Scottish rock titans Mogwai release their new album Rave Tapes next week.

For a while there we were intrigued by the possibility that the Zidane-worshipping quintet had branched out into conceptual pirate radio archaeology a la Lee Gamble, but as you can now hear for yourself, the Glaswegians are very much themselves on their eighth album. A full stream of Rave Tapes is currently streaming via the Guardian, ahead of its release on January 21 through Sub Pop and Rock Action.

The band’s de facto frontman Stuart Braithwaite penned a few paragraphs to accompany the stream, noting that the record was written and recorded last year between Glasgow and Berlin, with producer Paul Savage behind the desk.

“He’s a great guy and very good at keeping us in check,” he said of Savage. “That said I’m still pissed off at him for taping over the original 22 minute take of ‘Mogwai Fear Satan’ as it had too many mistakes. We could have fixed those mistakes with computers these days! Though that might be the musical equivalent of that awful digital muppet dancing scene they added to Return Of the Jedi.”

Read the rest of Braithwaite’s introduction and stream Rave Tapes below.