Artist: McLuhan
Title: Anomaly
File: Progressive/Jazz
Release: February 21st 2025
Named after media theorist and philosopher Marshall McLuhan, this Chicago-based progressive/jazz rock band began its musical journey as a mixed-media group, formed after meeting as students at the University of Illinois-Chicago in the late 1960s.
Citing Frank Zappa, The Fugs and King Crimson as influences, early gigs incorporated mixed-media footage to complement offbeat instrumentation, sound effects, and a meld of free jazz, fusion and orchestral arrangements that would have been very much at home in England’s contemporaneous Canterbury Scene.
The initial line-up constituted David Wright (trumpet, vocals), Paul Cohn (flute, clarinet, tenor sax), Neal Rosner (bass, vocals), Michael Linn and John Mahoney (percussion), Dennis Phillips (guitar/vocals), Tom Laney (keyboards).
Released by R&B/soul label Brunswick in a bid to court white listeners with a crossover act and garner some mainstream appeal, 1972’s Anomaly certainly stood out from the label’s other signings at the time but failed to generate much by way of sales, the band unable to tour at the time to promote it.
Now coveted by record collectors and fringe music enthusiasts, the album is widely regarded as one of the most interesting, engaging, if quirky progressive works released in the US in the 70’s.
Its reissue returns the extraordinary vision and class musicianship of McLuhan with a revamped version of the band including Rosner, Cohn and Laney, performing again.
Tracks:
- The Monster Bride
- Spiders (In Neal’s Basement)
- Witches Theme And Dance
- A Brief Message From Your Local Media