Centripetal Force (North America) and Cardinal Fuzz (UK/Europe) last week released the latest LP from Mugstar, Graft, the follow up album to their much-lauded live collaboration with Can’s Damo Suzuki released earlier this year.
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 comes as a six song journey which 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.
Tracks such as ‘Zeta Potential’ and ‘Star Cage’ show a well executed effort that it tightly constructed, where as ‘Ghost of a Ghost’ and ‘Low, Slow Horizon’ allow room for improvisation and their creative exploration shines strongly. Graft is the next chapter in the Mugstar story and if its stature is anything to go by, they are not going anywhere anytime soon.
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