Punk Rock Ist Nicht Tot

Featuring 5 tracks, the new EP from post-rockers Mogwai kicks off with a pretty but downbeat piano led piece of classical music. Now I know the Scottish quintet have scant regard for convention, but even so this came as something of a surprise as I’m used to hearing heavy rock instrumentations frequently layered with distortion. In fact the distortion doesn’t appear until third track ‘Drunk and Crazy’, and even then it gives way halfway through to striking violins. The best track is saved til last though with ‘Does This Always Happen?’, another breathtakingly beautiful classical piece this time featuring strings accompanied by stark piano.

Crippled Black Phoenix is a British prog-rock supergroup formed in 2004 by members of various other bands including Mogwai. Since then they have recorded three full length albums and undergone many personnel changes. Though they released two studio albums last year, most of the songs from those albums were written and recorded in 2007 so the band, desperate to work on something new in lieu of an album Read more…