Yom Kippur Rock Action

As my siddur eloquently explained last Wednesday, "Avinu Malkeinu," one of the centerpiece prayers of Yom Kippur, captures the duality of Judaism as well as any. Translated to the English, it means, "Our Father, Our King," referring to God -- the intimacy of family, the distance of royalty; the biased and supportive father, the unaffected judge; the nearness of faith, the fleetingness of faith; God is close and here, God is distant and everywhere.

Funny enough, Mogwai covers "Avinu Malkeinu." It traditionally closes their ear-splitting shows and they released it as a 20-minute, one-song, all-instrumental EP in 2001, under the slightly incorrect title "My Father, My King." The prayer's familiar melody, one of the best on Yom Kippur, which already has some excellent melodies, doesn't appear until minute nine, after several minutes of weaving picked guitars that build into crescendo number one. By the 10th minute, Mogwai has draped fuzz pedals across it and come the 14th minute, the prayer is totally unrecognizable, morphed into distortion and faintly recognizable instruments that head down a long decrescendo of loops and sputtering noise. Rock, classical music; faith, irreverence; quiet, majesty; solitude, sound; melody, noise; beautiful and ugly. Mogwai does an excellent job of capturing the prayer's symbolism musically.

Above is the first half of the song performed live.