In January 2013, Chris Constantinou developed in a discussion with Eugene Butcher, editor from the magazine Vive Le Rock, and Dave Collins the idea of an album set out to retrace the roots of punk, new wave and ska, featuring all-star punk musicians.[1] It materialized in the creation of the musical supergroup The Mutants, with the first album, Rhythm and Punk Review, being released in July 2014.[2] A subsequent album, Tokyo Nights, released in May 2015, had all the songs fronted by a rotating set of Japanese guest stars.[3] The third album, Your Desert My Mind (October 2016), is a collaboration with Californian rock musicians from the desert rock scene.[4] All the albums are released through Killer Tracks. With the third album having again a creative chemistry in a different musical area, The Mutants acquired the image of a band exploring unexpected musical genres, each album having a different musical flavour that reflects the territory, and the style of the musicians that contributed to it.[5][6][7]
In the album Tokyo Nights Chris Constantinou and Paul Frazer,[15] joined by Rat Scabies and Steve 'West' Weston (Wilko Johnson, Roger Daltrey), have teamed up with musicians from the J-Punk scene, among them Guitar Wolf, The 5.6.7.8's (featured in Kill Bill Volume 1), Mika Bomb, The Neatbeats and Jackie & The Cedrics.[16] The concept of the album developed as the British musicians forming the core of The Mutants supergroup wanted to know more about artists who achieved cult status outside Japan and also discover bands and music that had not ventured further than the Tokyo live house scene. The songs from the album were played live with all the artists in Tokyo.[17][18]
In reviews, the album was considered a success, noting the chemistry with the guests, the pan-generational mashup,[19] the genres ranging from surf to garage[3] managing to reflect the surreal atmosphere of the underground music in Tokyo,[16][20][21] "a rollercoaster ride across a dark J-punk landscape".[22]
The reviews characterized its style as "desert rock but with a garage punk edge",[26] "another drastically different musical direction" taken by The Mutants,[5] "an eclectic creative power",[27] "the rolling cast of guests all throwing something different in, from the almost spoken word and choral harmonies of 'Night Bus to Krakow' to the driving classic rock feel of Fidgety to the exactly-as-it-sounds 'Machismo Postura'".[6] Being another album unlike anything any of the core members have previously created, it developed the image of The Mutants as a band exploring creatively unexpected musical genres.[5][6][28]
Your Desert My Mind received 8/10 ratings from Vive le Rock[29] and Louder Than War[30] magazines.
^Ian Abrahams, "The Mutants – Tokyo Nights (I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so)", Record Collector, June 2015
^"A front-seat ticket for a rollercoaster ride across a dark J-punk landscape... From high-rise guitar heroes to backstreet garage bands, Tokyo Nights is electric, and dangerous." – Ian Peel, Classic Pop magazine, July 2015
^Eugene Butcher, "The Mutants – Tokyo Nights (First wave punk band return to form with aplomb)", Vive le Rock, July 2015
