THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Mr. Velocity Hopkins, a name familiar to fans of Couch (the one on the pleasantly obnoxious Bulb label). Six guys on drums, guitar, bass, and sax playing as many notes every 45 seconds as possible, resulting in a jazz-rock freakout assault similar to Zorn's Naked City or The Flying Luttenbachers (Weasel Walter of which appears here). A noisy racket, indeed, but with lots of oomph. Not produced or engineered, but sequenced, by Warn Defever.
If "Eyes All Over Town" was the only song here, this still might be our new favorite record. A goddamn perfect slab of super catchy, buzz drenched, organ driven, garage rock surf pop!! And if you then tacked on "Forgiveness", which sounds like some impossibly perfect hybrid of the Fuzztones and the Beach Boys, that might seal the deal even more, and you know where this is leading? Maybe to us going through this record track by track and explaining just how great every single song is here? You know us so well.
But let's step back a second. San Diego's Mrs Magician knocked our fucking socks off with their Strange Heaven debut, which we made our Record Of The Week, and for some of us, that record has been in near constant rotation ever since. We were heartbroken to find out the band had hung it up, which we initially discovered when Andee tried to get them to play with A Minor Forest on their 2014 reunion tour. So we made do with the subsequent B sides compilation, which for a mess of random tracks, was still pretty goddamn great, and better than most bands could manage when making an album proper. But then lo and behold, the rumors of Mrs. Magician's demise were greatly exaggerated! And here we are.
We got a taste of the new record with the "Eyes All Over Town" Record Store Day single, and while that's one of those songs we could listen to over and over and over, and have been, this whole record is brimming with some of MM's best songs yet. There's the aforementioned "Forgiveness", and maybe this time we won't actually go through EVERY song, but let's call out a bunch. "Jessica Slaughter" is a moody, slithery dirge, that is about as minor key and melancholy as these guys get, but it still manages to be crazy catchy. "No Action" sounds like it was cut from the same cloth as "Eyes All Over Town", that organ surfacing again, coloring the power poppiness in shades of classic garage. There's the tense and frenetic "Phantoms", the ultra power poppy "Tear Drops", which almost sounds like it must be a cover of some lost pop classic. "Reborn Boys" almost sounds a little classic rock, while "The Limbo (Party's Over)" is the perfect closer, some vintage psychedelic garage, with a serious end-of-the-night, wind-down vibe, replete with the epic, almost sing-along finale, albeit one wreathed in heaps of swirling FX.
There's more garage rock/surf pop goodness to be found within of course, and we highly recommend you avail yourselves of every single bit!!!
FYI, cd version upcoming, soon. And also, Mrs Magician will be playing an instore here at aQ on June 17th, before their show at the Hotel Utah that night!!!
RECORD STORE DAY 2016 ITEM!
Strange Heaven, the debut and only record so far from San Diego garage / surf pop punks Mrs. Magician, was our Album of the Year in 2012, pretty much. Even now, it gets played like crazy. The perfect mix of hooky jangle, woozy fuzz, and crunchy punky pound, with songs that just won't quite. We were hugely bummed when the band called it quits, and drowned our sorrows in their subsequent B-sides collection, assuming that would be the last we'd hear of them. And then whattayaknow, they decided to UN- call it quits and they're back, and we're kind of freaking the fuck out. They have a new full length on the horizon, but we got this sweet little teaser for Record Store Day, and both tracks are just as good as we could have hoped, and sound like they could have been plucked right off Strange Heaven. The A-side is all Farfisa driven garage pop, a summertime top down jam, but with a sort of sinister undercurrent, while the flip gets all old school power poppy, with echo drenched vocals, more organ, and some rad blown out guitar buzz. So glad to have these guys back, and counting the days 'til we get more more more!
SUPER LIMITED. These are left over from Record Store Day, so stock is limited, and these are likely gone for good once we run out. Includes a download code as well.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Before we relay the weird way in which we fell in love with this record, let us just say right up front, this is our new favorite garage pop record, hands down!
So as you probably know, the increasing habit of listening to music on our computers has changed the way we listen to music so much. Lots of folks listen to everything on shuffle, others just play their favorite tracks, the idea of full, programmed albums is almost a thing of the past for some folks. And while in some ways those changes enhance the listening experience, in others, it definitely feels like something has been lost. But for whatever reason, at least in this one case, the quirkiness of said computer listening was the key to our obsession with Mrs. Magician.
We had been listening to this new record from the weirdly named Mrs. Magician, a garage rock combo who we had only really heard of cuz they were on tour with the Hot Snakes. And we definitely liked what we heard but were not yet totally blown away. Then for some weird reason, we accidentally sorted our music library by 'date added' and ended up listening to Strange Heaven IN REVERSE ORDER, from back to front, and holy shit, suddenly it all clicked, our socks were knocked totally off, and ever since, we can't stop listening to this (and yeah, we dig it in the proper order now too!).
Not sure if the record is just weirdly back loaded, or we just needed this little twist to unlock the magic of Mrs. Magician, but we're just grateful it happened. To help simulate our listening experience, the first two sound samples we've provided are of course the double shot (in reverse order) that sealed the deal, the sort of one-two punch you find yourself listening to over and over and over (just ask the other aQ-ers how many times Andee has played these two tracks over and over the last few weeks), and then once you can convince yourself to move on, the third and fourth sound samples, are the album's proper opening two tracks.
But c'mon, "Dead 80's" has to be the jam of the year, crunchy, jangly, fuzzy, with a chorus that KILLS, all dreamy oooooh's, some falsetto crooning, warbly organs, ramshackle riffing, and the sort of gleefully profane chorus you'll find yourself singing along too even after just one time through ("Oooooooh, Fuck the world, Oooooooh, Fuck the law, Ooooooooh, Fuck the kids!"). And if "Dead 80's" wasn't already THEE jam here, then "Hours Of The Night" sure as shit would be, a dead ringer for late great post grunge Nova Scotian pop group the Hardship Post, all post Nirvana strum, but with hooks galore, a shuffling rhythm, and snarky heart broken lyrics, not to mention plenty of reverby dreaminess, and so it goes, those two songs are the key, that unlock a whole record of crazy catchy garage pop bliss, that to be honest, is really all we want to listen to. Can't remember being as excited about a pop record since Jaill's That's How We Burn, which trust us, is huge praise indeed. Definite contender for record of the year, pop or otherwise.
NOW OUT ON CD TOO!
If "Eyes All Over Town" was the only song here, this still might be our new favorite record. A goddamn perfect slab of super catchy, buzz drenched, organ driven, garage rock surf pop!! And if you then tacked on "Forgiveness", which sounds like some impossibly perfect hybrid of the Fuzztones and the Beach Boys, that might seal the deal even more, and you know where this is leading? Maybe to us going through this record track by track and explaining just how great every single song is here? You know us so well.
