Mogwai - 'Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait' (Pias) Released 06/11/06

Glaswegian Post-rockers Mogwai soundtrack Turner Prize winner Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno's intimate movie of French football ace 'Zidane : A 21st Century Portrait' - the movie of Zidane with 17 cameras trained solely on him for the course of a Real Madrid vs. Villa Real home game. Lacking the usual grist of noise/feedback/wigging out or dirge guitar, movement is traffic-jam slow favouring atmospherics and broody narration like reading a Dostoevsky novel - it's an OST in which not a great deal happens, suited to the pace of the movie and the broody, contemplative portrait of Zidane.

'Black Spider' and 'Terrific Speech 2' feature the same simple four-note motif with broody, chiming guitar and piano respectively; 'Wake Up And Go Berserk' appeals with psychedelic twangs and strangled guitar, and '7.25' provides one of the easiest, most musical moments. 'Terrific Speech' is a twist on the opening, central theme with the chiming guitar twisted by organ-tronics maintaining the broodiness. With slow keys of piano, 'Half Time' gathers the tensions of a looming goal-mouth threat with the fuzz of reverb guitar, and 'It Would Have Happened Anyway' coming close to the atmospheric tensions of a stadium of some 40,000 or so home supporters when a danger/crisis/bad decision is in the offing. 'I Do Have Weapons' [class title] provides one of the standout tracks with a Caledonian air and wistfulness of signature. 'Black Spider' weighs in at a lengthy 30 minutes - a sonic excursion with the chiming guitar motif overlaid and reminding of an early Pink Floyd psychedelic epic, stretching Mogwai's abilities for keeping the piece together. 

The score has the feel of Zidane as an outsider, above and beyond the game. There's no high jinx or florishing guitars to be found here. A stalker of the pitch waiting for his move - relating little to his team mates, pacing, watching, dragging his boot horse-like on the turf, then capable of the most astounding football when the ball falls. It has a melancholic, autumnal feel which makes it difficult in repeated listens which the die-hard Mogwai fan will no doubt excuse. Cinematically, it's an atmospheric soundtrack which marries fabulously with the movie.