HATFIELD AND THE NORTH

After having played in almost all the most important Canterbury's bands, the drummer Pip Pyle reforms his first band "Delivery" who had left years before after a hard discussion with the band's singer, with the Miller brothers but with Richard Sinclair just out of Caravan and the former Arzachel and Egg Dave Stewart. The story says that while they were going to a gig by car they have seen a motorway signal indicating to "Hatfield and the North". That's were the band's name is for.

Just a bit of history, to say that this "late" Canterbury band is made of elements who have played in all the biggest bands of the genre, and in addition there's also the hypnotic effort of Robert Wyatt's vocals in one song.

As in the Canterbury tradition, a jazz layer is mixtured with folk and psychedelic elements. Mushrooms and Trolls united with a strong instrumental jazz skill. All those elements together can be found on the longest track "Son Of There's No Place Like Homerton" which also in the title reminds to Caravan but with brasses in Soft Machine style and a high pitched choir which has a Gong flavor, but also to late Soft Machine, thinking to "Land Of Cockayne".

There's a number of very short tracks and this is the main reason why I'm not writing a track by track review, but all the tracks fade one into the next so the album is not "fragmented". I think Pat Metheny has liked tracks like "Aigrette" and parts of it have later become standards in his soft jazz.

It's a classic of the Canterbury subgenre created by what can be called a supergroup.