Mugstar

Mugstar

Graft

Centripetal Force / Cardinal Fuzz

***Centripetal Force (North America) and Cardinal Fuzz (UK/Europe) are excited to release Mugstar’s GRAFT, the follow up album to their much-lauded live collaboration with Can’s Damo Suzuki released earlier this year. UK space rockers Mugstar have been hurtling through the sonic multiverse since 2003 and have left an extensive discography in their wake. Early on, the band caught the attention of the late John Peel, taking part in one of the last editions of his famed Peel Sessions. From there, the band has compiled an impressive run of releases and solidified their reputation for powerfully hypnotic live performances. After experimenting with longer form compositions on 2016’s Magnetic Seasons (Rock Action Records), GRAFT’s six song journey sees Mugstar return to a more focused work ethic, a move resulting in a sound that is fraught with tension and caters to one of their biggest strengths, the ability to consistently create, sustain, and, ultimately, diffuse drama. This is an effect well-executed on tracks like “Zeta Potential” and “Star Cage.” And even on an album where a tighter approach was a priority, Mugstar still finds plenty of room to improvise and allow for creative exploration, as illustrated on “Ghost of a Ghost” and “Low, Slow Horizon.” Looking back at Mugstar’s catalog, it is remarkable.

Mugstar

Us Tour 7

Chunklet

***The incredibly prolific psych collective MUGSTAR (Liverpool, UK) are back at it with a single that was originally intended as a tour single for their first U.S. tour this past month. This is a glimpse of what’s around the corner for their next full length. "Kabuki Skull" & “Goat Head” seem to exhibit more of a stoner drone vibe than anything they’ve done recently. Limited edition of 250 copies.

Mugstar

Axis

Agitated

***Axis is Mugstar’s long awaited fifth full length album - an expansive collection of songs that take the listener on a journey. The destination is not important it’s all about the journey - travelling through different movements, diverse colours and sounds picking up from where Lime left us in August 2011. From the dark brooding (‘Black Fountain’) to the elevating (‘Tangerina’), the cylindrical (‘Axis Modulator’) and the sonic mantra (‘Upturnsidedown’) Axis showcases a more diverse MUGSTAR whilst retaining their unmistakeable sonic wall of sound. Albeit mainly instrumental, theres a real psychedelic groove that emanates from the kraut-rock inspired sounds of this record, it will shake you down in the same way the first time you copped earfuls of Oneida, Neu!, Loop, Wooden Shjips, Bardo Pondo and even a puff of Hawkwind.

Mugstar

Ad Marginem

Agitated

***Ad Marginem began life as a collaboration between filmmaker LIAM YATES and MUGSTAR, created outside a traditional framework whereby a filmscore is added to a completed film. Members of the band were equal partners in writing, directing, editing as well as acting; the on screen drama was shaped to complement the musical form. Ad Marginem is both tightly controlled and claustrophobic.; though is not without a supersonic, dark and dense explosiveness, echoing Slint and Pink Floyd. Visually, the stark black and white photography of the cover pays homage to classic world cinema. The entire project (interiors and exteriors) was filmed within a stone's throw of the coast and contrasts post-industrial urban landscapes with some of the most beautiful Merseyside locations: the Sefton coast of Liverpool Bay and Hilbre Island, where the Dee Estuary meets the Irish Sea. A tale of obsession and betrayal, it takes as a theme physical and social marginality: a cult on the margins of society, a man on the margins of the cult. In case you’ve not heard of them before, Mugstar are an instrumental rock band all the way from Liverpool, influenced by krautrock, Pink Floyd, Neu!, Sonic Youth and Oneida. 500 COPIES ONLY. LP AND DVD

Mugstar

Serra (Distant Sun Remix)

Agitated

***Remixes were mentioned when Agitated asked to reissue the MUGSTAR LP Lime, we asked about, we got some good response! this two-track EP / one-track CDEP release features the remix work of ROBERT HAMPSON (LOOP / MAIN), he has transformed “Serra” into some 39-minute planeshifting kosmische epic. The first 19 or so minutes (side one on the vinyl) pulse with some fizzing electrical energies that evoke obscurio Kraut rock demo tapes from the mid ‘70s, they sail by, and then the second part (side two on the vinyl) the beats, the rhythms, they subside into some early (early!) Tangerine Dream-esque ambient but not ambient soundscapes, wholly immersive, wholly essential. Both "sides" combined as the whole "piece" on the CD version. The vinyl cut is deep, the pressing is from Germany (natch), and will be on clear green vinyl in a clear plastic bag, limited to 800 copies for sale only. UK import.

Mugstar

Lime

Agitated

AVAILABLE AGAIN!!! Long overdue vinyl reissue of the last album from MUGSTAR. Mugstar are an instrumental rock band from Liverpool, England influenced by krautrock, 'saucerful...' era Pink Floyd, Neu!, Sonic Youth and Oneida. They have released a number of 7" records including a recent split with Mudhoney and were one of the last bands to have recorded a 'Peel Session' for John Peel. Mugstar maintain a power and heaviness and extending their musical manoeuvres and textures into new territories, the mantra-like effect driven with restraint, atmospheric shifts and verges on enlightenment and dark uneasiness. Mugstar are a total sonic assault on the senses, live shows are filled with black and white images flashed over the stages they play. Mugstar are to release a soundtrack album to the film 'Ad Marginem' and have a number of other releases confirmed through the label mid-late 2011. Cut and pressed in Germany onto high quality Audiophile 150-gram vinyl in an edition of 1,000 copies.