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Mogwai: A Wrenched Virile Lore

Sub Pop

On this rewiring of their Sub Pop debut Hardcore Will Never Die But You Will, Mogwai bequeaths their wares to the modern age’s most able-bodied button pushers. Godflesh/Jesu mastermind Justin K. Broadrick draws out the damaged dream-pop of “George Thatcher Death Party,” while Philly space synth-duo Zombi turn “Letters to the Metro” into some lost incidental music from Halloween III. Elsewhere, Tim Hecker reconfigures “Rano Pano” into a buggy glitch-hop throwdown and guitarist RM Hubbert conjures the acoustical intricacy of “Mexican Grand Prix.” But it is Robert Hampson’s “La Mort Blanche”—a 14-minute mash-up of “George Square” and “White Noise”—that takes the cake, as the former Loop guru combines the songs into a seamless, spatial spiritual of intertwined intoxication. Such creative expansion wears well on the slow-burning Scots, and it would be great if we get to see more of Lore’s adventurousness on their next full-length.