Mu

In the early 1970s, a captivating Southern Californian ensemble highlighted the abilities of singer-songwriter Merrell Fankhauser, who had previously guided the cult favorites Fapardokly and HMS Bounty through the 1960s, along with Jeff Cotton, the former slide guitarist from Captain Beefheart’s lineup. Issued in 1971, the band’s lone album emerged as a standout from the fading hippie years by blending Beefheart’s jagged blues-driven detours with the easygoing momentum and hallucinatory lyrics of outfits such as the Grateful Dead in their late-1960s phase. Following a pair of further singles, Mu relocated to Maui and produced considerable unreleased recordings before disbanding around 1974. The self-titled LP, together with much of that unreleased material, received reissues throughout the 1980s.