But let's step back a second. San Diego's Mrs Magician knocked our fucking socks off with their Strange Heaven debut, which we made our Record Of The Week, and for some of us, that record has been in near constant rotation ever since. We were heartbroken to find out the band had hung it up, which we initially discovered when Andee tried to get them to play with A Minor Forest on their 2014 reunion tour. So we made do with the subsequent B sides compilation, which for a mess of random tracks, was still pretty goddamn great, and better than most bands could manage when making an album proper. But then lo and behold, the rumors of Mrs. Magician's demise were greatly exaggerated! And here we are.
We got a taste of the new record with the "Eyes All Over Town" Record Store Day single, and while that's one of those songs we could listen to over and over and over, and have been, this whole record is brimming with some of MM's best songs yet. There's the aforementioned "Forgiveness", and maybe this time we won't actually go through EVERY song, but let's call out a bunch. "Jessica Slaughter" is a moody, slithery dirge, that is about as minor key and melancholy as these guys get, but it still manages to be crazy catchy. "No Action" sounds like it was cut from the same cloth as "Eyes All Over Town", that organ surfacing again, coloring the power poppiness in shades of classic garage. There's the tense and frenetic "Phantoms", the ultra power poppy "Tear Drops", which almost sounds like it must be a cover of some lost pop classic. "Reborn Boys" almost sounds a little classic rock, while "The Limbo (Party's Over)" is the perfect closer, some vintage psychedelic garage, with a serious end-of-the-night, wind-down vibe, replete with the epic, almost sing-along finale, albeit one wreathed in heaps of swirling FX.
There's more garage rock/surf pop goodness to be found within of course, and we highly recommend you avail yourselves of every single bit!!!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Strange Heaven, the debut from San Diego garage poppers Mrs Magician, was and actually still is one of our favorite records of the last few years, played to death then and now, overflowing with fuzzed out surf-garage jangle pop gems, with some of THEE best songs we've heard in ages. In fact, just writing the first few sentences of this review, has a bunch of those songs rushing back in filling our head with a swirl of crazy catchy hooks and jangly fuzzy garage rock bliss. Needless to say, after about the millionth listen, we started hankering for more, for a new record, for some new songs, there was a Record Store Day split 7", and that song immediately joined the rest of Strange Heaven on heavy rotation, and now finally, there's THIS. Which is technically not a new record, but it is, a whole new collection of songs, new to us at least. All the B-sides, and demos, and unreleased tracks that never made it on any records proper, but which all sound like they COULD have. In fact, if the quality of the tracks MM did NOT use is any indication, we can only imagine how great record number two is gonna be. But until then we have B sides, which is essentially like Strange Heaven part two. A bit more lo-fi and unpolished, but the songs themselves are crazy catchy, and honestly, so goddamn great. Anyone and everyone who bought Strange Heaven, you are gonna want this one too for sure. And while if given the choice of an introduction to Mrs. Magician, we might suggest Strange Heaven, the more we listen to B Sides, we're pretty sure it would work just as well. Destined to be our most played record, at least until the next proper full length comes out. We can not wait!
Mrtyu is Antony Milton's musical Mr. Hyde, allowing him to weave blackened musickal rituals, and strange downtuned noise drenched dronedoom when he's not creating gorgeous soundscapes, crafting jangly pop, or keeping the underground alive with his PseudoArcana label. Ritual Terra Continuii is not as doomy as some of the other Mrtyu releases, but it's still plenty dark and scary. Disembodied vocals drift amidst slithering low end riffing, bells and chimes drift on thick swells of squealing feedback, everything a glorious murky lo-fi crawl. Dripping with distortion, a lurching lope through some damaged wasteland of sound. Crumbling walls of guitar buzz, bent strings, minor key melodies, simple music box percussion, and that voice, like Whitehouse being broadcast through a tin can and twine, barely audible through the sheets of gloom and mire. So good.
Killer blood splattered hand painted tape in a cryptic black and white sleeve, with a black and white insert, and a folded up short story printed on super nice textured paper. LIMITED TO 120 COPIES!!!
Coming from the cross-pollinating community of Bavarian post-rock and electronica hybrids, Ms. John Soda is actually a duo comprised of Micha Acher (of Tied & Tickled Trio, Village of Savoonga, and the Notwist, often times working with his brother Markus) and Stephanie Boehm. Both worked together six or seven years back as Couch, a data-pop / post-rock ensemble with not a thing in common with the Michigan scum-rock band by the same name. Their reunion as Ms. John Soda for their first album "No P. Or D." doesn't stray far from the Morr label template of bittersweet ambient-pop; so we give a word of caution to fans of Village of Savoonga's angular darkness, which you won't find in any Morr productions. Boehm's simple if slightly detached vocals wistfully float through each song not unlike those of Laetetia Sadier on early Stereolab albums like "Peng." Barring their Neu! references, those early Stereolab albums make for an adequate parallel to Ms. John Soda in their mutual applications of retro fetishism, effortless indie-pop grooviness through jangliness, and an unassuming intelligence (which Stereolab has lost as of late). It's almost as good as the Notwist's "Neon Golden," which has grown to be one of the sleeper gems of 2002! Certainly worth checking out.
Ms John Soda make pretty pretty pop-tronica, the kind that very much defines the Morr Music label. With their droll yet airy female vocals, chiming electronic effervescence and occasional counterweight of electric guitar, this German duo are very very akin to their dreamy Morr labelmates LaliPuna, if perhaps a little bit more insistent. Heck, the striking resemblance is really not all that surprising since each group has an Acher brother in its lineup (fyi: Micha and Markus Acher are also prominent members of The Notwist, Village Of Savoonga, Tied & Tickled Trio, 13 & God, among others). Also very much for fans of Broadcast or Postal Service.
Ms. John Soda's previous album No P. Or D. was a great complementary record to the the likes of Notwist's Neon Golden, the Postal Service's Give Up, and Broadcast's Ha Ha Sound, as this Bavarian duo of Stefanie Boehm and Micha Acher (who also plays in the Notwist) successfully recreated much of the same wistful indie-pop sensibility of those other bands while adding their distinct signature of retro chic mired in technologically advanced programming. This new While Talking EP moves a bit away from that pop sensibility, at first picking up more of an avant-rock groove by adapting their sound to incorporate the jagged guitar riffs of Blonde Redhead or Sonic Youth around their Fake Can Be Just As Good or Goo albums, respectively. Elsewhere the songs begin to fragment into pretty electronica splatters smoothed over by Boehm's voice. 5 tracks, 27 minutes.
