Mugiboogie

Mugison | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 19, 2008)
• Original Release Date: 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Ipecac Recordings
• ASIN: B00197U0G2
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #109,325 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

The Legend Of Mugison...

When Tom Waits astutely pointed out that "no dog ever pissed on a moving car" Mugison must have been nodding in bemused agreement. Impulsively nomadic, creatively restless, Mugi is the kind of post-modern dude that flows with the flux - one of those ants-in-the-pants artists that naturally negates stagnation and actively seeks out new challenges. His two key albums to date - 2003's "Lonely Mountain" and 2005's "Mugimama: Is This Monkey Music?" (released on Matthew Herbert's Life? and Accidental & IPECAC labels, respectively) are significant snapshots of the Icelander's maverick style. Delightfully shambolic, they both evince a passion for provocative sonic mischief as well as good old-fashioned songwriting. Mugi's endearing DIY ethic (he taught himself everything he knows) allows him to haphazardly hurl everything from glitchy electronica and avant-noise to Bonnie Prince Billy-esque ballads and soaring choruses into his sorcerer's saucepan. Somehow it all fits together, for he is the Mugician. In the three years since touring "Mugimama..." he settled in Sudavik, a miniscule fishing village in the remote Westfjords, raised a family, traded his laptop for a flesh-and-blood rock & roll band and set about reinventing himself and his sound. The result? One of the great rock & roll albums of the century. "I listened to hundreds of CDs," says the maestro. "I became aware that artists like John Lee Hooker, Hendrix, Screaming Jay, Bowie, Dylan, The Beatles, Aphex Twin, Björk, Sepultura, the Pixies and Tom Waits all had one thing in common: they were all expressing true feelings and there were no compromises." "Mugiboogie," his third official solo release, was recorded in his home studio, which offers views out onto silent, ancient fjords. Mugi put everything he had into the project. He worked 16 hours a day, started drinking and smoking again, and didn't just flirt with a nervous breakdown but got into bed with one and spent quite a bit of time fighting to get back out. But the aim - to achieve something classic, something visceral and "beyond the norm" - was ultimately achieved. Click-tracks were foresworn to get that old school standards feel. Songs were played over and over again until they were perfected, exorcised of any superficiality. "There was to be no time reference, no time frame," says Mugi. "The lyrics had to be straight to the point and all the songs played with eyes closed and always in a state of emergency. I had to ensure that all pretentiousness was deleted from the songs. All nearly's, all maybe´s. Every song had to sound like it was the last song I'd play if the world was going down." Brimming with emotion and freighted with recognizable musical references, "Mugibogie" is a mind-trip back to yesteryear when music was free from categorization, when gothic guitars towered and scintillated and when you could hear guts being spilled out all over the record. From opener "Mugiboogie", with its swirling Hammond, wailing guitar and loping drum rhythms to the foot-tapping blues of "The Pathetic Album" and the grindingly sensual "Jesus Is A Good Name To Moan," plus a couple of seriously heartfelt ballads, Mugi has crafted a modern classic. The record has already sold over 10,000 copies in Iceland alone. When it's released internationally next month, you'll feel the earth move too.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars MUGI-Boogie Woogie! Woogie!, August 26, 2008

By 

A. Stewart "AmericanWoogie" (New Haven, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mugiboogie (Audio CD)

What an album! After three years of waiting for a follow up to "Mugimama? Is this Monkey Music?" Mugison returns with "Mugiboogie," a straight to hell bluesy rock trip that will make your ears perk and want to tell everyone you know about this rocking band. 'Monkey Music' was a recipe of mind boggling lyrics, romance and rock, all thrown together towards great cohesion. 'Mugiboogie' takes it too another level: the songs are tighter and louder, the lyrics mysterious and fun (!) and with a full rock band Mugison reaches to a full new level of greatness. The band is from Iceland but have tapped into an American rock vein that seems to be lacking here in the States. Mugiboogie is like listening to a 'Classic Rock Record' but its current, new, electrifying and if you couldn't tell, awesome. I can't recommend this product enough.
I was lucky enough to see Mugison at the Hiro Ballroom in New York City a few months back and it rocked my face off. I was glad to see them at such a small level and look forward to what other offerings this sweet band has to offer. I only wish that this album had been release in the United States earlier so that I could have listened to it all summer long. Put Mugiboogie into your pipe and smoke it. Smoke it hard.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Groundbreaking Album, August 20, 2008

By 

James S. Trotter (Bellevue, NE United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mugiboogie (Audio CD)

Every now and again a groundbreaking album comes out that opens doors and blows socks off. We all know them: Highway 61 Revisited, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Never Mind the Bullocks, London Calling, etc. This is one of those albums. Drawing on a bedrock of solid blues and rock, this album breaks genre lines and demands to be heard. I can't adequately explain it, it just must be heard. One thing I will briefly indulge is his voice. I have honestly never heard anything like it. In one line, he goes from blues crooning and croaking to a wail and then a panty-melting Princesque falsetto that intertwines with his thin, mercurial guitar. If there was one album this year you would have to take to your desert island with you, this is the one.

2.0 out of 5 stars Over-trying with small success, January 15, 2009

By 

IRate - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mugiboogie (Audio CD)

2 1/2

A more solid, but arguably less satisfying follow up on a noticeable entrance of eccentric unpredictability, Mugiboogie cashes in on the artist's momentum with a more thorough production and less fragmented songwriting. Easily still avoiding classification into any one genre, Mugison still also avoids the hinted upon breakthrough here, ultimately offering even more show and less substance...great finale though.