Mogwai
Brighton Dome Concert Hall, New Road, Sunday, October 26

8pm, £26.50. Call 01273 709709.

Mogwai conducted much of the press for their Rave Tapes tour in the days approaching the Scottish independence vote.

Speaking before a gig in support of the yes vote (on a bill with Franz Ferdinand and Frightened Rabbit), guitarist Stuart Braithwaite admitted an independent Scotland would have little effect on the country’s arts scene.

He did, however, say it was time “to have a government we vote for, because it’s not really been the case for most of my life.” Alas, we all know how things panned out.

Part of the yes campaign’s promise was to keep strong ties with Europe. This would surely appeal to Mogwai, whose 2013 album for French zombie series Les Revenants (The Returned) is one of their finest works to date. The six Scots managed to match the 2013 series’ unsettling atmosphere with a terrific soundtrack which sounds as good played through the stereo as it does watching the undead maraud back to a tiny French mountain town.

Mogwai’s previous soundtracks include Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait and The Fountain.

But Les Revenants marked a few milestones. It was the band’s first record with higher digital sales than physical copy sales. “The TV show probably brought our music to a different audience, and gave some people a kick up the bum that we were still making music. The change is hard to quantify, though.”

The soundtrack also saw the post rockers step up their use of synthesizers. They’d been dabbling with analog sounds since Rock Action in 2001 but after introducing more electronics on Hardcore Will Never Die But You Will their eighth studio album, Rave Tapes, seems to concrete previous ideas.

“To be honest,” explains Braithwaite, “with us it’s not that big a philosophical or purposeful decision. Barry [Burns], who writes a lot of our music, was writing on synths and sequencers.

“If he hadn’t got new synths and sequencers, we probably would have been acoustic. We just write them and see what happens.”

For Rave Tapes, Mogwai have continued their relationship with Hardcore producer Paul Savage and take another step in diluting the old quiet/loud template. One constant over Mogwai’s nearly 20-year career is the love for Krautrock. Rather than diversify his tastes, Braithwaite admits the obsession with experimental German rock music from the late 1960s through the 1970s is intensifying.

He’s still discovering German records from the era and mentions a new found love for drummer Harald Grosskopf, who used to play drums for Klaus Schulze (once of Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel) and issued his seminal solo album Synthesist in 1980.

Unsurprisingly, the Scot has been listening to Tangerine Dream, who have recorded more than 60 soundtracks.

“These weirder synth-led ones are what we’ve been listening to more,” he says. “It was an adventurous period in music and people were making stuff up as they went along.

“I love the mechanics of the sound and there is also something in that equipment, that analog synthesizer, which is quite evocative and immersive.”

After nearly 20 years Mogwai are beginning to look back. Next year should see an anniversary compilation with “harder to find things” and vinyl reissues of every Mogwai record.

Referring to the compilation’s track list, he jokes “It’s an ongoing discussion, but it’s probably the easiest record we’ll ever make.”