Mogwai: If the Stars Had a Sound

2024

Documentary / Music

1
IMDb Rating 6.8/10 10 162 162

rock music post-rock music documentary scottish band

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Plot summary

Over 25 years and 10 studio albums—using powerful sonic force mixed with subtlety and grace—Mogwai have defined their own musical genre and built a cult following. The film takes us on a journey from their very beginnings, in the mid 1990s, to creating their tenth studio album in their hometown of Glasgow in 2020. While at first seemingly impossible to make, they ultimately made history with it.

720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
839.67 MB
1280*694
English 2.0
NR
us  
24 fps
1 hr 31 min
Seeds 8
1.68 GB
1920*1040
English 5.1
NR
us  
24 fps
1 hr 31 min
Seeds 28

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by TakeTwoReviews 7 / 10

An emotional journey of an incredible band.

Structured around the recording and release of their tenth album, this doc delves into the origins of the Scottish post rock titans, Mogwai. Does that sound too grand? Not to me. From simple humble beginnings that are still evident today, they've grown into a band that people and fellow musicians idolise. Largely instrumental, they emerged from a scene like no other band at that time and live archive footage shows here how they captured audiences from the get go. Although the recording of their As The Love Continues record in lockdown features heavily. It's live where Mogwai forged their reputation. Yes for being loud, but for creating an all encompassing mood. A mood that works well with the wealth of archive material here. It's a mix wide angle studio shots mixed with fuzzy 90s DV footage when everyone had more hair. The constant that flows throughout is emotion as we're pulled through voices from peers, producers, engineers, all of whom are friends. Through different studios over the years it's clear they've built a family around them. It's not straight up first this happened, then so and so met so and so sort of stuff, but there are nuggets of stories that help flesh out their evolution from 'My Father My King' being based on Avinu Malkeinu, to Ian Rankin explaining the duality of Mogwai stemming from what it is to be Scottish. They're a band that take pride in where they're from and give back more than they take. If The Stars Had a Sound, is about not only great music from a great band, but a celebration of what music and particularly live music can be. Special.
Reviewed by kev-mcca 8 / 10

An Emotion-Fueled Journey

Mogwai: If the Stars Had a Sound offers an intimate glimpse into the band's Glasgow roots, creative process, and some of the impact its music has made on its fans.Director Antony Crook paints a picture of Mogwai through archival footage, interviews with collaborators, video confessionals from fans, and fly-on-the-wall footage of the band going about their (sometimes COVID-19-affected) daily lives. The film is bookended by scenes of the recording, production, and release of the band's 2021 album, As The Love Continues.Clever use of (maybe?) a 360-degree camera enables the perspective to wander and explore the setting, before eventually settling on the subject, in a way that neatly fits with the atmospheric, instrumental music.And the music really is the heart of this film. Mogwai's music is played in footage of gigantic live performances, quiet demo sessions, and studio tracks that make up most of the film's score. Songs are given room to breathe, and played almost in full. In Austin's ZACH Theater, it was loud and sounded incredible.Rather than telling you their story, the band lets others do most of the talking. We see collaborators, producers, and musical contemporaries share their experiences with the band, their roles in some of the songs and albums, and the effects that the band has had on them.I was particularly moved by a section that introduces producer Dave Fridmann and Tarbox Road Studios - the film takes the viewer through his incredible discography, sees footage and anecdotes from the band's Come On Die Young sessions with him, and then ties it back together as Fridmann produces As The Love Continues remotely from New York, while the band records in the UK during COVID-19.Footage of Glasgow pops up throughout. Sometimes, lengthy establishing shots can feel like filler in a documentary, but in this case, these shots are almost always accompanied by dialogue or an important music cue - something that keeps things moving.I hope that Mogwai: If the Stars Had a Sound provides a solid entry point for casual fans, and even something for non-fans to connect to and find compelling. But I think it will really resonate with hardcore fans who want new insights, unseen archival footage, and a chance to see this band playing the music they love, loud, and on a giant screen.
Reviewed by Red-Barracuda 7 / 10

Somewhat fragmented but a nice watch none-the-less

I think it would be only fair to say that this is a somewhat scattershot documentary. Its bitty and fragmented, with little in the way of a narrative spine. This may be partly due to its genesis, where it was originally intended to be a film about the recording of Mogwai's tenth album and the associated series of small gigs in the Scottish Highlands intended to promote it. This all went to pot with the COVID pandemic but the band carried on and recorded the album which when released was in the unexpected territory of hitting the number one spot in the UK album charts. The doc sort of switches focus to this as the main drama of the film, and while its pretty impressive that an instrumental post-rock band that had been going for quarter of a century were hitting the top spot in the charts, its really only semi-interesting at best. So, the make-up of the film is essentially a sequence of Mogwai-related segments often pretty loosely connected, with a few famous and not-so-famous fans interspersed throughout with their thoughts on the band's music. I thought for a group whose music is so vivid, it might have been a good idea to have a more visual approach which could have accentuated the accompanying music but there wasn't a whole lot of that unfortunately. Funnily enough, the band themselves are almost conspicuous by their absence here, so there's little in the way of a look at their motivations or influences. What you are left with is a quite fragmented film which is more about an impression, rather than an overview. Amongst other things, there's very old clips (you know they're ancient, as Stuart has an impressive barnet!), there's a bit about the young football team they sponsored, clips from the Zidane movie, concert clips of varying quality and the rapper they were involved with in the chart battle driving around in a tank. The overall lack of urgency in the doc does mean that its pretty contemplative in nature, which does tap into the effect of much of the band's music. If you are a fan of the group, it does make for a good watch in a lo-fi sort of way.
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