Mogwai return with Fanzine Made Of Flesh, a characteristically bizarre and sinister new song and video from forthcoming album The Bad Fire.

I’ve always felt there was something cathartic about Mogwai, especially in concert where they play at ear-splitting volume, using texture and volume as much as rhythm and melody. Not just for the audience, but also for the band.

Like many of us they’ve struggled with personal problems in recent years. “We’ve dealt with a lot of loss and in Barry’s case a serious family illness with one his daughters,” they explain in a band statement.

“Getting back together to write and record this record felt like a refuge… We often hear from people that our music has helped them get through hard times in their lives and for once I think it applies to us as well.”

This is their new single, with the characteristically bizarre title Fanzine Made Of Flesh, and Agnes Haus’s video, shot in Dublin and Brighton, is equally bizarre and slightly sinister.

It follows a young couple on a night out that is doomed not to end well while drums chug, synths swirl, and guitars conjure up a coldwave storm around them.

The vocoded vocals are buried deep in the mix and Haus says that when she was sent the track, she embraced not being unable to understand any of the words, and did not want to know where the title came from.

“As I was listening, I wanted to make a video that matched that – a pseudo-film trailer with a jumbled plot that you can never grasp. You kind of have to piece it all together on your own.”

She adds: “I really wanted it to seem like there could be a full-length film version with vague horror tones, emotional entanglement, and nods to weird art films from the ‘90s, and an autobiographical storyline about growing up non-binary, but not realising it. Perhaps one day I’ll extend it into a full film.”

Stuart Braithwaite wrote the song in Brooklyn in the autumn of 2023 while staying at the house of Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos. “In my head it sounds like a cross between ABBA, Swervedriver and Kraftwerk, though that might be ludicrous,” he says.

I’m looking forward to their new album The Bad Fire in a couple of weeks, with more odd song titles like Pale Vegan Hip Pain and the even more characteristic If You Find This World Bad, You Should See Some Of The Others.