Strangely this collection of 1965 demos ‚with a couple of
Torquays(The Monks’previous incarnation) tracks thrown in,is far more readily available than Black Monk Time, despite effectively being the blueprint for its illustrious successor.However, this album, does possess its own crude charm,some (perhaps over zealous)Monks freaks claiming to prefer its starker, more “primitive” feel.
FUA provides an insight into a band discovering its
identity. The Monks (as explained in the excellent sleeve
notes, provided by bassist Eddie Shaw and guitarist Gary
Burger) are evidently locked in confrontation with incredulous studio engineers,intent on cleaning up their
messy,raw sound. As a result, the guitar sound lacks the
distorted crunch evident in Black Monk Time, having more
of a skewed surf guitar quality. And Dave Day’s electric
banjo actually sounds like a banjo, here and there.
Most of the tracks here are prototypes of those in BMT.
However, there are significant differences. Much of the organ ‚which introduces most of the songs, has as much
in common with Songs of Praise as The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, and the chanted vocals have a distinctly
low-rent Gregorian feel​.It seems that the band were experimenting with how far the monkish theme could be
extended into the music itself. However,the lyrics are even
more stripped down than in BMT, consisting of little more
than repeated phrases, giving “songs” like Higgle Dy Piggle Dy and Monk Time an even more repetitive, Krautrocking ‚insistent quality.Listening to the likes of
Space Age and Hushie Pushie, which come across as speed-driven, demented Bierkeller music, conjures up images of seedy Reeperbahn sweatboxes. You can almost
smell the stale beer farts, if you have a suitably fanciful
imagination, and unruly bowels. The Torquays recordings,
relatively conventional Anglophile fare, only serve to highlight what a bizarre transformation these upstart americans were about to undergo. As Eddie Shaw says
in the sleevenotes, these demos, in a rearranged form, got
the band signed to an evidently very brave, or foolhardy,Polydor. Then, they “got dressed as monks”.