SAMLA MAMMAS MANNA

Like their fellow founding fathers of RIO in Henry Cow, Samla Mammas Manna started out with a heavy Canterbury influence, though in the debut album you can also hear the cheeky attitude and a few musical references to Uncle Meat/Burnt Weeny Sandwich-era Mothers of Invention. It's certainly a move worthy of Zappa to begin your album of mostly-instrumental Canterbury- flavoured prog with a bit of circus music.

Still, the oft-cited connection between Samla and circus music seems confined to those parts of the opening track (Circus Apparatha), and the rest is much more comfortably in Canterbury/Zappa territory, with enough jazziness and complexity to take the band towards Soft Machine territory but sufficient playfulness to also pull it towards Caravan's Waterloo Lily-era sound, the resultant blend being sufficiently original to be worthy of attention from most Canterbury fans.