"Bitterness Centrifuge"- Mogwai [NPR Audio Stream]

Scotland's Mogwai has released another melancholy song from their 2016 album Atomic. The track "Bitterness Centrifuge" joins "U-235" and "Ether" as previews for the experience that the full album promises to be. Listen above.

The band originally composed the songs that make up Atomic as a soundtrack for the BBC documentary Atomic: Living in Dread and Promise, about the tragedies of the nuclear age from World War II to Fukishima as well as the benefits of things like x-rays and MRI scans. The album features reworked versions of these songs to create intense tracks like "Bitterness Centrifuge."

"Bitterness Centrifuge" is an epic instrumental. The song is even-keeled, and gives the feeling of being in limbo. Dramatic synths and steady cymbal taps build the tension, but it never seems to reach any kind of climax. We're left with a musical backdrop that might fit well in a post-apocolyptic scene where someone discovers they are the only survivor on a devastated planet.

Atomic is set to be released April 1, 2016. You can order the album on Amazon.

For the latest music, news, and tour dates from Mogwai, check out the band's Zumic Artist Page.