Mogwai – “Ritchie Sacramento”

Antony Crook

Mogwai – “Ritchie Sacramento”

Antony Crook

In recent years, the Scottish post-rock titans Mogwai have focused more on scoring films and TV shows than on putting out their own records, and they’re really good at that film-score stuff. But Mogwai remain a great band in the more traditional sense, as well. Next month, Mogwai will follow up their 2017 album Every Country’s Son with the new LP As The Love Continues. It’ll feature collaborations with Colin Stetson and Nine Inch Nails’ Atticus Ross, two other artists who have moved into scoring movies lately. We’ve already posted first single “Dry Fantasy,” and now Mogwai have also dropped the new song “Ritchie Sacramento.”

“Ritchie Sacramento” sounds like the name of the sketchiest guy you know, but it turns out that it’s really named after a friend’s mispronunciation of the name Ryuchi Sakamoto. The track is a straight-up rock song, fuzzy and emotive and deeply satisfying. The song’s computer-animated video comes from director Sam Wiehl, and it starts with the image of orbs appearing in the sky. The clip goes on to depict something that looks a whole lot like the Rapture. Angels are involved. Check it out below.

In a press release, frontman Stuart Braithwaite says:

“Ritchie Sacramento”‘s title came from a misunderstanding a friend of ours had about how to say Ryuichi Sakamoto. The lyrics were inspired by a story Bob Nastanovich shared about his friend and bandmate David Berman who proclaimed “Rise Crystal Spear” as he threw a shovel at a sports car. The song is dedicated to all the musician friends we’ve lost over the years.

As The Love Continues is out 2/19 on Temporary Residence.

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