While working on the follow up to Happy Music For Happy People, the group has decided to drop this BBC Sessions disc (remember when all the cool groups did it?) and at the same time the release works as sort of a greatest-hits to-date package as well. With artists like Godspeed You! Black Emperor upping the ante and Explosions In The Sky tiptoeing on beautiful sonics and subtle dynamic changes, it's become a landscape littered with post rock. The second reason the group seemingly hasn't stunned as much lately is that there are so many groups doing similar things nowadays that Mogwai simply aren't looked to as the groundbreakers they once were. The massive My Father My King is a perfect example, following a very similar sonic structure as "Like Herod" from Young Team. Mogwai still pretty much sounds like Mogwai, and although the line from Ten Rapid to Happy Music For Happy People isn't a completely straight one, their work is still fairly interconnnected as they've revisited themese throughout their career. The first is that while the group has changed up their style slightly (adding more electronics, some vocals, and relying less on punishing volume changes), they haven't gone off and done anything too outlandish. While the last couple albums from the group haven't quite reached the dizzying heights of their first releases, there are probably a couple probable reasons for such. I remember the first time that I heard "Helicon 2" back clear back in 1997 and thought that the group was really something new and brave and exciting (I hadn't heard Slint at that point yet, so sue me). Over the course of their nearly decade-long career, Mogwai has managed to stay prolific as well as slightly change their style up with each release so that they simply aren't retreading the same ground over and over again. Government Commissions: BBC Sessions 1996-2003
Though die-hard Mogwai fans are probably the most likely to pick this up, Government Commissions works so well that it could also double as a Mogwai greatest-hits collection - something that can't be said about many other live compilations.Mogwai - Government Commissions: BBC Sessions 1996-2003 - Review The album's live atmosphere, which includes voice-overs from the much-missed Peel, adds to its organic ebb and flow, which is all the more remarkable considering that it spans seven years' worth of performances. It builds from subtly taut tracks like "R U Still In 2 It" and "Kappa" to the album's centerpiece, an 18-minute version of "Like Herod" that shows off the song's tense quiet and beautifully ugly guitar mayhem, and then winds down with more reflective songs. The album's sequencing also underscores the band's mastery of dynamics. Pieces like 4 Satin's "Superheroes of BMX" and "New Paths to Helicon Pt I" reflect the band's spare, elongated early work, while "Hunted By a Freak" and "Stop Coming to My House," both of which are from 2003's Happy Songs for Happy People and bookend Government Commissions, are lush, dense and shimmering. The compilation's track selections are inspired: taking two songs from each of the band's albums (except Rock Action, from which only "Secret Pint" appears here) and a handful of tracks from their mid-'90s EPs, Government Commissions gives a good idea of how Mogwai's sound evolved. Government Commissions: BBC Sessions 1996 - 2003 collects some of Mogwai's best performances on John Peel and Steve Lamacq's programs.
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