''The Hawk Is Howling'' is the sixth studio album by the Scottish

post-rock Post-rock is a subgenre of experimental rock that emphasizes Texture (music), texture, atmosphere, and non-traditional song structures over conventional rock techniques. Post-rock artists often combine rock instrumentation and rock stylings wit ...

band

Mogwai Mogwai () are a Scottish post-rock band, formed in 1995 in Glasgow. The band consists of Stuart Braithwaite (guitar, vocals), Barry Burns (guitar, piano, synthesizer, vocals), Dominic Aitchison (bass guitar), and Martin Bulloch (drums). Mogwa ...

, released on 22 September 2008, by

Wall of Sound The Wall of Sound (also called the Spector Sound) is a music production formula developed by American record producer Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios, in the 1960s, with assistance from engineer Larry Levine and the conglomerate of session m ...

, Play It Again Sam and

Matador A bullfighter or matador () is a performer in the activity of bullfighting. ''Torero'' () or ''toureiro'' (), both from Latin ''taurarius'', are the Spanish and Portuguese words for bullfighter, and describe all the performers in the activ ...

in the UK, Europe, and the US, respectively. It was released in Australia by Spunk Records on 27 September 2008. It is their first album of exclusively

instrumental An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...

songs, since their earlier albums have all had vocals (singing or spoken word) on some tracks. The album peaked at number 35 in the

UK Album Charts The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Offici ...

and 97 on the ''Billboard'' 200.

Writing and recording

The album was recorded and produced by Andy Miller at Chem19 Studios in

Hamilton, South Lanarkshire Hamilton (; ) is a large town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It serves as the main administrative centre of the South Lanarkshire council area. It sits south-east of Glasgow, south-west of Edinburgh and north of Carlisle. It is situated on t ...

, Scotland and mixed by Gareth Jones at Castle of Doom Studios in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, Scotland, between September 2007 and March 2008. The album was the first time in ten years that the band had worked with Andy Miller, and at Chem19 Studios, since recording the song "Small Children in the Background" for the '' No Education = No Future (Fuck the Curfew)'' EP in May 1998. Several new compositions were debuted at a show for the Triptych Festival at Tramway in Glasgow in April 2008 — "The Precipice", "I Love You, I'm Going to Blow Up Your School", "I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead", "Thank You Space Expert", "Batcat" and "Scotland's Shame". In 2012 it was awarded a gold certification from the

Independent Music Companies Association The Independent Music Companies Association (IMPALA), originally the Independent Music Publishers and Labels Association, is a non-profit trade association established in 2000 to help European independent record labels represent their agenda a ...

, which indicated sales of at least 75,000 copies throughout Europe.

Track listing

All tracks composed by Mogwai. The limited edition version contains the documentary ''Adelia, I Want To Love: A Film About Mogwai'' by Vincent Moon and Teresa Eggers, the Dominic Hailstone-directed "Batcat" video and the video "Batcat Animation" created by Fernando Alberto Mena Rojas.

Personnel

;Mogwai * Dominic Aitchison –

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

Stuart Braithwaite Stuart Leslie Braithwaite (born 10 May 1976) is a Scottish musician, singer and songwriter. He is the guitarist of post-rock band Mogwai, with whom he has recorded ten studio albums. He is also a member of the British alternative rock supergrou ...

–

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

* Martin Bulloch –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

* Barry Burns – guitar, keyboard * John Cummings – guitar ;Additional personnel * James Aparicio – mixing assistance * Nadia Bradley – photography and design * Tony Doogan – recording of "The Sun Smells Too Loud" * Gareth Jones – mixing * Andy Miller – producer * Andi Whitelock – recording of bowed mandolin on "Scotland's Shame"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hawk Is Howling, The 2008 albums Mogwai albums Matador Records albums PIAS Recordings albums Wall of Sound (record label) albums Instrumental rock albums