CATAPILLA

Catapilla's self titled is a brave album full of desperate atmosphere and tons of character.

Catapilla are an obscure London act that back in the day released two little albums, this one being their self titled debut. The music they brought to this world is creative and somewhat innovative, with interesting moments and ideas.

The music itself is, very roughly, a mix between a very original sounding Blues Rock and Jazz Rock. The resultant piece is a radical and kind of heavy, at least for 1971, Progressive Rock album, with evident Hard Rock and Psychedelia influences as well. One of those vintage, classic albums, extremely visceral and fierce in some moments, due to the instrumentation also: we have guitars, bass, and sax that are accompanying the vocals, without any keyboards anywhere. This gives, like I said, a more fierce touch to the overall sound, which can truly be beastly.

The visceral feel in these four tracks have a somewhat dark, desperate tone in many parts, while in others it turns out to be a more fun and light listen, especially the shorter songs. But singer Anna Meek has such a strong and powerful voice, she almost sounds like a prophet of death in many pieces, evoking almost nightmarish tones, especially in the fifteen minute 'Naked Death'. Two thirds of this intro of the album basically are composed of soloing, which starts after the two minute mark and ending at almost the end of the song. This is why I found myself in a bit of difficulty in enjoying it as a whole, but the sung part is absolutely priceless. The next two songs are more forgettable and happen also to be more cheerful: 'Tumbleweed' and 'Promises' both could have been written more enthusiastically in my opinion, although even here Anna Meek shows her undeniable talent. The monster track is 'Embryonic Fusion', almost twenty five minutes of madness, featuring a lot of variation and it doesn't feel at all like 'Naked Death', it's multi parted nature makes it the most interesting and worthwhile song of the entire album.

Overall Catapilla's debut is enjoyable, however not the most essential album of this kind of music. The following album 'Changes' is considered even more Progressive because of the adding of the keyboard, but this debut has no question character, and quite a large one too.

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