their regular work's lulling interludes over an entire record. Amidst the pulsing sibilant electricity — echoing the distress signals that lurk behind Zidane's monastic visage — lies some of this group's most gently turbulent and exquisitely beautiful music.