CATAPILLA

Both albums are full of excellent music - early Chicago or If or the Flock style brass rock mixed with wilder prog with strong psychadelic tendencies with a stong voice and good musicianship. One of those almost gems from the early 70's , but this has a really warm good-times feeling . Meek's contributions are outstanding but the real interest here is the brass parts and arrangements. The 20-min+ track on side 2 is so awesome at times that just that number justify the acquisition of this album.

The ideal would be to have the two Catapilla album on one CD. Definitely worth checking out, but Meek's voice is an acquired taste

Here's an odd progressive jazz rock album on the Vertigo label. The music is centered around the mentally disturbed female voice of Anna Meek, and the sax of Robert Calvert (not to be confused with the HAWKWIND guy - just to warn HAWKWIND collectors out there that this isn't the same Robert Calvert). The music, for the most part, tend to be very lengthy, with lots of lengthy passages, and Meek yelling and screaming more than singing. There are also two rather short, horn-driven numbers to round things out. Regardless, a fascinating album, if you can get over the vocals.

CATAPILLA is early progressive rock that needs another serious look by music historians and further inspection by listeners. This is their original recording on the Vertigo label released in 1971 and reissued on 180-gram vinyl by Akarma Records in 2000.

Vocalist Anna Meek sounds like a distraught Nico as she wails, cry's, and screams out her pleas to anyone that will listen. I didn't particularly care for her voice; it was out of tune and annoying for the most part. The music however is what saves her from complete disaster.

This group was known for its long instrumental breaks, and thankfully that is what a majority of the album gives you. A lot of saxophone is utilized giving their sound an eerie albeit free form setting without any room for compromise. Side two is comprised of one song that runs for 24:09. It's wasn't your typical prog-rock song mind you, keep in mind this was 1971 and these folks were making groundbreaking music. Today it's more commonplace for one song to go on for that long on a studio album, it does happen; however it's apt to be in live setting that it happens more often.

I have to give them credit, they were a force in music in Britain in their short lifespan and they helped to create a wake that many groups would continue after they dissolved.

Rating: 3.5/5

This could be a classic. Its so darn close, but there is one thing that knocks this from 5 stars all the way down to 3.5 stars. The vocals are very VERY BAD! Its to bad really because the rest of band is amazing. If you get past the atricious lyrics at the beginning of "Naked Death", fusion fans will find much to like, as it is an extended jam. The second track offers surprisingly pleasant vocals. Had the cd had vocals like this it may be a 4.5. Had the lyrics not been cheesy, it'd gain another half star making it a 5 - yes the vocals are that bad, sometimes they ruin a good thing. I am guessing tumbleweed was the bands attempt to make a radio friendly track. And in the last two, the nasty vocals return. But get past those and the actual music on Embryonic fusion is just as good as track 1.

OK, I'm reviewing this classic proto-prog album of the early seventies (jazz-rock oriented) after my critique regarding the music features of a Mexican Band-Iconoclasta- whose approach is similar, even though the creativity of these latter is inferior in comparison to Catapilla. Well in my opinion the unique defect concerning this debut album is its weak production (otherwise tipically characterizing almost the majority of the 70's proto-prog works, except on a few works by Colosseum for instance...);then consider the psychedelic elements inside (another typical feature of that period), but brilliantly supported by the uneven vocal parts: in fact sometimes Anna Meek overdoes things by screaming too much, while in other circumstances She's more pleasant and her melodic approach as well. Therefore if you regard the good variety of harmonic solutions in their technical execution,being sometimes prolix during the development of their long last suite, but always inspiring in the second section, the present work can complete your collection of proto prog music of the early seventies and in the best manner...as an historical document for all seasons!!

Good 1970s Hard Rock

I just had to get hold of an Arkama 180g repress of this to find out why people feel compelled to spend up to $500 on an original. Must be amazing, right?

Well no, not really.

Once you've got over the come-down of finding out that there's nothing supernaturally brilliant about this album and start concentrating on the music, it's just slightly better than average garage/jam rock music, with no outstanding musicianship - but nothing painful. That includes the vocals of Anna Meek, which seem to constantly come up for scrutiny - they're really not bad at all - quite inspired in places, a bit like Skin (Deborah Anne Dyer) from Skunk Anansie, with plenty of slighty over the edge passion and energy, but overly loose in the more quiet sections to the point of slightly embarrassing.

Time to get stuck into the music :o)

"Naked Death", apart from having a great title, has a great intro - not crashing in as you might expect, but sensitive percussion followed by a haunting sax refrain. Then the music crashes in.

