Mugstar :: … Sun, Broken …

This one just flat out kicks ass.

I wish I had enough credibility behind me to let that one stand. But I don’t … so off I go …

Just like … Sun, Broken … goes off. It literally blasts off. Repeatedly.

I guess it’s post-rock. But like a like of post-rock outfits, they have a tendency to lean towards some specific spice for their flavor. Mogwai likes its metal. To me, Tortoise has a kind of arty-lounge air about them. The Fierce and the Dead make nods to older prog pioneers like Crimson. Mugstar goes the psychedelic/experimental route. Because of that, it lets them flat out rock. It feels looser, like it might swerve out of control, and crisper than some. And that in turn opens up the sonics … into a huge wide expanse.

Post-rockers? Stoner post-rockers … maybe … the younger sibling who hung around the smoking section in high school. Those post-rock bands all breathe some of the same air, but Mugstar might have theirs in oxygen tanks. They not only go where the air is thin, they can literally suck the air out of the room.

If you need proof, jump right to Today Is the Wrong Shape. A full thrusters art-rocker if ever there was one. Calling to mind all the best aspects of prime space-rock {top-shelf Hawkwind, or Interstellar Overdrive on … overdrive …}, psych and even some Krautrock. All stirred up and delivered trippingly hot. Very much like Kinski would approach it, if that’s a helpful comparison. And that in return gets you some big rock thrown in the mix. That happens many times throughout the record, with a whopping dose of sonic drama. While Kinski has made a certain rigidness part of their stock in trade, Mugstar has a definite chaotic aspect to them, more in line with another Northwest outfit that probably records in the vacuum of space, Hovercraft. That loose, frayed-at-the-edge bite and swagger also recalls John Paul Jones’ solo outings {Zooma and The Thunderthief} and his approach to full-bore prog/art-rock and recalls the best and most explosive of Crimson in their Lark’sTongue/Starless/Red journeys: balls-out, ferocious rock that hits your gut, and your head.

It’s smart music. Where some bands that deliver the goods that get the blood pumping often rely on tried and true licks and passages guaranteed to trigger a response, Mugstar do it on their own and seek that pay-off down different roads. They got their own synapses to fire. For all its power and commanding presence, it’s thoughtful. You want your rock hot, but coming at you from some place else? Then this is for you. If you’re like me, then you probably have a handful of those excellent platters that are made for ‘driving.’

This is driving.

Driving me right to the launch pad.

But it’s not all pummeling or pounding {though the opener, Technical Knowledge as a Weapon seems like a warning to the contrary}. There are nice drawn out passages that take all their influences and skills into a different side of things. Labrador Hatchet throbs forward in a fluid march, really letting them stretch and be languid. Or the slighlty more ramped up, very artful Krautrock swagger of Furklausundbo and it’s downright playfulnes.

And it all exists in a great space. Yeah, it’s a big record, but it doesn’t come across that way. It’s thick. It keeps things moving, never being so dense and impenetrable that it becomes plodding … just listen to when Ouroboros opens up and heads out to its end. That is exaclty where this record resides, in this prime example.  And it’s a great space … crisp, pristine but still warm, still thick. Pulsing, throbbing and very much alive. It has to be to allow a platter like … Sun, Broken … to be so incendiary.

And it kicks ass.

Mugstar already hit the sun on this one; where they go next may be up in the air . We can safely assume it’s up, and out, somewhere … but wherever they go, they’ll have to blast off to get there.

I hope there’s an extra seat in the airlock. I’m going. Oxygen tank or not.

{Mugstar is also working on a film project … you can see the trailer here}