MU, MU (side A)

The famous member of MU was Jeff Cotton, better known as Antennae Jimmy Semens from the Magic Band. After Trout Mask Replica, he reconnected with old friends/bandmates to form MU. They completed their only album in 1971 with John Golden engineering, and a second album's worth of material was released after their breakup. MU was reissued in 1988, and it's not just interesting as an historical footnote. It has bits of Buddy Holly, Bay Area hippie jams, and Cotton's blues abstractions all melded together. The other guitarist in the group, Merrell Fankhauser, continues to attract a post-hippie audience for the work he creates in Maui (where Cotton also still resides). Golden did a great job engineering, even as he's best known today for his mastering work. The 1988 reissue was an inspired choice and is a better vinyl pressing than was common at that time, but the cover image looks particularly bad.