Drape

Belgian DJ and producer Mugwump performs an about-face with a new sound and live show and unveils the first extract of his second album Drape. It's first extract, "No Trepidation", is a fast-paced postpunk/electronic hybrid and a punch in the face of conformity, formatting, and self-censorship. Borrowing his name from a character from William Burroughs's famed novel Naked Lunch (1959), Mugwump is an elusive presence, a reputation preceded by infamous DJ residencies at Belgian clubs and a long-standing recording relation with Cologne's Kompakt Records, ongoing DJ support from Andrew Weatherall, as well as a large catalog of electronic "disco-techno" records, released on leading labels R&S, Gigolo, Cocoon, Endless Flight, Eskimo, Permanent Vacation, or International Feel. Mugwump is also well-known for running the Leftorium club night in Brussels where like-minded DJ guests such as Ivan Smagghe, Andrew Weatherall, Superpitcher, Matias Aguayo, Optimo, Prins Thomas, Sascha Funke, Gerd Janson, Ata, or Roman Flügel share decks. Drape is the follow-up to 2015's debut studio album Unspell, which boasted many guest vocalists, garnered media plaudits across the board internationally, and was supported with live appearances at Benelux, French, UK, and Dutch festivals and venues. Taking it further and morphing into a full live band with new members, Mugwump released the Metempsycho EP in November 2016 on which Geoffroy made his singing debut. Drape is the result of nine months locked up with musicians Stephane Fedele (bass), Thomas Stadnicki (guitars), Lukas Melville (drums) and a series of live shows in Belgium. It fuses the electronic with an occasionally heavy-rock feel and outstanding lyrics, all topped off with a French-Belgian-tinged vocal and lyrical topicality. Music-wise it spans a breadth of influences from the Interzone between post-punk, indie pop, psych, and noise while Geoffroy Mugwump lays down conscious, parlando-style, lyrics over nine songs "soundtracking our torments in the age of laissez-faire and aestheticisation".