Mighty Baby rose from the ashes of the outstanding British mod group The Action. Mighty Baby had no problems continuing that group’s excellence, but now with a more progressive psychedelic vision. Original Action lead singer Reg King left the group after the demo recordings that were eventually released as (the highly recommended) Rolled Gold, and the rest of the band carried on as The Action until changing their name to Mighty Baby in 1969. Alan King and Ian Whiteman proved more than capable of taking over vocal duties.
One of the strongest points of Mighty Baby’s debut LP is that, no matter where their spirit took them, the deep, funky, danceable grooves show that the backbone and backbeat of (maximum) R&B never left their souls. This album took freakbeat into the future, and thanks to the rhythms this album never gets lost in its head, it keeps moving and upward, thanks to Roger Powell’s excellent drumming. Guitarist Martin Stone peels off nonstop layers of searching, acid fried bluesy guitar. Lead off track ‘Egyptian Tomb’ is equal parts melodic and hypnotic. Simply brilliant, and so compelling.
Mighty Baby also found these fantastic musicians exploring mystical philosophy (see: the amazing ‘House Without Windows‘ and closing track ‘At A Point Between Fate And Destiny ’), and most of the members converted to Islam after the release of this album. Like most of their 60s British contemporaries, The Action were no strangers to excellent vocal harmonies; Mighty Baby carried on with more outstanding harmonies, but this time with a far freakier, looser direction that’s just as effective here as the slicker Action vocals were. All in all, this unstoppable LP is one of THE greatest British psychedelic records, and it’s one that’s not dated from frilly silliness.
One great thing about streaming is that incredible albums like this are at reach to anyone, and not just fanatical record collectors.
I love this album, not least because "Egyptian Tomb" played a part in an experience I had that I can only describe as "supernatural": https://danepstein.substack.com/p/the-egyptian-tomb
The algorithms pushed your page my way, so I am coming at this article late. I love Mighty Baby, and it is great to see them being written about here. It's good to see you also own an original Head label copy of the LP! It's not an easy LP to find, especially stateside, nor is it cheap when you find a copy.
They have an interesting postscript, and 4/5 members converted to Islam and adopted Sufism, and their music completely changed after their s/t LP. Its follow-up, 'A Jug of Love', is more Grateful Dead jam band'esque in sound but well worth hunting down (if you don't already have it). There have also since been some live and rehearsal recordings released, but all focus on the latter period rather than the first s/t LP era of the band (of these recordings, 'Slipstreams' has the best audio quality).