This one's a doozy, one to add to the WHAT THE FUCK section of your collection (you do have one of those don't you?), you know, Fastest, Steven Schultz, Rodd Keith, heck we might even include Ween and the Frogs and other twisted practitioners of their own peculiar sonic songcraft, and now you can add MSG to that group. (Not to be confused with the -other- MSG, the Michael Schenker Group, by the way.) It might be good to listen to the samples first, odds are you'll have one of two reactions, both of which were experienced by listeners at aQ, one was like 'what the fuck is this, for god's sake please take it off', while the other was 'what the fuck is this? This is totally fucking nuts and I love it', which is where most of us ended up.
It's hard to tell from the liner notes if these songs were actually recorded by a child, but we're thinking it was recorded by an adult, channeling his inner child. As the liner notes describe, and the title alludes too, these songs were born of a bored mind, trapped in a gated community, obsessed with MTV, heavy metal, hip hop, BMX bikes, candy, cars with boomin' systems, the man (boy) behind MSG inheriting a shitty keyboard after his grandma died, and creating songs that somehow combined all of his (above mentioned) loves at the time, set to what sounds alternatingly like lo-fi Kraftwerky robotic electro pop and DIY hip hop, imagine dorky sing songy melodies, shitty programmed Casio beats, and vocals delivered in various 'voices', from falsetto croons to faux robot voices, and some amazingly painful rapping.
"Liquid Titanium" is total sci-fi robo-funk, with stiff programmed grooves and sci-fi synths, not to mention some rad robo-vox, while "Boom Boom Boom" is super lo-fi pop electro-pop, with an infuriatingly catchy chorus, "Calculator Machine" might be our favorite though, some fuzzy squelchy synth-wave, with pounding drums, snake charmer synth melodies, more robo-vox and some anguished monstrous bellows, not to mention some hilarious lyrics. And of course there's the sort of cock rock anthem / public service announcement of "You Want To Party / Don't Do Drugs", replete with raspy arena rock star vox, but belted out over some dorky damaged synthesizer, and another cloyingly catchy chorus. Sure it's dumb, and goofy, but it's weird and pretty goddamn hilarious, and we end up finding ourselves listening to this way more than lots of other, less dumb things, which says a lot!
Includes a download coupon.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
On his latest musical excursion (which took us a while to get back in stock after it first appeared a couple months ago!), Microphones mainman Phil Elverum orchestrates the Mt. Eerie Singers. If that name sounds familiar, you might recall that Mount Eerie was the title of his last Microphones studio album released back in 2003. Elverum has gathered together an album's worth of his off the cuff impromptu (?) recordings from the past five years. He's the lead vocalist and he's joined by an ever-changing chorus of singers. It's a downright homespun folksy singalong from start to finish.
Note: on the back of the lp sleeve, there's a note that says this lp includes a bonus cd version which due to a superior mastering job has clearer sound quality than that of the vinyl (the cd is the format from which we nabbed the audio clips). So... I guess that means all of you vinyl lovin' Elverum fans will just have to suffer through a little murkiness. Mind you Elverum's recordings have never been the most crisp, clear productions, so maybe you'll find it to be somewhat negligible. Personally we didn't notice much difference.
Record number three from Travis Graves aka Mt. Egypt, and we now find ourselves wondering how we never heard, or heard of, Mt. Egypt before now? Apparently he's toured with Band Of Horses, Cat Power, The Flaming Lips, hell, even Willie Nelson. And as we mentioned above, this is his THIRD record. We're definitely kicking ourselves for only just catching on, but we're doing our best to make up for lost time, listening to this like crazy...
The music of Mt Egypt is a darkly delicate, introspective folk, simple and spare, warm and languid, a hazy sun dappled back porch summer afternoon sound, ethereal steel string guitar shimmer, wrapped in warm tendrils of muted melody, all with a subtly psychedelic cast. The sound is mostly acoustic guitar and vocals, but really nothing else is needed. It's all about the songs, and the voice. The songs themselves are practically perfect, sparse and spacious and stripped down, delicate and hushed, mysteriously and subtly catchy, the hooks are there, but they're hazy and indistinct, and hover in the background, the catchiness an afterthought to the mood, and the emotions, a gentle classic poppiness that informs Mt Egypt's skeletal country folk, and Graves' voice is the perfect match, plaintive and keening, slipping from a weary whisper to a mournful croon, somewhere between Neil Young and Songs:Ohia's Jason Molina. Grave's vocals occasionally woven into angelic harmonies, draped over elegiac stretches of minimal strum and drift. Broken hearted, twang flecked introspective folk, that is simply lovely. And is most definitely recommended for fans of Palace Brothers / Will Oldham, Fleet Foxes, Band Of Horses, Iron & Wine, Mount Eerie, Songs:Ohia, Rocky Votolato, Vetiver, Bon Iver and other similarly dark and introspective folk...
LIMITED TO JUST 100 COPIES!!!!
We first heard the oddly named Mudboy on Last Visible Dog's recent mammoth six-cd Invisible Pyramid: Elegy Box. Curiousity thus piqued, we're pleased to now find a Mudboy full-length cd has now also just been released by LVD (actually, this is a reissue of a recording previously put out by an even smaller label). This Rhode Island feller's woozy music, performed with home-built electronics and modified vintage keyboards (a circuit-bent church organ we're told), would be the perfect soundtrack to a creepy, sleepy sort of imaginary movie... this cd's full of ominous drones and sinister synth but it's also soothingly repetitive and goshdarn lovely. Whooshing interludes bridge the spaced out explorations of minor-key organ melodies that permeate the disc, occasionally infiltrated by field recordings and broken rhythmic glitch. It's an atmosphere of menace that's strangely warm and inviting. If Bo Hansson's ghost made Halloween music, or down on his luck Eric Malmberg (keyboardist of Sagor & Swing) was hired to play a lullabies for a monster baby...they'd sound a bit like Mudboy, perhaps. And if "this is folk music", then Cluster and John Carpenter are folk music too, 'cause Mudboy seems to be inspired by both kraut-tronics and analog fright flick scores. And we're ready to snuggle up with that monster baby...
Killer collection of demos and outtakes from arguably THEE only grunge band that mattered (Nirvana who?), sure we love Tad and Soundgarden and all the rest, but Mudhoney are one of the few bands who always ruled and somehow STILL rule, swaggery and heavy, and punky and bad ass with some of the catchiest songs EVER.
Head On The Curb goes way back, to when original bassist Matt Lukin was still in the band, a bunch of tracks that would mostly go on to make up Piece Of Cake, although a few jams here went on to be B sides, or never went on at all, which is enough to make this worthwhile. Besides the fact, that this is Mudhoney at their fiercest and heaviest, the sound varies, but for the most part, this is super distorted, ultra heavy, raw and urgent, caustic and chaotic, that Mudhoney sound you know and love, just a bit less polished, the guitars muddy and murky, everything fuzzy and blown our, Mark Arm's yowl in fine form, there's an acoustic jam, a super obscure cover, but for the most part this is prime vintage Mudhoney.
