Biko

Recorded during the February–June 2008 sessions for Intimacy, with Bloc Party working under producers Paul Epworth and Jacknife Lee. Alan Moulder mixed the recording as part of the album’s shared production team. The song placed a restrained, grief-stricken ballad within an album noted for harsher electronic experimentation. Its title uses an Igbo plea meaning “please” and is unrelated to Peter Gabriel’s song about Steve Biko. Mogwai reworked the track for the 2009 album Intimacy Remixed, giving it a distinct afterlife beyond the original record. It remains one of the album’s most intimate expressions of illness, devotion and impending loss.