Mugstar return to Trensmat two and a half years after their groundshaking 'Bethany Heart Star' single.

'Today is the Wrong Shape' is sprawling drone drenched FX doused instrumental metallic space rock. Its a skull caving slab of glorious propulsive relentless rhythms, dense swirls of FX & churning bass lines. A five minute trudge through dense blackened clouds of acid fried shimmer only to be blown out the other end of mega spacegroovekrautpsychness.

'Technical Knowledge as a Weapon' starts jagged and hyper rhythmic, the drum pulse and guitar crunch locked into mesmerizing loops of pulse and throb, and then evolves into a mind blowingly cyclical psychprog blowout, wrapped around a dense core of relentlessly rocking rhythms and killer heavy riffing.

The additional CD contains the two tracks on the 7" and two additional tracks - amazing cover versions of ZZ Tops 'I Got the Six' and Fairport Conventions 'Tam Lin'. Theres also a beautiful abstract video by Jenny Collins to accompany 'Flotation Tank' from their first LP.

VERY limited edition package of numbered clear vinyl lathe cut 7" in full colour wraparound picture sleeve and CD with additional tracks and video.

Aug 2009, TR018.

Today is the Wrong Shape
Technical Knowledge as a Weapon

Think I’ll start by saying that this is - pardon the French if you will - fucking immense. Again as with the previous Our love will destroy the world single (same label see above somewhere here) this release has by all accounts sold out on pre-orders at source, again pressed up on strictly limited editions of clear lathe cut polycarbonate vinyl of the round seven inch variety and frankly packing more throbbing horn than a German hardcore porno flick.
A twin pronged star flung slab of hyper driven kraut grind is what you get for the asking, opening the account ’today is the wrong shape’ a nuts down power driving speaker pummelling big bearded bastard of a cut riddled and nailed by waves of locked grooved wig flipping riffage that punitively converge en masse to form into one explosively raging black hole of sound that to us comes across like a seriously grizzled prime time Hawkwind. flip the disc for the mind expanding psychotropic prog odyssey that is ’technical knowledge is a weapon’ - a cosmic refuelling point where the lay lines linking Goblin, Mountain and Amon Dull II cross, all low strung looping swamp dragged grooves dashed by halos of chin stroking early 70’s sourced keys. Damn fine.
On the accompanying CD you’ll find the same cuts aided and abetted by a Jenny Collins directed video for ‘flotation tank’ - a track culled from their debut full length plus two covers - a scorching re-visit of ZZ Top’s ‘I got the six’ - perhaps the dirtiest and scuzziest Mugstar we’ve ever heard and re-affirming our long held opinion that this lot are the bastard offspring of the much under-appreciated Walking Seeds. While wrapping up matters a surprisingly faithful and more intensely wound re-tread of Fairport Conventions ’tam lin’ which incidentally initially appeared on the psych-folksters seminal ’liege and lief’ set which if you’re interested in such things was recently given the full on 180gm in gatefold sleeve treatment by 4 men with beards.
Don’t think I need to tell you its essential.
Losing Today


Blooming heck, i'm liking this Mugstar thang. It's a 2 trk lathe cut on Trensmat with a bonus CD featuring 2 extra tracks as well as the lathe tracks meaning you'll never have to play it & can keep the polycarbonate disc in an hermetically sealed box to prevent it degrading too much or on the other hand you can just smash the CD up and play the pulsating kraut spacerock racket that is 'Today is the Wrong Shape' & its equally alarming flip, the progtastic wall of stunning repetitive grooving known as 'Technical Knowledge as a Weapon' - like Monster Killed By Lazer gone totally astral bound - really fucking loud on a trashed old dansette and wonder forever what the other two tracks were like. I'm not going to tell you what they're like either, have you no appetite for the element of surprise? Great stuff, proper balls out shit.....
Norman Records


Massive blues jam blowouts that groove like Finlands Circle hexed up on different kinds of drugs and less irony. Today is the Wrong Shape ratchets up the Meggido as hoards of denim-clad vagabonds take to the streets waving battered Blue Cheer albums and bottles of Jim Beam in the air, while Technical Knowledges interstellar pulses give Saturns rings the run around. This scrumptious little cookie also comes with a bonus CD including the groups rendition of Tam Lin, pulverising Fairport Conventions timorous original into intergalactic dust.
Record Collector


Mugstar are back with a new strange clear plastic 7” that is limited to 200 numbered copies. I happened to get 014. 4 tracks in 16 minutes and pretty spaced out! I had never heard this band until I heard their split 7” with a Hawkwind cover for the 3 7” series that this label released. Despite the band being from Liverpool they sound nothing like the Beatles! The title track starts things off quite noisy, intense and psychedelic stuff before the space groove kicks in. This is a very cool Hawkwind inspired track that builds up with some buried screamed vocals as the track just builds and builds until the end. Technical Knowledge as a Weapon is the B-side and starts very quirky but then a organ line takes over the track as it also takes off at fast pace. Kraut spacey, strangeness. It also comes with a CD-R that has two additional tracks that are quite different. I have no idea what the title of the tracks are as there is no label and no CD-text that can be read by my CD player. Anyway, the first track is a short 2 minute sort of punky raw rock and roll number with shouty vocals. The vocal is I’ve got the Six, give me your Mind.. It gets pretty spaced out as it builds up though and then comes back to the main track again. The last track has a more laid back and stony vocal and almost like an indie rock track but then it heads into spacey psychedelic territory. Cool Stuff.
Aural Innovations