The well-known English krautrock/spacerock/psychedelic rock band Mugstar recently came out with a new album. The album is titled ''Magnetic Seasons'' and is pretty much exactly what you would expect from a psychedelic rock band such as Mugstar. The album is filled with some interesting and catchy psychedelic rock with clear kraut and space rock influences.
The first track ''Unearth'' also happens to be one of the best songs on the album. This track is all about dreamy psychedelic rock with a nice space rock and stoner vibe. The second track ''Flemish Weave'' follows the same pattern, but in a more mellow psychedelic manner. Some smooth and flowing spaced out psych rock that again ascends into a more fast paced repetitive krautrock jam. The third track ''Time Machine'' has more of a stoner and psych attitude to it, but still follows the repetitive krautrock path in the end. The fourth track ''Remember The Breathing'' is essentially made up of some pretty repetitive mantra like drumming and bass from start to finish, and remains pretty consistently in the pre-ascendance phase throughout. The same can be said about tracks like ''La Vallee'', ''Regency Blues'' and ''Magnetic Seasons'', which are all some mellow spaced out psych. The album is finished off by a 17 minute long track that is filled with some murky drones and repetitive drumming along with some mellow guitars, and again has the feel like a psyched out krautrock jam should be immenently starting. But it does not. The track instead grinds through the 17 minutes like a mantra.
All in all ''Mangnetic Seasons'' is a pretty good psychedelic rock album. It has its dreamy slower space rock aspects, while it has its repetitive fast-paced krautrock jams as well. Yet I must say I was hoping for something more from this album. Maybe that more of the tracks would have been like ''Unearth'' or ''Flemish Weave''. Nonetheless it is a pretty consistent album and one of the more interesting space rock releases of 2016.
Some useful links:
Flemish Wave: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3UvK6CYdFI
Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/Mugstar-Magnetic-Season/release/8193032
