Bass guitarist Dominic Aitchison is listed as “DEMONIC” in the liner notes to Mogwai's Young Team. Yep. Sounds about right. The Scottish quartet's debut album is a vicious one, full of viscous guitar feedback, serrated riffs and a healthy dose of anger. It's the glorious sound of guitars being unleashed to their full volume potential. It's the sound of four dudes getting together and making a racket.

The thing that made Mogwai so beloved, though, was the presence of the complete opposite as well. “Like Herod”'s explosive climaxes would be nothing without equal bouts of patient melodicism. “Radar Maker” and “With Portfolio” would merely be ambient curiosities, if they weren't besieged by a torrential downpour of guitar on either side.

Young Team is often called Mogwai's finest moment, though guitarist Stuart Braithwaite once complained that when it was recorded, the group was “young and naïve and had too little time.” The truth is that it's both. Far from the disaster that Braithwaite believed it to be, Young Team benefits from youthful indiscretion. There is raw energy flowing through it, even though Mogwai clearly were already working within the soft-loud/crescendocore template that would define them.

This recklessness is perfectly captured by Arab Strap's Aidan… read more »