A Singing Mogwai!?

[lazyhour]

Unless I was mistaken, there was a Mogwai track on 6music this morning that had male vocals all the way through. It was banal, predictable 'anthemic' shite. Have they been tricking us into thinking they are good by not having vocals??

What other bands started out as instrumental acts then took the vocal plunge? Were they better before or after some cunt started singing? I can't think of many acts for whom vocals were a welcome addition. There was a recentish Tortoise album that was really marred by guest vocals on several tracks.

Jim O'Rourke is the exception that proves the rule, of course.

[imitationleather]

Venetian Snares did an album he sings on but it was long after I'd stopped having an interest in listening to his new releases so I've got no idea if it's shit or not.

[good times]

Unless I was mistaken, there was a Mogwai track on 6music this morning that had male vocals all the way through. It was banal, predictable 'anthemic' shite. Have they been tricking us into thinking they are good by not having vocals??

What other bands started out as instrumental acts then took the vocal plunge? Were they better before or after some cunt started singing? I can't think of many acts for whom vocals were a welcome addition. There was a recentish Tortoise album that was really marred by guest vocals on several tracks.

Jim O'Rourke is the exception that proves the rule, of course.

Electrelane spring to mind, and they were ten times better when they added vocals

Their first album was fine but fairly uninspiring, their second The Power Out is fucking ace and they manage to keep that level up for another two albums.

Edit: is Deerhoof's first album largely instrumental? Maybe Smog's too? I am largely just speculating at this point.

[sevendaughters]

Hella did a lot of stuff as a two-piece with no vocals before going full rock band with a singer. I think on balance I preferred it, though it was less original.

The new Mogwai stuff is rancid.

[jobotic]

Is he? Much prefer the stuff I've heard of his that's instrumental. (O'Rourke)

Mogwai do the soundtrack to ZeroZeroZero, and it mostly sounds like the music in The Bridge, and is largely forgettable. There was a really good track in an episode I watched last night though, but it was only an excerpt. The proper version probably lasts hours. Tracey is good though!

[sevendaughters]

think with O'Rourke is he's done so much music and his 'songs with vocals' is such a small part of it - even when part of a band like Gastr del Sol.

his instrumentals vary wildly from the highest quality like Bad Timing and the Organum records he's on to various lazy improv records with Thurston Moore and friends.

[Pauline Walnuts]

Unless I was mistaken, there was a Mogwai track on 6music this morning that had male vocals all the way through. It was banal, predictable 'anthemic' shite. Have they been tricking us into thinking they are good by not having vocals??

What other bands started out as instrumental acts then took the vocal plunge? Were they better before or after some cunt started singing? I can't think of many acts for whom vocals were a welcome addition.

They've always had the occasional vocals https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nOqC0oeRMk

First single:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h92xUPx1QQY

[purlieu]

What other bands started out as instrumental acts then took the vocal plunge? Were they better before or after some cunt started singing?

Mike Oldfield's output was in decline then anyway, but when he started doing proper songs, as opposed to using the voice as a textural or incident aspect of his instrumental pieces, he almost always failed, a couple of folky numbers with Maggie Reilly aside.

A Silver Mt. Zion are about the only band whose inclusion of vocals has been a plus that I've come across.

[jobotic]

I hate it when you hear a lovely downtempo house track and then some awful fey might-be-Scandinavian bloke starts warbling over the top of it and suddenly you're in a Hackney pub having a £20 Sunday roast surrounded by people who wear woolly hats indoors and are off to New York next week.

[mobias]

Mike Oldfield's output was in decline then anyway, but when he started doing proper songs, as opposed to using the voice as a textural or incident aspect of his instrumental pieces, he almost always failed, a couple of folky numbers with Maggie Reilly aside.

Very true. I think he was a talented enough musician to be able to write decent music for songs but it wasn't his area of expertise to write lyrics or arrange them. Hence other people have actually had better success doing cover versions of his songs. Notably Hall and Oats covering Family Man.

[lankyguy95]

They've always had the occasional vocals https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nOqC0oeRMk

First single:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h92xUPx1QQY

They tried to get Chino Moreno on a track ages ago but he apparently didn't think the song was that good.

[Phil_A]

Hasn't Squarepusher done at least one track with vocals, I'm sure I didn't imagine that.

That new Mogwai single is total piss, it sounds like Snow Patrol. Every time it comes on I think "What's this shit," and then I remember. Urgh.

