Murphy Blend -

Murphy Blend was a German hard-rock band that released the album First Loss in 1970 on Kuckuck.

Members: Wolf-Rüdiger Uhlig (organ, harpsichord, piano, vocals), Wolfgang Rumler (guitar, vocals), Andreas Scholz (bass), Achim Schmidt (drums, vocals)

Inception

Murphy Blend formed in Berlin in late 1969 when guitarist Wolfgang Rumler and keyboardist–composer Wolf‑Rüdiger Uhlig teamed with bassist Andreas Scholz and drummer Achim Schmidt. Scholz and Uhlig emerged from the city’s mid-’60s cover-band circuit and steered the new group away from beat standards toward a heavier, organ-based sound structured around extended compositions.

The band cultivated heavy organ-based rock reminiscent of Deep Purple, Quatermass, Warhorse, and Atomic Rooster. Manager Joachim Wilhelm secured higher-profile bookings and distributed test recordings that caught the attention of producer Jonas Porst, who worked with Ihre Kinder and had just launched the Munich-based Kuckuck label.

First Loss

Murphy Blend released their singular album, First Loss, in February 1971 on Kuckuck. It features six Uhlig compositions, two co-written, plus a closing soundbite.

First Loss centers its arrangements around the thick tonal range of Wolf-Rüdiger Uhlig’s Hammond organ, which moves between stately classical themes, rolling blues lines, and sudden rhythmic pivots that push the ensemble into climactic breaks and downshifts. “At First” and “Speed Is Coming Back” build off tight unison between organ and guitar, with frequent sectional shifts that alternate between rising accents and recessed vocal segments.

“Past Has Gone” stretches over seven minutes with an episodic arc: it opens in a subdued register, breaks midway for a romantic interlude, and rebuilds with compounding energy as organ, guitar, and rhythm section interlock in a slow-burning ascent. “Präludium/Use Your Feet” begins with a formal organ motif before giving way to percussive accents and abrupt vocal cues.

The eight-minute title track cycles through contrasting sections—blues phrasings, sudden rhythmic cuts, classical pastiche, and accelerated runs—anchored by Uhlig’s dynamic shifts between modal weight and florid embellishments. “Funny Guys” fuses a fugue-like intro with abrupt meter changes, culminating in one of the album’s more layered ensemble interactions. Across the album, Murphy Blend combine structured interplay with loosened dynamic shifts, favoring bold contrasts between atmospheric restraint and sudden instrumental surges.

A1. “At First” (4:32)
A2. “Speed Is Coming Back” (5:58)
A3. “Past Has Gone” (7:30)

B1. “Präludium / Use Your Feet” (5:32) – Uhlig, Rumler
B2. “First Loss” (7:44)
B3. “Funny Guys” (3:38) – Uhlig, Scholz
B4. “Happiness” (0:03)

Sessions spanned October through December 1970 at Union Studio in Munich with Jonas Porst, who produced First Loss in sequence with Kuckuck titles by Ihre Kinder and Armageddon, all engineered by Thomas Klemt.

The illustration on First Loss by Murphy Blend, drawn by Klaus Knézy, presents a surreal and symbolic composition emanating from a curved tobacco pipe. Rising from the bowl in intricate black linework, the smoke morphs into a sequence of imaginative forms: a classic sailing ship, a cathedral-like building nestled in clouds, layered landmasses, a Victorian woman, and eventually bulbous, almost mushroom-like billows. The dreamlike procession suggests memory, fantasy, and dissolution, with each form dissolving into the next as the smoke ascends and dissipates into abstraction.

Postlude

Despite live dates with Golden Earring and Savage Rose, Murphy Blend collapsed soon after First Loss. In May 1971, Wolf-Rüdiger Uhlig formed Hanuman with a jazz trio he met at the Munich festival. They cut a self-titled album that year for Kuckuck and morphed (sans Uhlig) into Lied des Teufels.

Andreas Scholz joined Blackwater Park, a hard-rock quartet that made the 1972 album Dirt Box on BASF.

Achim Schmidt recorded two albums each with the ’80s folk bands Argile and Alabätsch. He also played on the 1982 album Besorg’s Dir! by Artischock, a Neue Deutsche Welle band with Lied Des Teufels alumni Ralf Schultze and Peer Forsberg.

Wolfgang Rumler played on the 1981 album Direkt by Austrian singer–songwriter Georg Danzer.

“Präludium / Use Your Feet” appears on Sounds ’71, a 1971 Polydor comp with cuts by Aunt Mary, Focus, Out of Focus, and multiple acts from the UK (Gass, Jack Bruce, Keith Tippett, Slade, Twink, Web, Zoot Money) and the US (Amboy Dukes, Haystacks Balboa, Ten Wheel Drive, Tony Williams’ Lifetime).

Two further Murphy Blend cuts (“At First,” “First Loss”) appear on Deutsch Rock, a 1972 Polydor comp with cuts by Abacus, A.R. & Machines, Epitaph, Ex Ovo, Kin Ping Meh, and Night Sun.

Discography: