Review: The Muffins – Manna/Mirage (1978)

Manna/Mirage is The Muffins’ first studio album.

Formed in Washington in 1973, this Canterbury-inspired avant-prog band had to wait five years for their actual recording debut, but the group of musicians—who lived communally—certainly didn’t sit around twiddling their thumbs during that time. The group rehearsed diligently, played local gigs, and recorded music in their home studio. Tapes were distributed to radio stations and fans at concerts. Some of this early material was later released on the album Chronometers and on the box set Baker’s Dozen.

The gap between the band’s formation and its first official release can be partly attributed to the difficult market conditions for progressive rock in the United States, especially for avant-garde prog. There was practically no market for it. Frank Zappa is in a league of his own and an important source of inspiration for avant-prog musicians around the world, but otherwise, progressive rock and the avant-garde were not very commercially compatible concepts in the United States of the 1970s. The Muffins solved the problem by founding their own record label, Random Radar Records, through which they independently released their debut album.

The band’s lineup solidified a couple of years before the recording of Manna/Mirage. Among the founding members, Billy Swann played bass and guitar, Dave Newhouse played keyboards in addition to the horns, and Tom Scott, who joined in 1974, handled a wide range of wind instruments. Paul Sears, who joined as drummer in 1976, rounded out the quartet, which remained the band’s core lineup for years to come.

Read also: Review: Manna/Mirage – Man Ouf Of Time (2021)

Wind instruments play a notably prominent role in the album’s sound, which is no surprise, since two of the band’s four members play them. Scott and Newhouse’s flutes, saxophones, oboes, recorders, and clarinets create a rich soundscape, complemented on a few tracks by guest musicians playing trumpet, trombone, and tuba. Among the guest musicians, it’s also worth mentioning Steven Feigenbaum, who plays guitar in a minor role on a few tracks and later founded the legendary Cuneiform Records, which specializes in experimental and progressive music.

Manna/Mirage consists of four compositions, the first two of which are more moderate in length. The approximately four-minute “Monkey with the Golden Eyes” is a wistful piece, while the six-minute “Hobart Got Burned” offers a more edgy and free-form counterpoint. The album’s last two tracks—the nearly 16-minute “Amelia Earhart” and “The Adventures of Captain Boomerang,” which stretches to over 22 minutes—offer an epic scope for the compositions’ meandering nature, even if they don’t aim for the massive grandeur of symphonic prog.

“Monkey with the Golden Eyes” kicks off the album gently. The subtly evolving instrumentation and the soft melodies of the wind instruments create a wistful, almost pastoral atmosphere. The music possesses the melodic sensitivity characteristic of the Canterbury scene, but The Muffins’ expression also features a chamber-music-like restraint. The opening is pleasant, though its serenity offers little hint of the edgier directions the band will take next.

“Hobart Got Burned” gets off to a much more restless start. At times, the composition is strongly reminiscent of Henry Cow’s early work, as the horns clash with one another and the band’s playing at times turns into what feels like an almost uncontrollable frenzy. The sounds screech sharply, but a mischievous sense of humor also peeks through. At times, the wind instruments seem to laugh like a seagull that has just snatched an ice cream cone from a child’s hand at the market. The composition’s free-form expression is, at its best, refreshingly unpredictable, even if its rough edges don’t always lead to particularly memorable musical insights.

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The nearly 16-minute-long “Amelia Earhart” opens with jangling percussion and whistling flutes reminiscent of spiritual jazz. The dreamy atmosphere of the opening gradually gives way to livelier, Canterbury-style prog, with the electric piano and horns engaging in a dialogue. Despite its length, the track features several interesting moments, such as the shimmering keyboard ostinato heard just before the six-minute mark—around which Swann’s fuzz bass growls—and the playful recorder riff heard around the ten-minute mark. The quiet, lingering coda is also beautiful, though perhaps a touch too long. Overall, however, the piece doesn’t quite seem to find its direction. The moods shift, themes come and go, and there isn’t always a sufficiently convincing continuity between them.

At over 22 minutes, “The Adventures of Captain Boomerang” is the album’s longest composition and, at the same time, its greatest test. Here, the music leans even more toward jazz-rock—admittedly, still in the Canterbury spirit—and there are also clear Zappa influences. The avant-prog-style dissonance isn’t forgotten either. The band’s skilled musicians offer plenty of details to latch onto, but the composition’s proportions don’t feel entirely justified. The lengthy runtime includes interesting twists and numerous different themes, but the common thread tying them together feels rather tenuous. The listening experience is therefore more of a series of individual flashes than a coherently evolving musical journey.

The moods on the album range from wistful pastoralism to free-form avant-garde experimentation, but the transitions don’t always feel natural. The production is a bit raw and homemade, but not in a way that’s overly distracting. The bigger problem is the occasional lack of clarity in the expression. When the structures of the compositions aren’t strong enough, the music starts to feel phlegmatic in places.

Manna/Mirage isn’t quite a home run. Its best moments show that The Muffins have mastered both the subtlety of chamber music and the edgier expression of avant-garde rock, but the long compositions lack definition. The album as a whole is a bit frustrating: there’s plenty of potential, but its execution is uneven.

A fan of Henry Cow and the more challenging Canterbury scene could still make worse choices in life than giving this album a chance. Manna/Mirage is an interesting first step for a band that continued to perform for decades. The Muffins released their final studio album, Mother Tongue, in 2012, and the band remained active until 2016.

Best tracks “Hobart Got Burned”, “Amelia Earhart”

Rating: 4 out of 5.
Author: JANNE YLIRUUSI

Read also: Review: Fred Frith – Gravity (1980)

Tracks

  1. Monkey With the Golden Eyes 04:02
  2. Hobart Got Burned 05:59
  3. Amelia Earhart 15:47
  4. The Adventures of Captain Boomerang (for Mike Forrester) 22:48

The Muffins

Billy Swann: bass, piano, guitar, percussion Paul Sears: drums, gong, xylophone, vibes, percussion, pots, pans, pennywhistle Tom Scott: piccolo flute, flutes, alto & soprano & baritone saxophones, clarinet, alto clarinet, oboe, soprano recorder, percussion Dave Newhouse: pianos, organ, piccolo flute, alto & soprano saxophones, bass clarinet, cereal box whistle, percussion

Other musicians

John Schmidt: baritone horn & tuba (1) Doug Elliot: trombone (1) Larry Elliot: trumpet (1) Steve Feigenbaum: guitar (3, 4) Greg Yaskovich: trumpet (4)

Producer: The Muffins
Label: Random Radar Records / Cuneiform Records

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