MURPHY BLEND — First Loss (review)

Album · 1971 · Hard Rock

4/5 · 2024-10-05
siLLy puPPy

One of the early bands to jump on to the Krautrock scene, the Berlin based MURPHY BLEND didn’t go the kosmische route that fellow countrymen Amon Duul II and Can embarked upon but rather took the heavier bluesy rock road into the world of organ dominated hard rock much like other early Kraut acts like Birth Control, Jane and Orange Peel. The band formed in 1969 and created a sound that was based around founder and keyboardist extraordinaire Wolf-Rüdiger Uhlig and supposedly named after a Beckett novel called “Murphy” however other claims that the name came from a tobacco brand also permeate the internet! The band’s lineup was of a typical prog rock band with Wolfgang Rumler (guitar), Andreas Scholz (bass - he later played with Blackwater Park) and Achim Schmidt (drums) and together this BLEND released a sole album titled FIRST LOSS however it seems like half the databases claim it was released in 1970 and the others cite 1971.

Whatever the case this was indeed one of those transitional albums that was certainly recorded in 1970 when the heavy psych and psychedelic rock 60s was picking up steam and transmogrifying into hard rock and progressive rock and in the case of this band both. Not too dissimilar what Deep Purple and Atomic Rooster were cranking out in jolly ole England about the same time, MURPHY BLEND was much more progressive with lots of classically inspired organ performances amidst the bluesy hard rock chord crunchiness. Uhlig was basically the German doppelgänger for Jon Lord and the rest of the band had the chops to keep up with his demanding style of playing with special mention to drummer Achim Schmidt who delivered some serious chops for the beginning of the 1970s. The album featured seven tracks however it’s really only six since the closing track “Happiness” is only three seconds long!

While not terribly original even for 1970, MURPHY BLEND nevertheless crafted some memorable compositors with stellar performances that allowed the bluesy hard rock to showcase Uhlig’s virtuosic keyboard antics in a proto-prog fashion that sounded fairly normal for most of the album but with moments of proggy excursions into more complex or unexpected territories. While the album sounds dated to my ears that’s a good thing because i actually love this short period from 1969-71 when bands were in full experimental mode without shedding all the traits of the 1960s. MURPHY BLEND is the perfect mix of the heavy psych 60s with the harder edged 70s along with some prog twists and turns as well as some of the best Hammond organ playing you could ask for from the era. While primarily based in blues rock MURPHY BLEND knew how to incorporate other influences into its mix with the most bold expressions occurring in the album’s lengthiest piece, the title track.

Perhaps the earliest Kraut band to combine hard rock, blues and classical music, MURPHY BLEND was also one of Germany’s best to crank out this style and FIRST LOSS is on par with Birth Control’s finest moment, the excellent album “Hoodoo Man.” The band’s lyrics were in English but the vocals featured that giveaway German accent but it’s all very well done and fits in with the music quite well. The tracks all differ from each other to make this an interesting listen from beginning to end and a must for any Heavy Kraut lovers who really get off on organ excesses. Unfortunately for unknown reasons the band broke up after its only album however Uhlig would go on to form Hanuman which morphed into Lied Des Teufels. This is a great album with some very innovative moments especially in the keyboard department. The band’s use of non-blues songwriting techniques gave it a somewhat distinct identity beneath the surface of a typical organ based hard rock band. A nice early German gem that transverse the worlds of early hard rock, early prog and blues rock.