So, it’s another music doc on the plate for this reviewer in quick succession, and I have to say, Antony Crook’s Mogwai: If the Stars Had a Sound is a revelatory experience. Mainly because, I confess, I had never listened to the music of the titular 25-year-old cult Scottish group’s experimental, orchestrally inclined soundscapes. Classified as a post-rock group, members Stuart Braithwaite, Barry Burns, Dominic Aitchison, and Martin Bulloch formed Mogwai in Glasgow in 1995, and their influence ranges across everything: from Sonic Youth to Philip Glass.
Crooks’ film picks up with the band getting back together in the middle of COVID to piece together a newly announced album, As the Love Continues. From there, we drift back and forth, from past to present day, hearing from those who were there when it all began to fans rejoicing as this unashamedly independent superstar climbs the Mount Olympus of the U.K. Albums Chart and sits proudly at the No. 1 spot. The anticipation of the post-COVID comeback release of the single “Dry Fantasy,” alongside an extensive social media push is captured together with personal accountants from admiring celebrities and the devout followers for whom Mogwai’s music has marked pivotal moments, and rekindled lasting memories.
The other invocation that the doc illuminates is the tremendous swell of national Scottish pride from their home-grown innovators. As author Ian Rankin pontificates during the proceedings, and I’m paraphrasing here, Mogwai’s music expresses the inherent dichotomy of what it means to be Scottish. Being at once harsh and earthy, whilst inspiring to the heights and the melodious, Mogwai: If the Stars Had a Sound finds the best seat in the house for those who have been following the band’s journey all this time, while accommodating the causal viewer with enough broad ranging material to give you a nice sampler, but still encouraging enough to go away and take a longer listen to this little band who survived.
“…getting back together in the middle of COVID to piece together a newly announced album…”
Though their music is extraordinarily diverse in its approach and performance, this curious quartet seems to be a team of humble yet inspired musicians, possessed of an infectious shorthand with each other that tracks seem to evolve. Their record producers sit and each happily testify to the contained and cultivated brilliance of the band’s organizational focus, which allows them to operate in this happy, creative, contradictory realm of careless discipline, which infuses the music with immediacy, leading to stunningly calculated climactic crescendos.
Mogwai: If the Stars Had a Sound is an enthralling viewing that dances splendidly with the evocative soundtrack and the simmering and atmospheric spirit present when the band performs live. The air seems to be sucked out of the space as tracks emerge in silence, whispering like the wind through the highlands, only to come crashing and thrashing to the ground with the thunder of a heavy metal guitar symphony.
Emotionally charged, enigmatic, electric, and inspiring, Mogwai: If the Stars Had a Sound is the ideal gateway for the new listener. But for those who have known their greatness from day one, this movie is a celebration of the individuality, creativity, unity, simplicity, community, and majesty of one of the most exceptional and innovative musical acts on the planet. Turn it on, and turn it up!
"…emotionally charged, enigmatic, electric and inspiring..."
