To go alongside our interview with Neil from MUGSTAR our man Ivan Thunders (of Thee Lucifer Sams) reviewed the recently released album of Damo Suzuki and Mugstars collaboration at the WRONG Festival recorded at the Invisible Wind Factory a couple of years ago.
Over to Ivan:
Weird Beard have released a live album featuring the encounter between Liverpool's foremost psych rockers Mugstar and Kraut-Rock legend Damo Suzuki, from Can. The album, recorded at the legendary WRONG Festival at the Invisible Wind Factory back in 2018, is a masterpiece of psychedelic improvisation - and a document of a very momentous encounter.
Mugstar are a great band their musicianship is always beyond question, they don’t have the centre-stage figure that a vocalist often provides but with them it doesn’t matter, when the sheer power of their sound make their sets truly memorable. When Damo Suzuki enters the picture, it's a total game changer though. Damo is a one-of-a-kind performer, who helped to make Can one of the best and most influential bands from the Seventies.
Mugstar and Damo are able to create something really special together. This live album sounds great and it's always a good sign when you're 10 minutes into a piece of music and it feels you were just listening to it for a few minutes. It's absorbing, it's music that drags you in, and the band is on fine form, especially drummer Steve Ashton, perhaps the best in the psych scene right now.
The music here is phenomenal, a real psychedelic rollercoaster, quite hypnotic, and exciting. So yeah, I'll listen to it again, alongside Mugstar's 2016's Magnetic Seasons or Can's The Lost Tapes. Words: Ivan Thunders (Thee Lucifer Sams) Photos: RBY
Here’s what we said (on a different forum) about the gig:
What can you add, try Damo Suzuki and MUGSTAR. Droning and repetitive yet subtly varying, drums from heaven (or hell). A bass synched with your body and and guitars in tune with your mind. Add Damo’s melodies soaring above Mugstars PSYK attack and you’ve experienced the best. A real privilege for us to hear this space ritual played out in front of us and totally effective. If GNOD warmed the audience up for different realms of being, Damo and Mugstar ignited the engines and lifted us to the beyond. Words:
RBY Neil from Mugstar was also kind enough to answer some questions:
RBY: For the one person in Liverpool who hasn’t heard of Mugstar can we have a brief history of the band? When formed, early influences, notable gigs/events and the like.
Neil: Got together in the late 90s. Kinda drifted for a few years. We got more active in the early 2000s, especially after Jason joined. That was the longest line up, I suppose the one most people have seen. We got round to recording some singles, then an album. Getting played by John Peel was definitely a highlight, and doing a session even more so. Recording in Maida Vale was very exciting. The history of that studio is impressive. Everyone has been there. Like EVERYONE. I used to listen to Peel a lot. He really shaped my tastes, so it felt like an honour.
RBY: Has the band changed musically over the years? Could you say what's different now from the early days?
Neil: Inevitably. It's been a long time. In the early days we were often labelled as post rock. Psych wasn't as popular then. We did have our surf/kraut/punk phase though. The resurgence of psych was an interesting development. We didn't ever make a conscious effort to play psychedelia, but we seemed to fit naturally with some of the bands that have been involved. Especially US bands for some reason. I suppose we've always liked a lot of US bands though, so perhaps that's part of it.
RBY: How did the Mugstar / Damo Suzuki collaboration come about? Did Michael Edwards (WRONG Festival promoter) put it together or was it through the band that it happened?
Neil: We were asked to play with Damo Suzuki. We'd done a gig a few years earlier at the Kazimier, which we enjoyed a lot, and that was recorded too. I've always enjoyed improvising, so this type of performance really appeals to me. It's nice to do stuff outside our comfort zone. We've collaborated a few times with a dance group in France, Kubilai Khan Investigations, which is always exciting. We usually have to play radically restructured versions or improvise for sections, so that it fits with the choreography, and the rehearsals are always on a tight schedule. The performances are always seat of the pants.
RBY: Was it planned to be released as a live album? How did that happen?
Neil: Yeah, we got Rob Whiteley in to record it. As usual he did a great job.
RBY: I was at the gig and thought it superb, I’m glad to hear that the album has captured it so well. What do you think of the album?
Neil: Very nice of you to say so. I thought Damo Suzuki was in inspired form that night. It's always hard to be objective about your own recordings (it's difficult not to start listening obsessively to your own playing, at least for me), but I think it sounds well. Live albums don't always. Some of the live albums I loved when I was younger I find sound so bad now, hardly better than bootlegs. To my old ears. But the good live albums have something special.
RBY: You’ve worked with Damo Suzuki before, is he an influence on Mugstar?
Neil: Can are a band I admire very much, and my favourite period is the era when he was in the band. It's great that he's still performing. Irmin Schmidt too. I was at a solo piano concert he did last November. That's been released too on Mute. It's a long way from Can. Or from what Damo Suzuki does. We did once play a gig with the late Jaki Liebezeit too. So yes, Can are very significant for me. They were one of those bands who combined a lot of different streams that interest me: rock, avant garde (especially the Stockhausen influence), free jazz.
RBY: How has the Covid 19 situation affected the band? What are you doing to keep going and what plans, (the present situation aside) have you hopefully got for the future? any gigs, more albums, videos etc?
Neil: Obviously things have come to a standstill. It's a tough time for a lot of musicians, and for everyone who works around music. It's hard to plan at the moment. We're playing in April at the HRH psych weekend. Hopefully by then there'll be more live music happening. It's all provisional right now though.
RBY: Mugstar seem to have stepped outside of the Liverpool scene early on, how did that happen?
Neil: It all seems a long time ago now, those early gigs. I remember our first London gig, at the Hope and Anchor. I was quite excited, because it was such a historic venue, but it was horrible. The room where we had to store gear was gushing rain water. One of the other bands had an amp flooded. Then the next night we played in Bristol and it was great. A moshpit in front of the stage. That hasn't happened very often (or ever again?). So that seemed to galvanise us.
RBY: Any bands around at the moment you take notice of and really like?
Neil: I listen to a lot of avant garde and experimental stuff these days. I've been very impressed by the music Jurg Frey has been writing. Magnus Granberg too. Another Timbre is a great label.
RBY: Mugstar seem to occupy a more ‘intellectual’ space than most bands, what has influenced you outside of music?
Neil: Steve (Ashton) and I are both very interested in visual arts. Painting especially for me. I don't think I'm ever happier than when I'm in a gallery. I'm very keen on films too. I've always liked to explore outside the mainstream in the arts, whether it's music, art, film, literature. I think there's no reason to limit yourself to a particular time or place in culture. If you just watch films made in the last few years in the UK and USA you'd be forgiven for thinking film is in an unhealthy state. But once you start to see what's being made around the world there's a richness. There are some great films coming out of Russia and former Soviet countries in recent years.
RBY: What makes you tick, what makes you keep on going? Neil: That’s a very deep existentialist question. “I can't go on. I'll go on.” As Beckett said.
RBY: Our daftest question but its a bit of a tradition at Last Stop Sounds :) What question would you ask yourselves?
Neil: I was lucky enough to see Frank Sidebottom quite a few times back in the day. I remember at one of his shows he did an audience quiz, and he had his mum set two questions. “Where do you think you've been?” and “What time do you call this, then?” Those are the sort of questions that should be asked more in interviews.
Words: RBY
Bandcamp: https://mugstar.bandcamp.com/
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