Absolutely essential for fans, newbies might want to try Superfuzz Bigmuff first, but then again, what the hell, if these jams, in all their raw unpolished glory, don't convince you of Mudhoney's rulingness, then hell, nothing will.
Pressed on super thick vinyl, and housed in heavy old school black and white jackets.
Hey Mudhoney fans! Here's 21 of the best from Mark Arm and co. Kicking it all off with the kick ass title track, and continuing on with their raunchy blues-infused rockers: "Touch Me I'm Sick", "This Gift", "You Got It", and "Hate The Police". Awesome. Culled from various sessions of the John Peel show (1989) and Evening Session (1995) as well as live recordings from the Reading Festival '95. Just hearing Mark Arm's trademark howl, sends a warm, fuzzy, nostalgic chill down my spine.
A brief little blast of incendiary grunge godhead from AQ faves Mudhoney. We raved about their recent full length, Under A Billion Suns, and this here is a single from that disc. The totally killer "It Is Us" is the A side, but the B side is worth $4 all by its lonesome. Hard to believe they chose to leave "Dig Those Trenches" off the album. Quite possibly the best Mudhoney track in forever. Murky swampy bluesy scuzzrock stomp, an absolutely monster riff and the best Mark Arm vocals in years, his whiskey soaked yelp/growl is on fire here. It almost sounds like vintage Green River which is a VERY good thing. There's even a cool creepy sixties spy thriller horn section that gets snuck in here and there. Awesome!
Yo old school grunge fans! Seattle's finest, Mudhoney, have gone and recorded a special, vinyl-only, limited edition live treat. Classics like "Touch Me I'm Sick" and "Hate The Police" performed at a show in Mexico City, 2005. It's limited to just 500 copies -- and we managed to acquire only five of 'em. So act fast. Includes coupon for free digital download of all the tracks, so even the turntable impaired can still enjoy the tunes.
In looking at the two publicity photos which mark the beginning and end of the timeframe of this collection (their singles and rarities from 1988 to the present), you'd never think the photos were of the same band! Bad-ass smug heroin rockers in the first, giggly indie awkwardness in the latest. Don't get us wrong, Mudhoney is good people, and a great band. Doubters need only to pick up this anthology to be set straight. 52 tracks, a decade of rock n' roll genius from the old classics (i.e. "Touch Me I'm Sick", "Hate The Police") to obscure b-sides. One disc is the "best of", the other all rarities. Recommended.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Hat's off to the Mudhoney team for their fucking ass-kickin' cover art. It features super cool, retro, swirling multilayered transparencies. The album title is a bit perplexing though. It sounds more new wave or electronic than grungy rock'n'roll. Nevertheless music-wise, the men are definitely aging gracefully with the knowledge that sometimes it's just best to keep doing what you do best. No need to "keep up with the trends" or "update your sound". Nope, they're keeping it raw and true to the Mudhoney name - in business since 1988. That means high quality, raunchy, blues rock complete with that unmistakable Mark Arm howl. The only notable difference is an even more pronounced emphasis on the drone-y side of things, making that classic Mudhoney sound even more hypnotic and almost Krautrock-like. Almost. Cool.
This is another one of those records that is almost beyond reviewing. A record that if we found out someone we knew didn't own it, we would simply insist they buy it immediately. No questions asked. Of questions were asked, we would respond with something like "Because it's awesome!" or "It's one of the best collections of songs EVER" or more likely "JUST BUY IT! IT RULES!".
But since that doesn't work on everyone, we'll do our best to describe what is one of our favorite records EVER, and arguably the best Mudhoney release EVER. Partially because it's not a proper album, but rather a collection of single tracks. Pretty much every one a perfect chunk of slithery filthy grungy punk rock genius.
When we first discovered Mudhoney, it was because we were super obsessed with Green River, the band that vocalist/guitarist Mark Arm and guitarist Steve Turner called home before Mudhoney. Both quitting as that band leaned more and more toward glam rock and late eighties Sunset Strip rock. But to our ears, Mudhoney didn't sound all that different from Green River. Maybe a little punkier, definitely less bluesy, but from the second we first heard Mudhoney, we were in punk rock love.
A lot of it has to do with Arm's raspy croon, so raw and primal, but managing to be super melodic and versatile. He's a bit like a mop topped grunge rock Iggy Pop, wiry and writhing while spitting out insane punk rock bon mots, wailing away on his axe, bouncing maniacally around the stage. His voice is definitely the defining feature of Mudhoney, but that wouldn't mean shit if the songs weren't amazing, and they are. Punk as fuck, but way poppy, hooks galore, but all wound up in super tight riffs, wiry melodies and wild drumming, the band careening wildly one second, pounding away through some doomy dirge the next.
No amount of flowery description, no review, no matter how well written, can possibly compare to just hearing this stuff. We're so jealous of anyone who gets to hear "Touch Me I'm Sick" for the first time, or their cover of the Dicks' "Hate The Police", or the slithery "Sweet Young Thing Ain't Sweet No More". When we first heard these songs, our minds were BLOWN. Literally, we had no idea what the heck we were hearing. Punk rock. Grunge. Pop. But it was more than that. The energy, the spirit, the groove, the vibe, and holy shit THE SONGS. So with all of that to chew on, I think we're finally at a stage where we can unleash the "JUST BUY IT. IT TOTALLY RULES!!"
We get a little bummed out on reissues sometimes, thinking we have to buy a record all over again, for maybe a few extra tracks, or a dvd, or whatever, but then you have to realize, stuff like this is not necessarily for fans who already have the record, but for folks who might have somehow missed out, many of whom were maybe not even alive, or still toddlers when it first came out. So for you folks, this is absolutely a must have. Whether you're a metalhead, an emo kid, a punk rocker. Mudhoney are one of the few bands whose appeal transcends genre, and rightfully so.
For those of us who already have one or more copies of Superfuzz Bigmuff, well, the new version has three demo tracks, as well as an entire disc of live tracks, one live show, one live on the radio, new fancy pants packaging, deluxe six panel digipak, housed in a slipcase, huge booklet with tons of photos, liner notes, all the original single covers, so yeah, we're all gonna buy one, you might as well too, replace the old worn disc with this new remastered version, support a bunch of cool dudes who are still making kick ass records (in fact, a new one to be reviewed here real soon). But really, all that extra stuff is just icing, on a cake that already tastes better than any other sonic confection we can think of...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
You would think a band that's twenty years into their career would be a whole different beast, a pale imitation of the snarling punks they were when they were young and hungry and all drugged up. But then there's Mudhoney, who sound just as vital and vibrant, snotty and badass as they did nearly two decades ago. Recent records dabbled with horns and more drone-y song structures, but even then they always remained not that far removed from the band they once were and apparently always will be: a kick ass, stripped down grungey, druggy, snotty, garage rock punk rock catchy as fuck head butt to the bridge of the nose.
