Mu


Band members               Related acts

- Jeff Cotton - guitar, sax, backing vocals (1972-74)

- Merrell Fankhauser - vocals, guitar (1972-74)

- Mary Lee - violin (1973-74)

- Jeff Parker - bass (replaced Larry Willey) (1973-74)

- Larry Willey - bass (1972-73)

- Randy Wimer - drums, percussion (1972-74)


 

 

- Captain Beefheart (Jeff Cotton aka Antenna Jimmy Semens)

- The Exiles (Jeff Cotton, Merrell Fankhauser and Larry Willey)

- Merrell Fankhauser (solo efforts)

- Fapardokly (Merrell Fankhauser)

- H.M.S. Bounty (Merrell Fankhauser)

- The Impacts (Merrell Fankhauser)

 

 

 


 

Rating: **** (4 stars)

Title:  Mu

Company: RTV

Catalog: RTV-300

Year: 1970

Grade (cover/record): VG/VG

Comments: cut out hole top right; minor ring and edge wear; includes lyric sheet and metallic back cover

Available: 1

Price: $150.00

 

Singer/guitarist Merrell Fankhauser may be one of the most talented and least known musicians to come out of Southern California.  Since his early-60s debut as a surf-rocker with The Impacts, he's certainly had a diverse career, including stabs at pop, psychedelic guru and guitar rock.  Fankhauer's recorded at least a couple of lost masterpieces, but outside of collector's circles he remains largely unknown.

Following stints with The Impacts, The Exiles, H.M.S. Bounty and Fapardokly (see separate entries), 1970 found Fankhauser teaming up with drummer Randy Wimer and former Exiles compatriots Jeff Cotton and Larry Willey.  The quartet promptly retreated to Canoga Park, California where they spent the better part of a year exploring meditation, vegetarianism, while occasionally finding time to record material at L.A.'s Wally Heider Studio.

Released by the small California-based RTV label, 1971's "Mu" is a lost psychedelic gem - easily one of our top-10 personal favorites.  With Fankhauser and Cotton responsible for all of the material, musically the album reflects a weird mixture of Southern California-styled psychedelic rock, coupled with Captain Beefheart-styled freak out-blues and occasional pseudo-jazzy interludes (check out Cotton's "The Interlude").  Yeah it's strange, but powered by the band's apparent heavy intake of recreational drugs and Cotton's exquisite slide guitar (and occasional sax outbreaks), the set's never less than mesmerizing.  Fankhauser and Cotton are both talented singers, whose voices are perfectly suited for rawer tracks such as "Ain't No Blues" and "Ballad of Brother Lew".  Exemplified by "Blue Form" and "Nobody Wants To Shine", they're also surprisingly accomplished harmony singers.  With the exception of Wimer's needless tribal drumming solo on "Eternal Thirst", the whole LP cooks.   (The following year the L.A.-based CASS label reissued the LP (catalog number CASS 100) using the same cover, but without lyric insert, or metallic back cover.)

"Mu" track listing:

1.) Ain't No Blues   (Jeff Cotton) - 4:03

2.) Ballad of Brother Lew   (Merrell Fankhauser) - 4:30

3.) Blue Form   (Jeff Cotton - Merrell Fankhauser) - 4:03

4.) The Interlude (instrumental)   (Jeff Cotton)   (Jeff Cotton) - 1:56

5.) Nobody Wants To Shine    (Jeff Cotton - Merrell Fankhauser) - 4:06

6.) Eternal Thirst   (Jeff Cotton - Merrell Fankhauser) - 9:43

7.) Too Naked Demeterius   (Jeff Cotton) - 2:32

8.) Mumbella Baye Tu La (instrumental)   (Jeff Cotton - Merrell Fankhauser) - 3:19

9.) The Clouds Went That Way   (Merrell Fankhauser) - 3:16

 

 

Making the story even odder, following bassist Willey's decision to quit, Fankhauser and company decided to relocate to Maui.  One of the reasons for the move was to allow the band to pursue their their interest in Mu.  We're not making this up - as described in American Indian and Polynesian folklore, Mu was a lost continent located roughly where Hawaii is.  Once in Hawaii they built a recording studio on an old isolated plantation.  With the addition of new bass player Jeff Parker and violinist Mary Lee, they spent the next year recording a considerable amount of material, releasing a pair of obscure 45s on their own Mu label:

- "One More Day" b/w "You've Been Here Before" Mu catalog number 101/102 

- "Too Naked For Demetrius" b/w "On Our Way To Hana" Mu catalog 103/104) 

 

A second album, tentatively entitled "End of an Era" was completed and almost ready for release in 1974 when Cotton and Wimer decided to call quit in order to pursue their growing Christian beliefs.  Fankhauser subsequently embarked on a solo career, while the tapes remained on the shelf until 1981 when Fankhauser remixed them.   Entitled "The Last Album", the tapes (along with the earlier singles), was released by the Italian Appaloosa label (catalog number AP 017).   There's also a tangle of legitimate and illicit reissues and repackagings:

 

United Artists reissued the original "Mu" LP in the UK in 1974 (cataog number UAG 29709)

 

1985 saw the small Blue Form release "Children of the Rainbow" (BF1).  A limited edition, the LP included what was to have been their second LP, along with three previously unissued tracks and a weird interview the band did with Lew Irwin.

 

The English Reckless label reissued the original LP (different cover) in 1988 (catalog RECK 4).  The also released "End of an Era" (catalog RECK 7), "The Maui Album" (catalog RECK 10) and "Best of Mu" (CDRECK 4) which compiled a mixture of material from the two LPs.

 

1997 saw Sundazed release "Mu" (catalog SC 11037).  This one was a double set including both LPs, the singles and the Lew Irwin interview.  It was rounded out by a brief band bio written by Fankhauser himself.

.  

1998 saw the Swedish Xotic Mind label release "Mu - The Band from the Lost Continent, the Complete Maui Sessions" (catalog XMCD01).  This one collected both LPs, the singles and the Irwin interview.

 


 

Back to Bad Cat search

Want to buy this LP from BadCat Records - click here