Mogwai today release their new song “Fanzine Made Of Flesh”, the latest cut to be taken from their forthcoming eleventh album, The Bad Fire. Mary Anne Hobbs premiered the track on BBC Radio 6. The Bad Fire is set for release on January 24 via Rock Action Records. The release follows previous singles “God Gets You Back” and “Lion Rumpus.”
“Fanzine Made Of Flesh” is a graceful culmination of everything that makes Mogwai great. Stuart Braithwaite’s surging chord progression is paired with a vocoded vocal, whilst the work of keyboardist Barry Burns shines through, with Burns shifting between an elastic lead line and layers of arpeggiated synth.
Braithwaite says, “Fanzine Made of Flesh was written in Brooklyn when I was staying at Alex Kapranos’ 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. It’s pretty different and I’m really happy with how it turned out.”
The new song is supported by a striking video directed by Agnes Haus, who says; “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. As I was listening, I wanted to make a video that matched that – a pseudo-film trailer with a jumbled plot that you can never grasp. You kind of have to piece it all together on your own. 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.”
Check out the video for “Fanzine Made Of Flesh” – BELOW:
Forthcoming album The Bad Fire was recorded in Lanarkshire, with Grammy Award-winning producer John Congleton joining the band in the studio. A Scottish colloquialism for Hell, The Bad Fire draws inspiration from a series of tough personal moments that the band found themselves in following on from their chart-topping tenth album, 2021’s As The Love Continues.
The band continued to work through this, leading to the creation of The Bad Fire: a collection of songs that forego nostalgia and easy victories, once again finding Mogwai pushing forward with some of the most beautiful and explosive songs of their career. Mogwai are set to embark on a world tour in support of the record throughout 2025 – full list of UK & Irish shows are;
24 January Glasgow QMU (SOLD OUT)
30 January Kingston-upon-Thames Pryzm (SOLD OUT)
20 February London 02 Academy Brixton
22 February Leeds 02 Academy
23 February Edinburgh Usher Hall (SOLD OUT)
17 May Glasgow Barrowlands (SOLD OUT)
18 May Glasgow Barrowlands
24 July Galway International Arts Festival
25 July Limerick – The Big Top
27 July Dublin Vicar Street
Tracklist
God Gets You Back
Hi Chaos
What Kind of Mix is This?
Fanzine Made Of Flesh
Pale Vegan Hip Pain
If You Find This World Bad, You Should See Some Of The Others
18 Volcanoes
Hammer Room
Lion Rumpus
Fact Boy
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