Mogwai, Special Moves

It's strange, but fittingly contrary, that it has taken Mogwai close on 15 years to release their first live album; the Scottish post-rockers' ethos is probably more suited to that medium than any other. Special Moves is culled from three Brooklyn shows in April 2009 while the band was also filming their live concert movie, Burning (which is included in the deluxe version of this album). The DVD is cool, but not essential: Mogwai have never exactly indulged in visual pyrotechnics, and the audio version brilliantly captures the band's layered, expansive magnificence.

With their intricate, nuance-heavy instrumentation, powerhouse riffs and mastery of the loud/soft dynamic, Mogwai have always been the most visceral and profound of live performers, and this forensically effective album aches with eloquent, insatiable yearning. They are best when they are at their most intense; painfully plangent opener "I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead" thuds hard into the emotional solar plexus, as does the thunderous, 11-minute, quasi-metal crowd favourite "Mogwai Fear Satan." Mogwai's sepulchral symphonies are all the more grandiloquent for being instrumental: The non-specificity of "Hunted By A Freak" and "You Don't Know Jesus" allow you to lose yourself in reflective reverie; the one time Stuart Braithewaite's vocals are heard, on "Cody," they are a reedy, unwelcome intrusion. It's a minor quibble: Special Moves documents a majestic, hugely significant band at the very top of their game.