Review Fix chats with Bleed Electric’s MUG5, who discusses their EP, “Let the Invasion Begin.”
About Bleed Electric:
NYC-based art collective praised for genre-bending confessions of sound (“lusciously bent,” “eclectic,” “a cinematic prophecy”) — emerged from the shadows with the release of This Is My Masterpiece on October 31, 2025, exactly thirteen years after the EP’s original release, following a sudden and unexplained erasure of the project from the digital world. Bleed Electric’s resurrection continued on February 26, 2026, with the release of their reverse-ordered sophomore EP, Let The Invasion Begin. Released on 26·02·26 — exactly thirteen years to the day after its own original release — the EP arrives bound by striking numerical symmetry. The mirrored date and the recurrence of thirteen, a number long associated with transformation and rebirth, echo the EP’s core themes of cycles, revelation, and return. It feels less like a release and more like something resurfacing at the precise moment it was meant to. Listen to Let The Invasion Begin
Review Fix: What makes “Let The Invasion Begin” special?
MUG5: For us, Let The Invasion Begin was the EP where we really found our sound. The confidence we had in it brought about the title. The original artwork I designed featured a weird skeletal alien figure that looked like it was about to take over the world. The current artwork is more abstract, like someone seeing the invasion happen from afar, but it still carries the same feeling. This EP was, and still is us arriving.
Review Fix: What was the creative process like?
MUG5: This EP was made in 2009 at Screamadelica Studios in Cardiff Bay, Wales—my studio—where many artists recorded many songs. By the time we made Let The Invasion Begin, we’d already spent years collaborating as a band, so things came together quickly. Our sessions were simple: go to Tesco in the morning, get a day’s worth of supplies, roll a spliff, smoke it, and see what happened. Then we’d leave around 4 a.m., listening back to whatever we’d just made on the way home. Our Blue Bottle mic changed everything for the vocals, and the TC Helicon autotune pedal was a game changer because it was the first time I could really use autotune as an instrument.
Review Fix: What’s the standout track for you guys?
MUG5: Honestly it changes every time I listen. “Trinity” is an incredible opener and that guitar solo might be one of the best guitar solos in a hip-hop track ever. Then “Cry Little Sister” drops in with that darkwave energy. “Gravity” has a pop energy lift to it, “Boost Your 1s” puts you back in the arcade winning, “Cherry Bomb” is surprising in its vulnerability, and “Eight Years Late for Dinner” is time as an experiment.
Review Fix: What’s the underrated track you really hope people dig into?
MUG5: What’s interesting is everybody who really listens to the EP seems to find their track. So I don’t really think of one as overlooked, it just depends what you like. There’s enough range on the EP that different songs hit different people for different reasons.
Review Fix: Really dug “Cherry Bomb.” It’s got so many moving pieces. How did that one come together?
MUG5: “Cherry Bomb” started the night after I watched The Runaways film. I came into the studio the next day with that energy still in me and started laying down a beat. Weirdly, it was just SILK and me in the studio that day, and we probably built about 90% of it before SIEGE helped finish it the following week. The moving pieces are in our DNA—counter-rhythms, unexpected harmonies, and little switches inside the arrangement. While the track came together in a day, the somber piano section at the end had been with me for years. Every time I found a piano I’d end up playing that motif, so although it landed quickly in the session, that emotion had been festering for a long time.
Review Fix: What does being NYC-based mean to you?
MUG5: A lot. In sound, in mindset, in identity. New York is one of the most important places on earth for creatives. It’s a place where someone can become something through belief, creativity, hustle, and a bit of social magic. If you really want to make it, New York is somewhere you should come and mix in. That energy definitely shapes how we think and who we are.
Review Fix: How do you want this EP to be remembered?
MUG5: I hope people come back to it again and again. Hopefully they buy the vinyl, grab the tee, and really live with it. It can be the EP you sit with, but it can also be the one you throw on when you’ve got to drive somewhere and want something great front to back.
Review Fix: What’s next?
MUG5: Next up is our reverse-release EP So Sick, dropping June 26, 2026. Mad to think this was actually our second EP originally, but in the reverse-release rollout it becomes our third. So Sick has some of our heaviest and most experimental moments, and it also introduces a few tracks from our still-unreleased debut album, The Butterfly Effect. You can tell which ones belong to that world by the Roman numeral titles.
Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?
MUG5: What people are hearing on this project was written and recorded between 2006 and 2010. We haven’t changed the mixes, we haven’t remastered it, we haven’t gone back and cleaned it up. We always said we were future fresh, and we still stand by that. It sounded fresh then, it sounds fresh now, and it’ll sound fresh in the future. And yeah, we’re always open to collaborations, so if someone wants to reach out and cook, let’s do it.
Review Fix: Where can people find out more?
MUG5: Check us out on our website and Instagram, hit YouTube for the official music videos, and we always drop our stuff on SoundCloud too.
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