Not sure if it's the big 20th anniversary, or the recent release of Mudhoney's seminal Superfuzz Bigmuff, but damn if the Lucky Ones doesn't sound like it could just have easily come out back in the early nineties. The guitar thick and gnarled, the riffing thick and super distorted, the drums off kilter but SOLID, and Mark Arm's distinctive wail, in such fine form it's like he just got finished recording "Touch Me I'm Sick" five minutes ago instead of nearly 20 years.
But it's not just the parts, it's the songs, and the songs this time around, as always, kick some serious ass. But they're super charged, blown out, heavy and buzzy, garage-y and WAY punk rock, with bits of tripped out spacieness, even some Green River style almost glamminess, and while there are nods to the more recent records, this is Mudhoney rocking it like it's 1990, and putting most, if not all of their current rock contemporaries to shame. Big time!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Includes a cover of a song by the Cheater Slicks.
Man, do we love Mudhoney. So few bands have managed to go through so much and remain so fucking great. Caught up in the big grunge feeding franzy, suffering through the grunge backlash, signed to a major label, dropped from a major label, seeing other bands not nearly as good get huge, world tours, drugs, whatever, nothing could faze this band. C'mon how bad ass is that? Where are we at, a dozen records by now? Close to that surely, and EVERY single one of them is great. Sure some are better than others but not a bad one in the bunch. Their first two are stone cold classics, packed with some of the best songs EVER written ("Touch Me I'm Sick", "Sweet Young Thing...") and one of the best versions of a song written by someone else ("Hate The Police") but their last record Since We've Become Translucent was great too, being the record that introduced a dronier dirgier Mudhoney, and you gotta love that. Their sound changes subtly with each record, but is always instantly recognizable, swaggering, filthy, distorted, bluesy, hooky, droney, grungy, stumbling, ass-kicking rock and roll.
Under A Billion Suns is classic Mudhoney for sure, but with more of an emphasis on pop, with crazy hooks and HORNS everywhere. That's right, horns. Not like the jazzy / krautrocky horns they dabbled with on the last few records, no these are full on horn-section horns. So much so that some of the tracks even sort of reminded us of Rocket From The Crypt. But there's no mistaking that Mudhoney superfuzz bigmuff guitar sound, or Mark Arm's glass gargling yowl, equally rough and ragged, warm and croonsome, whiskey soaked and gorgeously raw. And the songs as always are fantastic, the sound once again a sweet, sloppy, glammy update of the Stooges swaggering punk rock sprawl. They even dabble in politics this time around with the appropriately titled "Hard On For War".
As much as we loved and still love Soundgarden, Tad, Nirvana, Skin Yard, Gruntruck, Alice In Chains, Mother Love Bone, Malfunkshun, Screaming Trees and all their grunge rock brethren, our hearts will always belong to Mudhoney (and maybe Green River, but that's basically the same thing)!
We love Mudhoney. How could you not. WHY would you not? Every time we decide we maybe don't care about Mudhoney anymore, or decide they're no longer relevant, they release a new record that kicks our asses, or we see them play, and have our minds blown thoroughly. At some point, we decided to just stop going through that. And just understand that Mudhoney are one of those rare bands, who sound as good now as they did in the old days. Vocalist Mark Arm still has one of the most distinctive yowls in rock and roll, Steve Turner's guitar playing is untouchable, and Dan Peters is still a madman behind the kit. So fuck it. We love Mudhoney, we always will. And sure, maybe they won't ever make another Superfuzz Bigmuff, but then they don't have to.
There are definitely some moments on Vanishing Point that had us doubting, mostly some painfully trite lyrics, but we're tempted to believe that we're just not getting it. Like maybe those lyrics are meant to a -parody- of truly trite lyrics, cuz c'mon, these are the same guys who wrote "Touch Me I'm Sick", "Sweet Young Thing Ain't Sweet No More", "Burn It Clean" and about a billion others.
But sonically "Vanishing Point" is a monster, from loping Stoogesy swaggers, to furious pounding punk rock blowouts, to blown out grungy dirges, to slithery Green River like grunge-blues breakdowns, the guitars thick and viscous, howling and screeching, chugging and buzzing, the rhythm section tight as fuck, plenty of wah guitar freakouts, the heavy psych vibe all over Vanishing Point, but ultimately, just another face melting, head banging, post-grunge classic slab of Mudhoney crush, which we're digging more and more with every spin.
While they last, we have the super limited Loser Edition of the lp (that means colored vinyl and a bonus photo booklet)...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Where to even start... HAWKWIND. The mighty lords of drugged out space rock, without whom, most of the bands we love might not even exist. These four Hawkwind records: Doremi Fasol Latido, Hall Of The Mountain Grill, In Search Of Space, and Space Ritual, are pretty much all anyone needs to know about space rock. Or whatever it is that Hawkwind do, long sprawling jams, extended psychedelic workouts, heavy and trippy, totally drugged out and divine, while at the same time, surprisingly catchy. But yeah, aQ folks probably already know how much we love Hawkwind.
So if we were to pick six bands to cover classic Hawkwind tunes, we might not have picked these six, but then again, we very well might have: Mudhoney, Mugstar, Acid Mothers Tempo And The Cosmic Inferno, White Hills, Kinski, Bardo Pond. Holy hell! If this were just a comp with those bands, we'd be all over it, but the fact that they're covering Hawkwind seems like it was made just for the aQ faithful, and who knows, maybe it was. Spread out over three 7"s, we almost didn't list these separately, but as a set, 'cause to our minds, who the heck would only want one or two of these? But you never know, so for those of you who didn't already freak out and toss all three into your cart, here's a brief bit about each specific 7":
The first of the three, subtitled "Motorheads", features two aQ favorites (as do they all), Mudhoney and Mugstar. Mudhoney tackle "Urban Guerilla" and totally make it their own, so much so, that minus a little chunk of extended droney space rocking in the middle, those not well versed in Hawkwind would certainly be forgiven for thinking it was a Mudhoney original. Mugstar on the other hand are a DEAD ringer for Hawkwind, their sound murky and muddy, squalls of psych guitar, clouds of swirling spaced out FX, droned out jams, all tangled up and slowly unwinding into a long sprawling space rock jamscape. Hawkwind would be proud.
The packaging is brilliant, perfectly tripped out psychedelic acid flashback, with naked lady, geometric design, cribbed from the original Hawkwind artwork (or at the very least, an incredible simulation), the sleeves are printed complete with shelf wear and corner creases (so don't complain, they're meant to look like they've been on your shelf for decades), each one SUPER LIMITED, and already sold out at the label, we have a bunch, but these will be the only copies we'll ever have!!
Jeff who? Oh, he's in June of 44. Cool. Quiet, subdued, acousticky stuff.
Oh my! This is a totally awesome collection of 7" and compilation tracks from LA punk-pop vets The Muffs. With the often-hilarious liner notes written by queen bee vocalist/guitarist Kim Shattuck and bassist Ronnie Barnett, it's quite an entertaining historical overview. Many of the 30 (yes, 30!) punchy cuts here show the Muffs in their truest, rawest, rockin'est, take-no-shit-from-anyone form. Jangling guitar melodies, solid rock riffs and enough of Kim's vocal harmonies to make any g.b.g. (that's "girl band groupie" by the way) positively swoon. With covers of Kim Wilde's "Kids In America" (from the Clueless soundtrack) and Elvis Costello's "No Action" among others, plus special guest appearances from C.C. Deville of Poison, the Bangles' Susanna Hoffs and Steve McDonald of Redd Kross, how can you go wrong?
Mugison is already a big star in his native Iceland; he recently beat Bjork for Best Pop Album and Best Song at the Icelandic National Music Awards. Mugimama! Is This Monkey Music? is a like a super rummage sale disco....his technique seems to use a bit of alchemy; a bit of a Stone Soup, throw-noises-in-a-pot until a magical rainbow appears method that is not unlike a that of the younger Beck. The album sounds more like something from a meeting of mid-'90s Los Angeles and bedroom-rock indie Midwest than the blips and glacial swirls we've become more accustomed to hearing from Iceland. Comparable at other moments to the John Spencer Blues Explosion, to a cleaner shaven (on track one, he sings, "Guess what! I shaved off my beard!") Devendra Banhart, or toward the end of the album, to Will Oldham. Mugison's vocals swing from scratchy-surly to cheek-to-cheek sensitive, the latter highlighted when he pairs up with his girlfriend, Runa, on some tracks. On "Salt," the skating violins, seashell castanets and childlike spoken poetry performed by Mugison's sister call forth an Iceland we're more familiar with musically.
This is someone to look out for. He could become a musical pioneer, taking things in a totally new direction as his career progresses, or, with this third album, he may have just stumbled into an eclectic attic of happy accidents. Either way, this album is diverse, adventurous, and quite enjoyable overall.
The latest from aQ beloved psychedelic space rockers Mugstar is not a proper new album, but is instead a soundtrack to a film called Ad Marginem, Mugstar providing a brooding and moody score, their usual space-prog heaviness dialed back a bit, the group weaving lush landscapes of tribal drumming, and low slung riffage, a perfect match for the film, shot mostly in black and white, with dramatic burst of abstract color in the beginning, and at certain points throughout, Mugstar spend much of the record/film locked into a sort of hypnorock mesmer, that most fans of Circle will find immediately appealing, a single riff, looped and layered and repeated, while the group wreathes that main groove in subtle sonic colorations, the vibe is definitely post rock, or very minimal psych rock, the guitar slipping from jangle to muted chug, the drums driving and propulsive, but the whole thing tense and dramatic, a very slow build, swirling organs drifting in and out, Slint like minor key melodies, quite effective and intense, it's not until near the end of the first side, and obviously at an appropriate place in the film, that the band lets loose, exploding into a stretch of rollicking psych rock, laced with soaring leads, pounding drums, the sound fierce and heavy, before slipping right back into the more pensive sonic brooding.
The B side follows a similar pattern, spending most of its time in loping cyclical dirge mode, still minor key and moody, this time, near the films end, slipping into a long stretch of slow, hushed, near ambience, a drifty bit of psychedelic shimmer, brooding and ominous, until finally, the drums slowly creep in, the guitars build to a roar, the sound explodes into something more heavy and hypnotic, super intense and dramatic, a sort of space psych Godspeed moment, a noisy super intense sonic coda, as the film fades to black.
The film might be something you watch only once or twice, but like the best scores/soundtracks, Mugstar's music for Ad Marginem, even separated from the visuals, still sounds amazing, and essentially plays like a Mugstar record proper, albeit a slightly more mellow one, but fantastic nonetheless!
Recently we reviewed a soundtrack from psychedelic space rockers Mugstar, for a film called Ad Marginem, and we remarked that the band's sound was appropriately moody and brooding, appropriate for the film certainly, and thus weren't too surprised that in this context, the band's usual progged out bombast was tamped down a bit. And while we assumed that this shift toward brooding moodiness was perhaps a one off for the film, their most recent record displays something sonically similar, perhaps displaying an overall new direction for the band, but on Axis the band manage to bridge the gap, infusing their sonic brooding with a bit of their earlier bombast (Lime, Sun Broken), but only a bit.
Opener "Black Fountain" (originally on a split with SF spacepsych combo Carlton Melton) is a churning sprawl of mesmering hypnorock, dirgey and murky, the drums dense and busy and driving, driving the whole song, a relentless tribal pound that pulses beneath the chug and churn of the bass and guitar, building tension, but never totally exploding, instead slipping back into another stretched of brooding minimal mesmer. The second track "Hollow Ox" opens with a very This Heat sounding electronic melody, before bursting into some serious progginess, but again, the band seem to stretch out and let the sounds drift and drone, the keyboards heavy here, hence the progginess, but the sound remains locked in an almost looped sounding expanse of seventies progginess by way of Circle's relentless repetition. We're not knocking it at all, in fact we quite like it, and find ourselves listening to these tracks constantly, getting lost in their hypnotic heaviness. "Tangerina" also channels Circle, but adds more warmth, and more organic proggy swirl, even building an almost epic post rock coda part way through.
The sort-of title track "Axis Modulator" is the band at their heaviest, chuggy and mathy and proggy, the riffs churning, the drums relentless and driving, the sound washed out by thick swaths of droney keyboard thurm, building to a seriously rocking sprawl of krautrocky space-psych, that definitely harkens back to previous Mugstar records. "Upturnsidedown" returns the band to that new brooding murk, before finishing off with the almost Stereolab-ish "Vehicles Of Spain", which weds playful psychedelic keyboard melodies to dense drumming, and heavy clouds of woozy washed out psychedelia.
While at first blush, Axis most definitely seems like a departure, much broodier and moodier, darker and a bit less rocking, on repeated listens it reveals itself as the perfect follow up to their last full length Lime, and the more we listen, the more we can't seem to get enough.
Brand new 7" from UK space rockers Mugstar, who pack some serious spaced out psychedelia into these two short sides.
