Mugstar + Laymar + Stray Dog Cafe + Blood Moon @ Wotgodforgot November 5, 2008

Mugstar -- Laymar -- Stray Dog Cafe -- Blood Moon
5/11/08
Retro Bar, 78 Sackville Street, Manchester M1 3NJ (near Oxford Rd)
£4.00

Mugstar
www.myspace.com/mugstar
are the sound of 10,000 suns exploding, pulsing with repetitive beauty, pounding like a supersonic mantra. They set sail for the sun in 2002 and have completed numerous voyages with the likes of Mudhoney, Faust, Mogwai, Melt Banana, Onieda and Acid Mothers Temple. The band recorded one of the last sessions for the late great John Peel and featured in his festive 50.

Their debut full length album was released in December 2006 on Sea Records / Critical MASS Records to universal acclaim and even LP of the year in Penny Black music magazine (see reviews in Blog). A 7" on TRENSMAT Records is available now. Mugstar are currently writing songs for a new album to be recorded this year. They are also about to launch an album alongside the likes of Mudhoney, Bardo Pond, Kinski, Acid Mothers Temple, Magoo and White Hills.

Laymar
www.myspace.com/laymarmusic
It’d be easy to lump Laymar into a category with instrumental rock noise-makers like Mogwai, Godspeed! and Up C Down C (you see how easy it was to do?), but Laymar are too complex to be compared off-hand to those bands, offering their own brand of quiet-loud-quiet which incorporates not just guitars and eerie silences, but also electronic beats and samples.

Indeed, so complex are they that no matter how many times you listen to this, Laymar’s debut album, you get to know nothing about them, you build no relationships with the band, and they remain more faceless than the Daft Punk robots. It’s difficult even to know whether this is a Kraftwerk-style line of guys at laptops or a full eight-piece band.

Over seven tracks, ‘In Strange Lines And Distances’ staggers from being the most thrilling thing you’ll hear for a long time (‘NU1’), to being daunting and at times terrifying (‘Swords’), like the soundtrack to A Very Bad Thing. But it needs listening to, and it’s one for turning up very loud indeed. 4/5 The-Fly Magazine

Stray Dog Cafe
www.myspace.com/straydogcafe
Quirky punks with post-punk pop, incessant catchy riffage and musical lyricalness.
"Noise-pop trio Stray Dog Café have an admirable range of influences and leftfield ideas…self-mocking really underplays the impressive level of imagination on board. "
- Manchestermusic

Blood Moon
www.myspace.com/bloodmoonmusic
take distorted bass lines, screaming saxaphones, drums, feed them through a sequencer and produce a satanic ambience from the pit of hell.

Official Website: http://www.myspace.com/wotgodforgot