Ex-Tabula Rasa

Themesong - When Words Fail

Mogwai - Mogwai Fear Satan (Surgeon Remix)

I think I posted the original Mogwai Fear Satan a while ago on Themesong, but this remix is completely different. This ‘tune’ is my Plan Z. This piece of music is the little red button behind a glass cover with a sticker on it saying “Break Glass in Emergency”. This is what is played when all other avenues have been exhausted, the last resort beyond which there is no further route to take.

When I’m angry, I need music. I need angry music that reflects my anger and somehow by sharing that anger with the music my feelings are diffused and I emerge once again bathed in light and smiles. The severity of the music depends on the severity of the anger. ‘A Perfect Teenhood’ by …And You Will Know us by the Trail of Dead is a great fast rocking number which finishes with a psychedelic wigout and a repeated “Fuck you”! Slipknot are a guilty pleasure, but less so when I’m quite pissed off. And Atari Teenage Riot at full blast in my earbuds is good for all but the most insane apocalyptic rages.

And that’s where the Surgeon remix of Mogwai Fear Satan comes in. Seven or so minutes of fuzzy, building noise. No melody. No tune. Just a drone that grows and grows and grows and fills your ears with sound so that no thoughts can slip between the cracks in your mind.

Then breathe.

Mogwai - Mogwai Fear Satan

#Themesong - Over eight minutes

In the last few years the word ‘epic’ has been overused to the point of losing all meaning. A while ago I saw some kid trip over while walking down the street and his friend said it was an “epic fail”. ‘Epic’ used to be a book that came in several volumes, or a film that used an entire country’s population as extras, or a years-long journey across continents. Now it’s a slight gravity-induced error.

That said, I have no aversion to calling Mogwai Fear Satan ‘epic’. This song is sixteen minutes of build-up, grab-you-by-the-collar-shouting-in-your-face noise and morning-after-esque comedown. If you were to use this tune to soundtrack a short film, your film would begin with several minutes of the cast walking in slow motion, followed by an intense Sucker Punch-inspired fight scene, followed by everyone dying on the ground until the song finished. Then you would die after watching it because human brains are not wired to make sense of such things.

It is a scientifically proven fact that if you listen to nothing but Mogwai Fear Satan while revising for an exam, when you write the exam your short answers and essays will consist of nothing but several pages of carefully written-out screaming and all of your multiple-choice question answers will be “E: All and none of the above AT THE SAME TIME”. Your marker will be unable to give you any grade other than 100%.