Catapilla-Catapilla

A band from London for this weeks Progressive Saturday. This is their debut album that came out in 1971. This is another one I had on CD. This 2020 reissue is a U.K. import I bought at a record store on Kirkwood Highway in Wilmington when I was visiting my brother-in-law who lives near there. This is more Progressive Jazz/Rock than anything by Genesis, Yes or E.L.P. A 7 piece band with vocals by Anna Meek plus guitar, drums, bass and 3 woodwind players playing saxes, clarinet and flute. There are two long songs and two shorter ones. All have vocals. The first track “Naked Death” is nearly 16 minutes long with vocals at the beginning and end with a long jam with guitar and sax in between. This is followed by two shorter songs that reminded me a bit of Jefferson Airplane. “Embryonic Fusion” is on side 2 and is 24 minutes long. This has vocals throughout with instrumental passages of sax, guitar and flute. Meek’s voice has been heavily criticized by reviewers on Discogs and Progarchives. It’s a little unusual but I didn’t have a problem with it. They put out one more record in ’72 which I also had on CD. Sax player Robert Calvert later worked with Gong side projects.

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