Les Revenants

Mogwai, a Scottish band formed back in 1995 enjoyed little mainstream popularity due to the style of their music. Instrumental music only caters to a niche group of audience. Unique in its own way, their music is categorised from being post-rock to math rock and art rock, if those genres could ever make sense. Quite simply, Mogwai makes brilliant instrumental music, concentrating on a lot of piano and guitar leads and the recent tracks have an electronic touch about them.
Due to the band's instrumental nature, they prefer creating soundtrack scores and their recent album, which was released on February 19, 2013, is a compilation of 14 tracks for a French TV show, “Les Revenants”.
The first song of the album, “Hungry Face”, comes off as brilliantly as any song could. It's marvellous, amazing, gives you goose bumps; God, I don't think I can gush enough. Next, “The Huts” starts off soft and then takes this slow Arabic turn and beautifully displays the sweetness of a minor scale. “Kill Jester” is a composition that will take you to another place completely if you give in to its soothing, melodious piano.
“The Messiah Needs Watching” is a great listen but is a little similar to the soundtracks from the film “The Fountain”. Maybe the Clint Mansell influence hasn't left the band yet after working with him for that movie's soundtrack. “Special N” is a little disappointing with a casual arpeggio and a little “My Heart Will Go On” feeling.
“Portugal” builds on a good suspense and takes on with a heavy bass complementing a piano lead. “What are they Doing in heaven today?” is the only track with vocals and contains soft lyrics which will appeal to your mellow side.
“Wizard Motor” is harder than the others in the album and is the perfect closing track with a great drum number and comes off with different, more electronic sounds.
“Les Revenants” is definitely a great album to keep on your playlist, especially if you're a fan of background scores and instrumental music. Mogwai's music contains heavy keyboards and bass influences and if it appeals to your taste then you should try their earlier songs too, which in my view, are even better than this album. This album contains occasional gospel effect and use of distortion and a significant use of the piano which gives it a darker feel. An excellent album if you're into theme-based compositions.