Last week we asked readers via Twitter and Facebook which Mogwai songs they would recommend to newcomers. We've compiled a list of 10 tracks, intended to act as a introduction to the band.

You can listen to these tracks as a YouTube playlist, or you can watch each individual video. We've included a little bit of information on the songs, comments from the people who recommended them, and some links to our Mogwai coverage from the last few years.

Reading on mobile? Watch the playlist on YouTube

Closing track on their 1997 debut album Mogwai Young Team. In a 1998 interview guitarist (and de facto band spokesman) Stuart Braithwaite revealed that the title was a reference to bassist Dominic Aitchison's fear of the devil, stemming from his Catholic upbringing.

"Mogwai Fear Satan, because it's everything great and good about Mogwai. Loud-quiet-loud, soaring, magnificent" @MikeyR20

"It's pretty much a mission statement in musical form" @scribbler81

No 2 in John Peel's 1997 Festive 50. Available on singles compilation Ten Rapid, with a live version included on Government Commissions, a collection of their BBC sessions.

"Simple, seminal and loud/quiet, with an enigmatic ending" @gralegav

Mogwai are a great band for pedants; there are two versions of this song, Xmas Steps and Christmas Steps. We're linking to the latter – the former is longer (so we understand from Wikipedia).

Mogwai's take on Jewish prayer Avinu Malkeinu. This Barbra Streisand version has an altogether different feel.

A sort of post-rock (if we must use that term) take on Haydn's Surprise Symphony. Has been known to make casual listeners flinch when it gets to that bit.

"It's possibly the most intense piece of music they've done. Get to see the LOUD and quiet side of them too!" @ImBobMunro

From 2011 album Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will. Another Wikipedia-sourced fun fact: the album's closing track, You're Lionel Ritchie, was named for the exact words said by Stuart Braithwaite when he bumped into Lionel Ritchie at an airport.

"I saw its soaring beauty live after stumbling across them and have never looked back since." @rsthomas1988

Opening track from 2008 album The Hawk Is Howling. The Guardian's review described the song as "a requiem of lost promise but few regrets … the backward guitar notes slipping and sliding like the Doors singer in his final bath."

"Has all aspects of Mogwai's brilliance: piano, noise, guitars, contrast" @MrsRF

When Mogwai songs do have vocals, and when they're on songs as beautifully affecting as this, it makes you wish they'd do more of them. For a more recent example, seek out What Are They Doing in Heaven Today? from this year's soundtrack to French TV show Les Revenants.

We can't improve on this recommendation on Twitter:

"Sounds like the third world war breaking out just above your stereo." @robinturner

Aidan Moffat provides vocals on this beautiful, subtly devastating tale of dying romance.

Want more?

Playlist: Mogwai's Stuart Braithwaite on his favourite songs

The post-rock patron's ultimate soundtrack features the plaintive strains of Townes van Zandt, Son House and Bob Dylan and the eerie serenity of Labradford and Arvo Pärt

Mogwai – Vice video

Here's an encounter with self-professed "repressed weirdos" Mogwai, who play live and hang out at an urban farm in London

Does isolation make the best art?

Existing almost in a universe of their own has meant that Mogwai are used to doing things their way – and the result is a fantastic album, says Alan McGee

The man that Peel built

Mogwai's Stuart Braithwaite found many of his musical influences listening to the late John Peel. He talks about blues box sets, the Stooges and being ignored by Kate Moss.

Listen to the playlist on Spotify