The whole thing climaxes with "Like Herod", and as I said earlier, this version takes the cake and eats it too, rolling through its complex, low-key intro before bursting into a rage. John Peel's comforting voice (he truly was amazing) introduces Mogwai as the disc kicks off- the band dedicates the album to him in the liners- and they shuffle in with a bobbing take on "Hunted by a Freak", which also opened their latest studio effort.įrom there, the album follows a well-sequenced arc that reaches an early peak on "R U Still In 2 It", and builds tension again through EP and Come on Die Young material- including a mellifluous reading of that album's "Cody", one of the few vocal tracks present. Selections range generously across the group's discography, pulling from each full-length and a few EPs. The versions of the songs the band floats through (unlike a lot of post-rock bands, Mogwai don't plod, they float) differ enough from the originals that fans will feel rewarded listening to them, but not so much that the record couldn't serve as a decent introduction to the band. Revolving around a crushing, intensely visceral 18-minute performance of "Like Herod" that blows the already amazing original album version to kingdom come, the non-chronological tracklist emphasizes the consistency of the band's output and gives Mogwai a chance to show that the quality of later tracks like Come on Die Young's "Cody" or Rock Action's "Secret Pint" compare favorably to earlier, more widely acclaimed songs like Young Team's "R U Still In 2 It" and the 4 Satin EP's "Superheroes of BMX."
None of their subsequent albums have been as good as Young Team, but each has held its own, and Government Commissions- a cleverly-named new career-spanning compilation of BBC sessions mostly curated by the late John Peel- makes this case better than perhaps the albums themselves. Though die-hard Mogwai fans are probably the most likely to pick this up, Government Commissions works so well that it could also double as a Mogwai greatest-hits collection - something that can't be said about many other live compilations.The end result of all that praise was that the band couldn't stay the same without being called one-trick ponies and couldn't move on without being labeled charlatans, but they moved on anyway and survived the feeding frenzy, not to mention plenty of critical indifference. The album's live atmosphere, which includes voice-overs from the much-missed Peel, adds to its organic ebb and flow, which is all the more remarkable considering that it spans seven years' worth of performances. It builds from subtly taut tracks like "R U Still In 2 It" and "Kappa" to the album's centerpiece, an 18-minute version of "Like Herod" that shows off the song's tense quiet and beautifully ugly guitar mayhem, and then winds down with more reflective songs. The album's sequencing also underscores the band's mastery of dynamics.
Pieces like 4 Satin's "Superheroes of BMX" and "New Paths to Helicon Pt I" reflect the band's spare, elongated early work, while "Hunted By a Freak" and "Stop Coming to My House," both of which are from 2003's Happy Songs for Happy People and bookend Government Commissions, are lush, dense and shimmering. The compilation's track selections are inspired: taking two songs from each of the band's albums (except Rock Action, from which only "Secret Pint" appears here) and a handful of tracks from their mid-'90s EPs, Government Commissions gives a good idea of how Mogwai's sound evolved.
Government Commissions: BBC Sessions 1996 - 2003 collects some of Mogwai's best performances on John Peel and Steve Lamacq's programs.
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