[imitationleather]

Hasn't Squarepusher done at least one track with vocals, I'm sure I didn't imagine that.

I can think of a few featuring vocoder vocals, but none that have full-on crooning.

[Pauline Walnuts]

With Mogwai I've always thought they were kinda like Pink Floyd who never had a Dark Side of the Moon, just remaking Echoes for ever, and ever, I mean Echoes is GRrrr8 and all, better than Southampton Dock or whatever, but at least The Final Cut was some form of progression. I've heard a couple of tracks off the new album, it just sounds to tired...

The musical growth rate of this band cannot even be charted, They are treading water in a sea of retarded riffs and over familiar song structures.

[Chicory]

Stuart was singing as far back as 'Rock Action', if not even earlier. Results variable, of course.

[holyzombiejesus]

Mogwai's stuff with Aidan Moffat on vocals is nice. Not sure if it counts as singing thought.

[Bently Sheds]

The new track I heard - Richie Sacramento - sounded like a track off Young Team sped up a little with vocals on it.

Any track they do with vocals will never match Dial: Revenge.

[JaDanketies]

There's a nice Mogwai song where they sing called 'What Are They Doing in Heaven Today?' I wouldn't mind it at my funeral, but a former colleague used to always skip it, so maybe it's shit.

I was impressed to see extreme metal chiptune artist Master Boot Records using vocals in his songs. Vocals supplied by the man from Igorr.

With Mogwai I've always thought they were kinda like Pink Floyd who never had a Dark Side of the Moon, just remaking Echoes for ever, and ever, I mean Echoes is GRrrr8 and all, better than Southampton Dock or whatever, but at least The Final Cut was some form of progression. I've heard a couple of tracks off the new album, it just sounds to tired...

The musical growth rate of this band cannot even be charted, They are treading water in a sea of retarded riffs and over familiar song structures.

It seems like this is a challenge for loads of bands in the post-rock genre. I heard the disparaging term 'crescendocore'. I used to listen to quite a lot of post rock but there are so many artists out there that are like Explosions in the Sky that you may as well just listen to Explosions in the Sky. I feel like, too, that you might get a fondness for bands that introduced you to certain post- cliches, so I could listen to Explosions in the Sky for the rest of my life, and never listen to the possibly-just-as-good-but-similar-sounding Break My Fucking Sky ever again.

On the subject of Explosions in the Sky, they've unusually got lyrics on this song Did You Pass Through This Night, which are also spoken word, so CAB hates it

[Brundle-Fly]

Hasn't Squarepusher done at least one track with vocals, I'm sure I didn't imagine that.

Would My Red Hot Car count?

[holyzombiejesus]

There's a nice Mogwai song where they sing called 'What Are They Doing in Heaven Today?'

That's a cover of this....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or1oZ35NA2U

[JaDanketies]

That's a cover of this....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or1oZ35NA2U

I knew it was a cover but didn't know the original. Definitely prefer the Mogwai take.

[Nice Relaxing Poo]

Stuart was singing as far back as 'Rock Action', if not even earlier. Results variable, of course.

Earliest is Cody from Come on Die Young.


Obviously the best Mogwai song with vocals on it is Dial: Revenge.

[sevendaughters]

Mogwai's first ever single had vocals on, right? Tuner?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sleYYxp_po0

[Pauline Walnuts]

*tap* *tap* Hullo? Is this thing on?

They've always had the occasional vocals https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nOqC0oeRMk

First single:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h92xUPx1QQY

[yeah_cheers]

What other bands started out as instrumental acts then took the vocal plunge?

Do Make Say Think, Don Caballero, Hella...

All terrible with vocals.

Neo-prog band Twelfth Night started out as an instrumental band, recruited Geoff Mann who was great, but he died.

[Brundle-Fly]

Barry Adamson to a certain extent?

[Nice Relaxing Poo]

Offshoots of GYBE! often had some bad vocals iirc.

[MrMrs]

Best stuff recently is soundtrack releases. their albums have been forgettable

[chveik]

Venetian Snares did an album he sings on but it was long after I'd stopped having an interest in listening to his new releases so I've got no idea if it's shit or not.

the poemss album is pretty good, my love is a bulldozer not so much

[chveik]

Is he? Much prefer the stuff I've heard of his that's instrumental. (O'Rourke)

ever listened to his live in japan bootleg? it's ace