MY FATHER, MY KING

"My Father, My King" is an EP released in 2001 by UK, Scotland, Glasgow based post rock act Mogwai. "My Father, My King" was released around the same time as "Rock Action (2001)" and "Happy Songs For Happy People (2003)", which are widely considered some of the band´s best releases.

The EP only features one track but it´s 20:13 minutes long which should, as far as I remember, make it the longest track the band has made so far. Around the time of the two above mentioned albums Mogwai had developed a rare sense for melody that´s become their trademark and I was hoping that "My Father, My King" would be in the same vein as the tracks on those two albums. It´s rather different though. This is a very slow building post rock track. Very repetitive and quite frankly a bit to long for it´s own good. The material on "My Father, My King" could easily have been destilled to a 5 minutes long track. I´m sure that 5 minute track would have been great but 20 minutes are simply too long when this little happens. I know this kind of music is suppossed to take you on an emotional rollercoaster, and sometimes it does work when the climaxes and the more mellow parts compliment each other, but the track just gets too repetitive in the end. And what´s with the that noisy ending? That´s plain annoying. All complaints aside I do enjoy the really heavy section of the track very much. These guys are so great when they decide to play some heavy stuff.

The musicianship and the production are as usual of high standard when we´re talking a Mogwai release.

I can´t say "My Father, My King" is exactly what I had hoped for and honestly I have a hard time appreciating what the band have cooked up for us this time around. That doesn´t mean it´s not a quality product though and I´m sure fans of the more repetitive, longdrawn post rock style, who possess more patience than I do with slow building tracks, will enjoy this EP more than I do. A 2.5 - 3 star (55%) rating is warranted.