or, Music To Watch Swirls By
You know how it is man, once you’ve carried out all your ship checks and cleared the meteor field out on Antwan Prime 4 there’s nothing to do but put on some righteously slow-moving music and stare out at the uncaring void of space*.
This is my choice of aural satisfaction for that trippiest of trips, Mugstar/Cosmic Dead split 12″**. Released by Evil Hoodoo Records on limited edition ox blood vinyl with a cotton sleeve/bag thing in an edition of 400. I do love a good gimmick.
Mugstar are my very favourite purveyors of fizzing psychedelic space rock and their side long ‘Breathing Mirror’ is a really interesting track. In retrospect it sounds like a bridge between their earlier work and 2016’s much more densely woven Magnetic Seasons.
‘Breathing Mirror’ can be broken down into three sections, the exploratory journey out is exciting, especially when things get choppy. Then it actually stops and via what sounds like some slightly discordant melodeon playing we build to a wonderful space punk peak. As always every member of the band just plays out of their skin, Neil Murphy’s guitaring is absolutely stand-out here; it always is.
Follow that, Glaswegian dudes!
The Cosmic Dead opt to see Mugstar’s 18:50 and raise them to 20:37 with ‘Fukahyoocastaluh’, recorded in a cottage garage in the Kyle of Lochalsh allegedly; although it sounds like space to me.
The Cosmic Dead can make some brutal noises in their search for the outer limits but here they play it mellow and motorik. Over a great loose-limbed beat they coast on through reality, synths swirling gently along, Julian Dicken’s drumming is a gently precise beastie and Omar Aborida’s bass is never less than a superb grounding presence.
I really like how well paced ‘Fukahyoocastaluh’ is, an awful lot of stars have flown past your bulkhead before you realise how fast the track is moving. Cosmic Dead use Dicken’s vocals really well and sparingly too, the voice as another instrument rather than as a purveyor of words. It all adds up to a great trip.
Ox blood, cotton, space and meteors aside, the Mugstar/Cosmic Dead split is a great relic of, what at this distance seems, a surge of great psych and space rock back in 2014-ish.
Should you ever need some deep space entertainment on the Antwan prime 4 I commend it to you.
1145 Down.
PS: picked out to play today because of the Goo cover spoof.
*with a head full of some truly vicious space drugs, I recommend a beaker of GnarlyBlue 44, or get yourself a hooter full of Crystalline Headrot. You heard it here first amoebas.
**it irks, little ‘ol OCD me that there is rarely a title for split records, this beast is listed by the track names on Discogs, Breathing Mirror/Fukahyoocastaluh, which just seems inelegant to me. Elegance is important.
Nice package. Outer baggies are outa sight, man. Especially those made of hemp. As I enjoyed the photos (and empathised with the dizziness the poor flamingo must be feeling) I thought there was something familiar about the cover art. Thanks for pointing that out, Sonic.
Outta sight man. There were many reasons to buy this, it would be perfect bait if you were making a 1537 trap – coloured vinyl, bag, referential cover art, space rock … I didn’t stand a chance.
O oh. Im feeling a guy named Eugene swing an axe. I like it.
Careful with those snacks, Eugene!
That’s some tasty tuneage dude.
There’s a Twilight Sad EP which I picked up purely because my son spotted the Goo artwork parody and it’s a real delight – though pretty far from this.
Wow man, that is some trippy stuff.