Mogwai
Ten Rapid

This is the true debut of the Scottish combo led by that sprite Stuart Leslie Braithwaite, although it is a few months younger than "Young Team" and in many discographies considered a compilation. "Ten Rapid" indeed collects the group's first original recordings and new versions of tracks brought over from the members' previous experiences... (the Wurlitzer Jukebox and Lovetrain). The Mogwai in this "Ten Rapid" are still in a four-member formation, besides the already mentioned Stuart, there are Dominic Aitchison, John Cummings, and Martin Bulloch, while Brendan O'Hare will only join them later, after concluding his experience with the Teenage Fanclub...

The sound they unleash is already aware and conscious, although perhaps still a bit raw; but the power that suddenly hits you is the perfect counterpart to that soft flying carpet painted in the quieter moments... "see" the development of the opening track "Summer" to immediately get an idea of what kind of roller coaster awaits us until the end of the nine tracks. The summer depicted in this track is an alternation of music boxes, blenders, and lead flows from a steel industry, followed by a subdued "Helicon 2," a bit folk and a bit lo-fi, discreetly accompanying us to the dreamlike clash of "Angels Versus Aliens" introduced by Stuart's soft voice. "I Am Not Batman" lives on distant echoes, a heartfelt homage (tribute?!?!?!?!) to the masters Slint, continued in "Tuner" where the voice and guitar of the little "frontman" offer us a splendid lullaby to give us some relief and try to tell us that the world isn't all that bad. Even though "Ithica 27 o 9" seems to lull us a little longer with its Badalamenti-like progress, only to transform into a Lynch-like nightmare. And the awakening is described in the distant hum of voices from "A Place For Parks," confused and mixed with a "post-rock" guitar. "Helicon 1" is, in my humble opinion, the true point of no return for Mogwai... their zenith, which they have had to confront and clash with for years and of which they have never been able to rewrite its poetic nature... it's all there! It's a journey that starts from childhood and reaches old age, highlighting the moods of the various seasons that follow one another. Perhaps I'm exaggerating, but on a cold night in Glasgow in 1998, in the basement of the most beautiful pub I've ever seen, I heard them read me the past, present, and future... all in these sublime 6 minutes. "End" is the track "played backwards" that concludes the album.

Fears or pains do not immediately manifest in our heads or bodies... they are small imperceptible points that, if left undisturbed, grow and grow out of all proportion until they manifest with all their clamor in the most terrible and violent forms... and none of us is Batman.