Merrell Fankhauser & H.M.S Bounty

Merrell Fankhauser, after laying down some excellent folk-rock and psychedelic material on extremely scarce pressings alongside his band the Exiles, relocated to Los Angeles. There he rechristened his supporting ensemble H.M.S. Bounty and cut an excellent yet little-known specimen of pop-tinged psychedelia, the 1968 album Things. Its varied tracks, the sole LP by the group, brought to mind other leading California acts of the era such as the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Moby Grape, and Captain Beefheart. Though they never quite reached the stature of those legends, the record carries a gentle and mysterious character all its own and merits attention from admirers of late-’60s West Coast psychedelia. In time the band developed into Mu, an intriguing ensemble that merged mystical avant-garde, blues, and progressive rock elements during the early 1970s.