Mugstar - Lime (Vinyl LP)

Mugstar's third album (their second on Important Records) maintains the power and heaviness of sonic assault laid out in their previous releases whilst extending musical manoeuvres and textures into new territories. Sunburnt Impedance Machine moves through driving riff passages with soaring guitars and voice recalling touches of early Floyd before locking into a repetitive keyboard and drum driven outro, - power on, power on! Serra is an extended voyage through a shimmering Krautrock landscape, continuous and expectant grooves that call to mind a turbo-charged Neu! - combine with heavy waves of churning Minimalist synth ala Glass or Reich. Clinic’s Hartley guests here – adding distant bursts of haunting clarinet skronk - inducing flashes of Nik Turner or Beefheart (you gotta hear it).
Radar King launches with mesmeric drums and bass whilst guitars weave and build to near climax before descending to an eerie space – hanging, drifting with a stretched moment of tape fx weirdness before the energy inevitably re-emerges, it builds and charges with looming and crunching guitars to a colossal tornado apocalypse finale. A noisefest Sonic Youth would revel in.  Beyond The Sun closes in a more reflective mood with incessant rhythms punctuated by arpegiated synths and distant voice evoking a feel of pastoral phsycadelicism. The mantra-like effect driven this time with restraint, atmospheric shifts verge on enlightenment and dark uneasiness.
Take the list of band names mentioned above, add a few others along the lines of Bardo Pond, Oneida, Circle, Kinski, – wind the intensity and volume levels up to blistering and you’ll be entering the universe of Mugstar.

• 1 - Sunburnt Impedence Machine
• 2 - Serra
• 3 - Radar King
• 4 - Beyond The Sun

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