A bunch of slightly cheesey but palatable early seventies style riffs are nicely interspersed with hushed quiter moments. The musicianship of the guitarist (or lack of) really shows itself here, and the band do not develop a confident groove - which is a shame, as the music itself lends itself to being well and truly grooved up. I listen to this and hear the potential, rather than the music, which I find slightly uncomfortable and distracting.

On the plus side, the sax solo is rather nice, and the instrumental backing with wah- wah guitars, thudding bass and light drums something you might have heard as the backing track to the trendy seventies film of your choice - just a groove built around a couple of chords, no progression or development - just nice, if slightly over-loose and over-long.

A guitar solo picks this up, but it's all basic blues scale stuff, and the bass player seems to feel the need to solo at the same time - and you can tell he's the type of bass player that plays with his knees bent, looking studiously at his fingers with perhaps a few beads of sweat appearing on his brow. The guitarist probably has a cigarette in his mouth, his eyes tightly shut with an expression one minute of bliss, the next of agony, as his fingers roll inexpertly around the blues scales.

Other wind players have a go at soloing too, but no-one has any real ideas of how to progress or develop this number, and it's just a 15 and a half minute multiple jam, no- one really getting what anyone else is doing, but everyone trying very hard to find their little niche.

The verse and chorus are somewhat audaciously reprised once the soloing finally finishes, and the ending is a great surprise.

About 11 minutes of this song should have been left in the rehearsal studio. Great songs can come out of jams, and really, really accomplished musicians can build entire pieces out of them. Catapilla as a band wrote a good song here, but

"Tumbleweed" is more like it - this sounds like what Catapilla were really about, but this is where Anna Meek's voice really doesn't work - she sounds like Joni Mitchell with added vibrato. The overall sound is a kind of typical early 1970s party song - reminding me a little of Shocking Blue, with touches of Grand Funk Railroad, overlaid with wind arrangements that remind me of the great swing bands of the 1940s. Nice sound, slightly below average execution, enjoyable song with a couple of nice changes, but nothing you wouldn't hear done better elsehwere.

"Promises" puts the seal on it - the wah-wah guitar, wind puctuation, slightly ham-fisted bass lines just epitomises the sound of this band for me, and there's a stronger energy to this song than we've had so far. The sudden change to a sweeping section is a great surprise, spoiled only slightly by the execution. I'd like to have heard Anna Meek do the whole Skin thing during this song, because when she gets it right, it's scary - especially given the context of when this was made.

There's a nice middle "8" (more like 32, but I'm not going to count them...) with stalky wind over ominous guitar and bass. This feels more progressive than anything we've heard so far, and stops the album from falling into the "for collectors/fans only" bin completely.

"Embryonic Fusion" is a better title than piece; The title completely and accurately sums up the piece better than I could. Think everything I've said about the album so far, then extend it to 24 minutes - but put in a few marker points which stop the piece from being a total jam session.

The other reviewers sum this up well too - the wind arrangements work very well indeed, but Anna Meek does not use her voice very well on the whole, and tends to have intonation issues (which are highlighted, not solved by the double tracking, excessive chorus and dry reverb) wherever she is not singing "can belto". However you can hear what she is trying to achieve, and there can be no doubting her creative imagination, just her powers of putting all of her vision into reality.

Catapilla's first album is full of potential - which is kind of OK for a debut, but not enough to sell it to anyone looking for professional, artistic or even strongly passionate music. If you simply must have everything released on the Vertigo "swirl" label, then this is for you, otherwise, buy only if you actually enjoy listening to garage bands jamming without progressing.

Prog Rating (Is it progressive): 2/10 Rock Rating (Does it rock?): 7/10 Creativity Rating (Are the artists pushing their style to the limits?): 7/10 Musicianship Rating (Do the artists execute the music well?): 4/10 Enjoyment Rating (Do I like it?): 6/10

Total : 26/50 = 52%, or 3 and a bit stars. Good, but definitely non-essential.

Oh dear. I've been listening to progressive rock for more than 15 years and I was wondering if there were some hidden gems... and I've found one ! Thanks to Progarchives ! Catapilla's first and second (review coming) are definitely classics and might I say "masterpieces" ? I haven't given many 5 stars but this album deserves it. Such creativity and energy in the longer tracks. I found the music to have the same feeling or driving force as King Crimson had in the 70s. Goodness ! I had not heard so much passion in music for a long time ! Don't mind the date of issue (1971). If you like progressive rock with a touch of blues, fusion and sometimes psychedelic singing and jamming, not to mention the superb playing... Get this album !

