Customer Reviews

Mugimama Is This Monkey Music

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Holy cow ... I haven't heard anybody play this raw and this well in a long, long time. Mugison is a truly eccentric Icelandic singer-songwriter in whose multi-intrumentalist spirit I sense a kinship with Tom Waits, Tom Ze and Vic Chestnutt, though Mugison doesn't *sound* like any one of the others to a large degree. He wields distorted guitars and whole-throated vocals; yet doesn't wail or "rock out." It's a big, big sound; yet it's introspective and deeply personal like Elliott Smith. Strange, exotic, supernatural -- everything you'd expect from an Icelander. But, unlike the other major Icelandic exports Bjork and Sigur Ros, Mugison sounds less Euro-ish and Pop-ish; he's more like a low-fi troubadour for 21st century globalistas. Darned strange this one is. Great, though. Really, really great.

Bjork and Sigur Ros are typically the only two recording artists that anyone associates with Iceland; well add Mugison (pronounced Moogieson) to that distinguished list. In a year where all three have released recordings, it is interesting to note that Mugison won album of the year and leads the others in sales in their native Iceland. I will warn you right now, this is not an album for the faint of heart. The disc opens with "I Want You." Delicate guitars and soulful singing blow up into a scratching and emotional rant crying out, "Baby let's go dancing like we talked about, I'll be the weird boy and you can shout." So emotional is the singing that it seems Mugison might in fact, be quite mad. And if you think he is nuts here don't even bother going further because things will soon get weirder. "The Chicken Song" has warped piano and crazed lyrics, "See, the chicken is one of very few birds that never can fly, but even with its head chopped off, he'll still give it a hell of a try." Completely switching moods "2 Birds" finds Mugison, his acoustic guitar and his wife singing a duet about how they found love after a long friendship. Haunting and beautiful they sing, "We stayed up late and slept all day." All the while in the background you can hear what sounds like liquid being poured into glasses, but it is used as a musical element. Just another of many oddities you will find throughout the disc. Sounding like he is channeling Tom Waits and Beck, "Sad As A Truck" is an absolutely bizarre electronic mess that screeches, grunts and screams out, "Songs like this can drive a man insane." And after hearing this song you would believe it. But it is way cool! The best song on the disc (And song of the year in Iceland) is "Murr Murr." Featuring a wickedly hooky acoustic guitar rift (that could stand alone as an instrumental) with some backing strings for good measure while Mugison sings and emotes at his stream of consciousness best. "I'd Ask" is a straight up folk song with a wonderful little harmonica part and some hand tapping on the guitar for a beat. To say this disc is diverse is a huge understatement. But within that strength of diversity is also the truth that sometimes being weird just to be weird is distracting. There are several things/songs here that fall into the category of weird for the sake of weird, and that really is too bad because when Mugison hits, he hits it out of the park. His misses however, are pretty bad (a burping song, ambient noise, and a demented harmonica song) and serve to detract from the other stellar material. But considering how wide-ranging and beautifully odd this album is I suppose I can forgive Mugison for a bit of self indulgence here and there.

R#

If Tom Waits & Beck attended a bbq at Gibby Haynes house I believe this album would be the results if you recorded the event. By turns beautiful, clattering and silly this album has leapt to the top of my rotation. It is not for the consumer that wants musical wallpaper.

Gutteral and carnal at times (a la Tom Waits), sweet as pie at others (a la Damien Rice), and sometimes a combo of the two. Decidedly original, decidedly beautiful (though not for everyone).

I didn't like this "music" at all at first. But a good friend gave it to me, so I kept trying, and gradually, bits of it starting sticking, until I really really like it. And not just because a good friend gave it to me. There's a heartfelt poignancy here. And beneath the seeming lack of musical common sense is a really strong sense of melody, harmony, and tonal emotion. It's like he wrote perfect songs at first, then cut them open to show us their insides. It all feels so honest.

This CD sounds all right... But people seem to think a bit too much of it merely because it was made by someone from Iceland, "where Bjork and Sigur Ros come from." It's an admixture of folk-pop and avant-garde or experimental material. The "earnest" vocals in the folk-pop songs bring to mind Iron and Wine or some acoustic version of Coldplay -- perhaps too much for my comfort. The experimental material doesn't really resemble or live up to Beck's adept creative twists, as some reviewers have suggested, and it didn't grab me. I just didn't find it that challenging or compelling. In all, the mixture of material didn't hang together that well for me.

2 1/2

Mugison can evoke the acoustic grandeur of an Iron and Wine or 6 Organs of Admittance, but bogs down most decent but none-too-impressive songwriting with excessive laptop eccentricities, producing apathetic experimentation over potentially moving rustic balladry. When hearing such a carefully calibrated song such as "Murr Murr" however, it becomes undeniable that talent here is to be checked into further.

Mugison makes the most interesting, strange, and beautiful music I've heard in a long time. This album is a great example of that. "Mugimama..." is an extremely varied album. Just when you think he might be completely insane, he says something genius that pops everything into perspective again, it's a great balance. I've found over the past few weeks that it's really difficult to describe this album to people, because it is so varied, but I've come up with this description that may help someone who is thinking of purchasing it... If you took the pop sensibilities of Badly Drawn Boy, the style-jumping of Beck, the experimentalism of Tom Waits, just for good measure, occasionally throw in the quite restraint of Bonnie "Prince" Billy, and also toss in someone from an insane asylum (one of those people that pretty crazy, but in kind of a cool and enduring way), and there you have it...Mugison. And if you are not familiar with any of the people just mentioned, then you have some catching up to do.

This album will make you laugh, cry, cringe, and dance, all at the same time. Some standout tracks include: "murr murr," a great song with a driving rootsy guitar riff that's both modern rock and delta blues. "salt," a heartbreakingly beautiful piece that is spoken word over some really nice music. "2 birds," a slow-paced contemplative song. "I'd ask," "the Chicken Song," "What I Would Say In Your Funeral,"...I just realized I'm going to have to list almost all of them as standout tracks. I could've done without the 30 second track of him belching, but I forgive him for it. It's like when baby vomits on you, you don't really enjoy it, but you don't hold it against the baby, because the baby is just so damn cute.

My opinion on the album is that the album is good. It is funny, and Mugison's music comes across as not really taking itself so seriously, which actually works quite well for the type of music he makes; the provided samples above should give you a good idea of what Mugison's music sounds like.

With lyrics like, "The chicken was put on this earth to entertain the man and serve as a metaphor for hope. See the chicken is one of the very few birds that never can fly. But even with it's head chopped off, he'd still give it one [heck] of a try." How beautiful is that?

Or lyrics like, "I'm sad as a truck."

And other's such as, "My name is salt. I'm the reason there's salt in the sea and I'm the reason there's salt in your tears. That's how I come back. Like boiling water everything will evaporate, dissolve and disappear. I'll be there as a taste on your cheek - so you can remember those that are gone."

The album is a menagerie of sounds and feelings.