Mogwai have released a new single called ‘Fanzine Made Of Flesh’ – you can listen to it below.
- READ MORE: Does Rock ‘N’ Roll Kill Braincells?! – Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite
The song serves as the latest preview of the Glasgow band’s 11th studio album ‘The Bad Fire’, which is due to arrive on January 24 via Rock Action (pre-order/pre-save here).
In a statement about the playful tune, frontman Stuart Braithwaite explained: “‘Fanzine Made Of Flesh’ was written in Brooklyn when I was staying at [Franz Ferdinand‘s] Alex Kapranos’s house in autumn 2023.
“In my head it sounds like a cross between ABBA, Swervedriver and Kraftwerk though that might be ludicrous. It originally had a straight vocal but we ended up vocoding it on the last day of recording.
He concluded: “It’s pretty different and I’m really happy with how it turned out.”
The futuristic singing sits atop a surging and distorted guitar chord progression from Braithwaite, with the single also boasting arpeggiated synth lines and bright keyboard parts.
‘Fanzine Made Of Flesh’ is accompanied by a striking official music video, directed by Agnes Haus, who described the clip as “a pseudo-film trailer with a jumbled plot that you can never grasp”.
“When I was sent the track, I embraced being unable to understand any of the words, and I didn’t want to know where the title came from,” Haus said. “You kind of have to piece it all together on your own.”
The director continued: “I really wanted it to seem like there could be a full-length film version with vague horror tones, emotional entanglement, and nods to weird art films from the’ 90s, and an autobiographical storyline about growing up non-binary, but not realising it. Perhaps one day I’ll extend it into a full film.”
Following on from 2021’s ‘As The Love Continues’, the forthcoming ‘The Bad Fire’ has also been previewed with the 2024 singles ‘God Gets You Back’ and ‘Lion Rumpus’. The album was produced by Grammy-winner John Congleton (St. Vincent, Angel Olsen, John Grant) at the Chem19 studios in Blantyre, Scotland.
Next month Mogwai will embark on a huge world tour, kicking off in Amsterdam. The UK leg includes a show at the O2 Academy Brixton in London ahead of stops at Leeds’ O2 Academy, Edinburgh’s Usher Hall and Glasgow’s Barrowland Ballroom.
Find any remaining tickets here (UK), here (North America) and here (Europe).
In a three-star review of Mogwai’s previous album, NME wrote: “‘As The Love Continues’ is an album that opens beautifully but falls short at times during its second half. Then again, the whole record works so much better in a live setting – and will continue to do so when Mogwai finally hit the road again.”
