Method vs. Madness

Mu is Coming to Get You!

By Alex Barnes

Published in Trace 55, April 2005

Electro-Punk diva Mutsumi Kanamori isn’t holding back any punches and makes no apologies about it. One half of the Sheffield, England based duo Mu, Mutsumi gives us an earful of unbridled emotions expressed through screeches, shouts, taunts, and just about every other sound that can be produced by a raging human psyche. Fueled by husband Maurice Fulton’s twisted, off-kilter productions, Mu’s music is a lot like what a hyperactive child would sound like if raised on a steady diet of cartoons and acid. Her latest album, Out of Breach (Manchester’s Revenge) opens up a pandora’s box of raw emotions, putting deep seeded rage in sharp relief with whimsical playfulness– often all on the same track.

Mu’s story begins 1997, when Mutsumi made good on her dream of making a life for herself outside of her native Japan. “I was thinking New York or London, it was two choices,” she recalls. With easier access to a British visa, Mutsumi soon found herself in London struggling from the pressures of adapting to a new country and a new language. After getting married and moving north to Sheffield, Mutsumi became an avid club-goer and began making music with a 80s styled electro band called Mu-Chan Clan.

From this beginning of her musical career, Mutsumi’s vocals naturally gravitated toward the aggressiveness of punk. “I didn’t know any punk artists,” she explains. “I thought, ‘punk? I want to do something more beautiful.’”

However, unlike her first marriage and her band, Mutsumi’s unique vocal style stuck. Mutsumi continued living in Sheffield and in 2001 she met the DJ and Producer Maurice Fulton at the nightclub the Electric Chair in nearby Manchester.

“He saw me dancing crazy on the dance floor,” Mutsumi recalls of meeting Fulton. “After he finished DJing he came to me and told me: ‘I’m going to make a song about you!’” Mutsumi and Fulton quickly began collaborating musically and recorded Mu’s first single “Let’s Get Sick” in June 2003 which was quickly followed by their debut album Afro Finger and Gel released in September of the same year.

Amidst the swirling and frenetic soundscape of Out of Breach, Mu somehow manages to sustain an intoxicating groove with Fulton’s chaotic yet funky production. Coupled with Mutsumi’s infectious snarls and shouts, Mu will keep your ears ringing, your mind spinning and your feet perpetually moving on the dancefloor.

Out of Breach (Manchester’s Revenge) is available now on Output Recordings