I am a sucker for loud, heavy and white hot rock bands and Mugstar hit home on all three scores. From the opening track to the tinnitus after the CD has stopped playing, I am enthralled by their latest album. Mugstar tear the arse out of my stereo with their pounding performance, every piece on this, their second proper full length, is a mini-masterpiece.
"Technical Knowledge as a Weapon" is one hell of an opener; the combined organ and guitar blitzkrieg has all the power of their former labelmates A Place to Bury Strangers but is less late '80s/early '90s shoegaze and more like a long lost kraut band soundtracking a supernova. What impresses me most is that this is only the opening barrage in a sustained war on quiet as ...Sun, Broken... goes up several gears as it progresses. The sinewy tremolo guitar of "Ouroboros" snakes its way around Steve Ashton’s drums, creating a backbone of iron for the piece. The final section of the piece spirals outwards dangerously and the resulting crash is glorious in its noisy, fiery cataclysm.
After a short, relaxed interlude the opening riff of "Today is the Wrong Shape" launches from the stereo like a missile. Channelling the driving force of Neu! through Joy Division’s "No Love Lost," this is the sort of music that I imagine would pour from my fingers if only I had the talent. Thank Mugstar for making it a reality. As the feedback builds and drums pound incessantly, the piece climaxes with some awesome shouted vocals which give the music all the urgency of a ticking time bomb. The album closes with the epic "Furklausundbo" which again appropriates the motorik beat of Klaus Dinger but supplements it with the kind of organ playing I would expect to hear if I was to reach heaven on a sunny day. When the guitars take over, I do not have to imagine this heaven as it is here and it sounds even better than I imagined.
How these guys have remained under the radar for so long has always baffled me but I would be surprised if this disc did not see them gain the sort of momentum they deserve. ...Sun, Broken... is by far and away one of the best examples of psychedelic rock to pass my way recently.
samples:
 
Read More