The A side begins with a weird drone-y chant-like whir, along with some tribal drumming and distant guitar plinks, gradually building and building, the minimal vocals transforming into some serious howling, when suddenly everything drops out, leaving just the drums and some super processed guitar strum, very rhythmic and strangely spacy, eventually the rest of the band kicks back in and locks into a cyclical angular groove, looping and repetitive, a furious grinding riff over the relentless drumming. Epic and exhausting.
The flipside is way more synth heavy, some weird sort of post punk noise rock, almost kind of mathy, a bit like a supercharged, way more metallic Stereolab, which intensifies until it explodes into wild psychedelic squalls of acid fried synths and freaked out guitarnoise.
Packaged in a fold over full color sleeve, with a 45 sized hole and one of those old school yellow turntable adapters already in the hole!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Like the Carlton Melton double live lp reviewed elsewhere on this week's list, this new one from aQ beloved UK psychedelic space prog combo Mugstar, was also a special ultra limited (300 copies!!) Record Store Day release, and like the Carlton Melton, we ordered as many copies of the Mugstar as we could get. We sold most of them already, and are left with less than ten, so any of you who still want one of these, best act fast, cuz once these are gone, they are gone for good.
Centralia is the first release we've managed to get on the Cardinal Fuzz label, and it's definitely an auspicious introduction, with Mugstar blending kinetic psychedelic progginess, with wild drumming, swirling guitars, loops and samples and FX, and blissed out cosmic minimalism. The B side starts off super mellow and blissed out, sounding almost like a way more tripped out Pink Floyd, before building to some seriously dense riffing, thick swells of chordal buzz, and more wild drumming. The record finished off with some seriously kick ass post rock infused psychedelia, that kills!!! As we mentioned above, we have less than ten copies, of only 300 pressed. These are the very last copies we'll be able to get EVER, so act fast!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Another killer blast of blown out mathy space rock freak out from one of our new favorite UK combos...
We said it before, and we might as well say it again, these guys should really be WAY more popular than they are, everything we've heard from them has totally ruled, a few singles, two full lengths, one of which we made our Record Of The Week, and let's not forget their bad ass Hawkwind cover in the Sonic Attack 7" series (reissued on cd, one of THIS week's Records Of The Week!), so it should come as no surprise that full length number three is just as good, if not better than all the stuff that came before. Not as blown out and super rocking as Sun Broken, Lime is 4 tracks clocking in at 40 minutes, and is a bit more subdued than past efforts. That's not to say there isn't some seriously psychedelic ferocity on display here, it's just judiciously doled out, and set amidst some more minimal psychedelia. Although opener "Sunburnt Impedance Machine" might have you convinced otherwise, exploding right out of the gate with a killer fuzzed out Hawkwindy riff, chanted vocals, some soaring spidery leads, some killer staccato mathy breakdowns, huge squalls of spacepsych freakout, until finally at about the halfway mark, the track shifts gears and locks into a churning chugging krautrock groove, the instruments locked in tight, only the organ let loose, to whir and warble and buzz, laying thick undulating swaths of chordal buzz over everything, intense and hypnotic, and definitely the sort of thing that should appeal to Circle obsessives.
Which becomes even more obvious on the second track, the 13 minute "Serra", which is a dead ringer for our Finnish hypnorock pals, a sprawling motorik groove, you sort of almost keep expecting Mika Ratto to start singing over the top, but instead, synths swirl and shimmer, horns bleat and skronk, effects swoop and sway, organs get all proggy adding melodic counterpoint, but the main groove never wavers, mesmerizingly epic and relentless, 13 minutes is not nearly enough, could/should go on for hours...
"Radar King" returns Mugstar to the realm of the rocking, locked into another hypnokraut groove, this one minor key and mathy, before breaking down into some spaced out psychdrone drift, all clouds of cymbal shimmer, little melodic squiggles, swirling effects and hushed synths, barely there guitar jangle, eventually the build begins, pulsing, throbbing, growing louder, and more intense, the effects more frantic, the drums heavier, finally exploding in a climax of tangled guitar freakout, and splattery drum pound, all wreathed in dense spaced out FX.
Finally, the band finish off with a gorgeously hazy psychedelic dronedrift, that lays a woozy bassline, under a thick droning organ, the drums minimal, skeletal, like the tracks before, the organ takes control, adding all sorts of rhythmic texture to the proceedings, a total drugpsych tripout, all anchored to the seriously solid groove at its core.
Some seriously epic and proggy psychedelic spacekraut to the max, fans of Circle especially should dig these guys if they don't already, and like the last record, absolutely recommended for anyone even remotely into Salvatore, Magyar Posse, White Hills, The Heads, Burnt Hills, Gnod, 3 Leafs, Bardo Pond, Gunslingers, Eternal Tapestry, Heavy Winged, Sleepy Sun, Plastic Crimewave, Titan and the rest of the current crop of modern psych rockers...
This is yet another one of those records that seems like it was cooked up in a lab specifically for aQ, one of our favorite tracks from Lime, the most recent record from UK psychedelic space rockers Mugstar, remixed and stretched out (from 13 minutes to 37+ minutes), by Robert Hampson, member of the late great aQ beloved combo Loop, and who later went on to perform as Main, another longtime aQ fave. So while we may have been imagining Mugstar reimagined as soft swirls of abstract drift, maybe the drums stripped away, the guitars blurred and smeared into hushed rumbles and warm whirs, and on first listen, it seemed we were right, a strange bit of muted distant buzz, some twisted glitches, super abstract, until about 2 minutes in, when the original song seems to surface, a pulsing krautrock style groove, now wreathed in that opening buzz, which has grown more intense, and has been joined by all manner of mysterious electronics, the sound drifting lazily from speaker to speaker, dreamily dizzying, the vibe closer to Loop, already a huge influence on Mugstar we'd imagine, and for the first 15 minutes, it seems that Hampson may have just looped a bit of the original, that motorik groove allowed to just unwind, while all around it he applies thick dollops of buzz and swirl, of shifting textural streaks, and stuttering shards of feedback, subtle enough that it could be just some super tripped out space rock jam, but different enough from the original to keep it totally mesmerizing, but then eventually that loop drops out, the rhythm is discarded, and Hampson is left to drift freely though space, the song becomes a gorgeous abstract bit of kosmische bliss, impossible to tell what exactly he's reused from the original, but it hardly matters, as he conjures up dark crumbling swells of bristling buzz, distant swirling spaced out shimmers, a dreamlike soundscape of cosmic thrum and hushed blurred thrum, glistening and glimmering, a sonic night sky of shooting stars, hazy and hypnotic and totally fantastic.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
More mathy Amrep style Hawkwind worshipping Loop meets Halo Of Flies / Monster Magnet meets Scratch Acid, acid fried, hypno spaced out post rock from these bad ass UK musical drug runners...
