The Scottish band Errors was opening for that other Scottish band at the Mayan on Tuesday night, which was logical as they are on Rock Action Records, Mogwai’s label.
The quartet settled the right atmosphere for the night with their long instrumental pieces, layered with guitars, drumbeats and electronic bleeps and other noises. Most of their tracks were these slow burns, with no lyrics, sometimes some vague Gregorian-like chanting, layering repetitive and tangling loops with ascending synth, alarmed and pulsating or shining guitars.
Their tunes sprawl for long minutes, taking their time to build something not too far away from Mogwai’s most calming numbers, trying to reach the sky step by step, with some distortion and unexpected detours, sometimes lighter and even borrowing to pop music.
Just like for Mogwai, there was not a lot of action on stage, but all the activity comes from their electro-pop mash-ups which are using a lot of synthesizers and are actually hard to describe because so all over the place. Really eclectic, from almost danceable tracks with a lot of distortion, to colder long and loud pieces with a melody that was howling above a vibrating mountain, so much vibration in fact that our bodies were trembling from head to toes.
I was not at all familiar with their music, but I guess they played some tracks from their last year's release, ‘Come Down With Me’, and probably some from their previous one ‘It's Not Something But It Is Like Whatever’ released in 2008, and their numerous singles and EPs.
Simon Ward, Stephen Livingstone, Greg Paterson, James Hamilton were well received by Mogwai’s fans, probably because their vibrant grooves were not that different from the main act’s, but also because they were able to captivate everyone with their highly technical (and should I say mathematical?) mix of heavy synths and guitars.