
Mugstar - Lime [Important Records - 2010]By the name alone, I was expecting some thuggish white-rap band like Insane Clown Posse. Mugstar are actually one of those bands on the more experimental and instrumental side of alternative rock. First track in and they do remind me a bit of the Birthday Party, or various local groups I saw in the 90s. Nothing terribly fey which is a good thing. By the track "Serra" they start displaying a bit of Krautrock/Motorik influence with some spacey guitar for good measure. But what are those seagull-like horns coming from? "Radar King" has a funky second-line drum pattern but the guitar stays spacey. The last track "Beyond the Sun" has some hypnotic organ-drone going on and even some wordless vocals, except it doesn't tend to progress much in its duration. In fact the problem with these four tracks is they're a bit too long. But I have to say that Mugstar do instrumental rock better than most other bands doing the same thing. Nothing outright bad, but it would be great if their sound didn't tend to drag a bit much.      Lawrence J. Patti
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