It was inevitable really. After a handful of 7"s, and a single mostly overlooked and way under appreciated full length that we raved about way back when, these guys are finally getting their due. This new full length on Important should finally position these guys at the head of the class, in the pantheon of modern spacerockers. White Hills, The Heads, Burnt Hills, Gnod, 3 Leafs, Bardo Pond, Gunslingers, Eternal Tapestry, Heavy Winged, Sleepy Sun, Plastic Crimewave, Titan, we love em all, but they're all gonna have to step up their games, cuz Mugstar has definitely thrown down the drug rock heart of the sun gauntlet. Sun, Broken is a colossal slab of speaker shredding, in-the-red, druggy, psychedelic, hypnotic Hawkwind channeling space rock bliss. Heavy, lush, dense, mesmerizing, sprawling and expansive, epic and majestic, incredible drumming, tangled guitars, warm whirring organs, complex mathy almost proggy arrangements, songs that lock into looped stretches of near static throb and pulse, before splintering into convoluted freakouts only to explode moments later into black hole supernova psychspace blowouts.
"Technical Knowledge As A Weapon" pretty much sets the stage, a swirling cloud of effects gives way to a tribal chunk of primal hypnorock pound, which lurches into a killer stop start Hammond organ stutter, before launching right back into the fray, the track growing ever more urgent and explosive, peppered with organ breaks, the whole thing dense and repetitive, and so so epic. "Ouroboros" starts out all tangled and mathy, a churning hypnotic almost looped sounding sprawl of metallic prog, which slowly transforms into a sort of muted pulsing minimal space rock, swirling effects surround a static guitar melody, and dense drum flurries, and tripped out vox, before the inevitable psych-skree outro, all tangled and jagged fucking FIERCE.
"Labrador Hatchet" is the record's first breather, a two and a half minute space-y trip out, all thum and throb, through a billowing cloud of heavily effected scrapes and clicks and glitches, which gives way to "Today Is The Wrong Shape", a dead ringer for Finnish hypnorockers Circle at their leanest and meanest, the main riff and the pounding krautrock rhythm, like a super charged way revved up Circle, with a cool, angular proggy breakdown, before yet another crushing bout of extreme spaced out damaged FX heaviness.
Another brief bit of swirly psychedelic effects weirdness leads into the nearly 14 minute closer, "Furklausundbo", which begins with warm melodic swells, before the bassline slips in, then the simple stripped down rhythm, and from there it's a totally mesmerizing slow build, locked and looped, riff and rhythm in perfect sync, while all around, streaks of sound swirl and swoop, unlike the other tracks, there's no explosive climax, no freaked out space rock free for all, instead the songs twists and transforms, slipping into a doomy plod at one point, getting downright twangy at another, the main groove getting doused in clouds of reverbed high end guitar at another, but all the while, the pulse, the beat, stays solid, and unfailing, total mind trancelike hypnotic dronerock mesmer, that eventually dissipates in a blurred smear of layered organ and washed out drones.
Easily the space rock, kraut drone, buzz drug, psych swirl jam of the year!
We first heard from UK spacerock outfit Mugstar on a super limited 7" we listed a while ago, where we described them as sounding like a supercharged, way more metallic Stereolab, but HOLY SHIT, that 7", as much as we loved it, just did not do these guys justice. They are so much weirder and heavier than that ep let on, it makes sense that it took a full length record for us to see that, their sprawling drone drenched FX doused instrumental metallic space rock is way more suited to the extended format, with the tracks being allowed to stretch waaaaaaaaaaaaay out, locking into mind blowingly cyclical psychedelic spacekraut blowouts. It's hard not to hear a lot of Loop, as well as some Spacemen 3, and yeah some Stereolab, definitely some Circle, but as much as it may be hard to believe, and a little sacrilegious to even say, lately we're digging this a whole lot more than any of that other stuff. A lot of it has to do with not just the sounds, but what these guys are able to do with them.�
The opener is a planet crushing, skull caving slab of glorious Hawkwind worship, propulsive, relentless rhythms,�dense swirls of FX,�churning bass lines, over nearly static, looped sounding riffs, it's a gloriously unholy tangle of space rock and krautrock. And while that tends to be the basic template for most of the record, it manages to veer dramatically in all sorts of different directions. A handful of the tracks devolve into�dense blown out noise jams, that are so distorted and washed out and in the red, they sort of sound like M83 being broadcast through a vacuum cleaner. Awesome!! Some tracks get all blissed out and sort of lope along lazily, still spacey and druggy and trippy, but sounding more like some sort of�hard rocking Necks, albeit with a serious doom bent, lurching and trudging through dense blackened clouds of acid fried shimmer. Some tracks are jagged and hyper rhythmic, the drum pulse and guitar crunch locked into mesmerizing loops of pulse and throb, reminding us of a metallicized Neu! Elsewhere the guitars get tangled up in dense little melodic snarls, or are spread into diaphanous sheets of gauzy thrum, but always wrapped around a dense core of relentlessly rocking rhythms and killer heavy riffing. So fucking awesome! Fans of any of the above mentioned bands need this for sure, as does anyone into blown out spaced out freaked out drugged out heavy rock spacegroovekrautpsych!! So recommended.�
The return of aQ beloved UK space rockers Mugstar, who have teamed up with another fave of ours, East Coast noise rockers Oneida, and neither side disappoints. Mugstar offer up another killer chunk of spaced out psychedelia that would have been right at home on Lime or Sun Broken, opening up with a fuzzy organ drone, which quickly gives way to a badass Hawkwindy groove, all motorik mesmer and fuzzed out space rock pound. The organ giving the proceedings a serious prog vibe, the track chugs away until about halfway through when it collapse into a super rad mathy tangle of drum / guitar freakout, all repetitive and almost looped sounding, with FX swirling all over the place, before finally resolving in a blissed out stretch of murky psychedelic shimmer, only to eventually emerge as a stripped down, more krautrocky groove, with soaring dramatic vocals way down in the mix, pounding away all druggy and dreamy and laid back.
Oneida counter with what could be their coolest / weirdest jam yet, what appears to be their twisted take on space rock, exploding immediately into a wildly chaotic freakout guitar/drum squall, the band taking their sweet time to lock into a proper groove, and in fact, they almost manage not to at all, super loose and free, the drums intricate and mathy and almost the star of the show, pounding away beneath some freaked out guitar skree, until about halfway in, when in swoops some chiming guitar, draped over thick bass buzz, even more progged out and wildly trippy, until finally, they reel it all in, and finish off with a very Wooden Shjips sounding outro, but even then, way more tripped out and space-y. Killer stuff from both bands, and some of THEE coolest packaging we've seen, eye popping pink sleeve, with lots of white and brown 'o's and 'm's!
