8A - Monday, September 22, 2008 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 'Hawk' without wings Ethereal Scottish post- rockers mimic previous albums with little success By SASHA RESENDE DailyArts Writer There's a genuine risk of dissatisfaction when a music fan places too much faith in his or her favorite band's art. By pronounc- ing a certain band as one of the best talents within their given genre, fans ** make it nearly impos- sible for said band to MOgWai match - and especially The Hawk Is exceed - expectations Howling when releasing a new Matador album. While a few select musical endeavors actu- ally possess the necessary skill to carry a decade-long career without growing stale, these bands are few and far between. How- ever, it is a high challenge for these bands to venture further into their art and produce truly unique song collections as the years continue to span. Some groups - like Radio- head - have mastered this illusive craft, while many more fail to adapt. The Scottish post-rock powerhouse Mogwai has unwittingly fallen into this aforementioned trap of unattainable expec- tations with their newest release The Hawk Is Howling. Widely trumpeted as the reign- ing torch-carriers of the post-rock sub- genre, the band carries the burden of living up to their own illustrious back-catalogue, which includes some of the most stunning pieces of music ofthe past decade. The quin- tet's first album - the 1997 classic Mogwai Young Team - introduced the band's unique blend of atmospheric tension, off-set by the sharp contrast of loud beats and soft pitch- es. Many of the band's songs clocked in at over ten minutes in length, but that never worked against them. The band needed this time to build its trademark tension and take listeners on a euphoric ride through musical soundscapes.Andit did it allwithoutvocals, allowing the music alone to entrance. Mogwai's spectacular debut is followed by five subsequent releases, each building on the last and culminating with their new- est record. Despite a stellar production team and a two-year gap since the band's last release, The Hawk Is Howling sounds like Mogwai's most lackluster collection to date. While the band's previous efforts thrived on theirlyric-less foundation, Mogwai'snewest release could have benefited from a verse - or ten. Opening with the cleverly titled "I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead," the band makes a bold attempt to recapture the aura and grandeur of their previously released epics. Unfortunately, the song doesn't match the band's setqualitystandard. Ratherthanpull its listener immediately into its grasp, the track consists of an overly long piano-based intro before progressing into a hypnotic keyboard climax, well after its audience begins to lose interest. The album's unexciting opener char- acterizes the bulk of its remaining songs. Another less-than-awe-inspiring choice is "Daphne and the Brain," which struggles to carry its repetitive guitar strings across the five-minute mark. Rather than build upon its previous tension - as the band had done on previous records - the track stagnates and fails to achieve its goal of epic sublimity. While these cuts cannot be decisively categorized as "boring" or "unimaginative," they lack the mesmer- izing quality that defined the band's first few releases. With itslatest disc, Mogwaisurelysought to recapture the lengthy lushness that first put it on the post-rock map. The band occa- sionally succeeds in reclaiming its trade- mark aura, though these triumphs sound more like regurgitations of "Auto Rock" instead of wholly original sound bites. The eight-minute long "Scotland's Shame" fits this category, by featuring intriguing dis- tortions over a tame keyboard and powerful drumbeats. The songis possiblythe album's closest attempt at a home run, carefully bal- ancing its synthesized key strokes to the song's gloomy mood. These distinctive contrasts are what Mogwai does best. Its latest album would have soared had the band experimented with these sharp distinctions. Instead it recorded unnecessarily-long intros and repetitive guitar riffs simply for the sake of clocking in at over five minutes. Although The Hawk Is Howling qualifies as a noble attempt by Mogwai to recover their signature atmospheric style, the record sounds more hollow than their previous attempts. " STILL FEELING BAD ABOUT MISSING THE LAST MASS MEETING? IT'S NOT TOO L ATE. WRITE FOR DAILY ARTS. E-mail passman@michigandaily.com for an application. 0 0 1,