A small garden pest munching its way through the Apple of convention...?

The cover art on this album seems to symbolize the attitude of the band and their music - conventional music and establishment styles being nibbled away by brave unconventional music - commercially brave as this their debut and "Changes" which followed, even being released on Philips' own dizzy experimental record label Vertigo failed to reach a mass audience, both albums remain highly collectable rarities, though in latter years with the resurgence of interest in interesting unusual music brought on by mundane formulaeic pop fodder on offer through the media, record companies such as Akarma have capitalised on this interest and reissued some amazingly underrated albums from the archives, allowing us to enjoy these overlooked classics at last - some for the worse, but in Catapilla's case, much to the better! The attractive gatefold sleeve pictues a nibbled apple, leaving just the core on the reverse.

But down to the album, the music is far from mundane - much of it consists of hypnotic grooves and jams, the vocalist allowing the musicians a lot of space to improvise between verses. The first track "Naked Death" deals with a theme common on both albums, disenchantment with society and the environment in general ;

"With tasty, silent and naked hands, the breaking days ways their commerce, the routine grey face broke on fools we lay down bound to all these rules" and "Staying impotent, settling down, just means that death, comes fast around" ....you get the picture..? not exactly optimistic, but such pessimistic lyrics were common at the time, "Past dustbins filled with stray cartoons, garbage cans and rusty bins, the stream of life calls, we divide, the time and fear that we deny".

At over fifteen minutes the track features some nice guitar riffs and sax solos, the music is reminiscent of Colosseum in style, jam-like, and Anna Meek's wild vocals (comparisons with a posh Julie Driscoll could be valid here) are an acquired taste, but fit in with the music perfectly. There could be style comparisons made here with Curved Air who came some years later to great commercial success, proving much early seventies obscure music was very ahead of its time in my opinion. The next track, a short song called "Tumbleweed" is on the theme of a woman musing how her children could turn out;

"Cooking up a daydream about being somebody's auntie. Planning, living out of fantasies of having a child of your own. And if the child had his mother's eyes and his mother's nose, he's got the same dimpled smile as his grandad",

The vocals are more restrained on this simple song. "Promises" kicks into a Jazz/Rock groove, the song is about broken promises and disillusionment; "Promises you made to me, of freedom love and luxury, are now part of an history's back numbers. The liberties that you are taking Ensure that people's shaking, would eventually whip us from this slumber." Anna's voice is given full rein on this track as she screeches her way through those angry lyrics - sounds like my ex!

Side 2 brings us to the 24 minute "Embryonic Fusion", a rather grand title but is exactly that, it features some great moments. The piece is too structured to be a jam, and features some nice sax solos and wailing vocals from Anna, and characteristically dramatic lyrics;

" A thunderous cave crashed by lightning, its measure outmost wild. Under this fury, the rose has grown, a rose, so rich, so pure."

The track has various changes of tempo, from a swaying rhythm in the opening, punctuated by short sax and guitar solos, to a Jazz Rock beat throughout most of the piece which slows down to a slower tempo giving Anna's full range to improvise her oos and aahs between verses -

"Her rich perfume, in vitrum expansive royal to take, to take away his own bay billboard. It's a beast, come and take her honey, but please go away, away, to see, go away to see".

We then kick into a faster Chicago-style Jazz Rock groove and nice sax solos for the remainder of the album, and rounds off with a rousing finale, overall a very entertaining album and an interesting example of early seventies experimentation if not completely successful at the time, an excellent addition..!

Bordering on completely unlistenable, no thanks to the screechy banshee vocals of Anna Meek, and not to mention this band tries to mine the same territory as Van Der Graaf Generator but gets nowhere close to VDGG's level of brilliance or artistic success. The longer pieces just have too much filler and aimless noodling to even threaten to be interesting. I had some hopes for "Embryonic Fusion" at the outset, but again, Meek's awful vocals ruined any hope of that. PASS

Interesting short-lived UK band,formed in late-60's in West London.Their first eponymous LP,released by Vertigo Label in 1971,was produced by ''Black Sabbath's'' manager Patrick Meehan.With a clever artwork,showing a caterpillar cutting off a ''psychedelic'' apple,''Catapilla'' was a very experimental album,featiring female vocalist Anna Meek and three wind-instrumentalists.Really hard to describe their sound,CATAPILLA's style is based on psych-inspired guitars,tons of sax solos and strong aggresive vocals by Anna Meek.There is a lot of space for jazzy improvisations and if you could imagine a cross between COLLOSEUM or NUCLEUS with JEFFERSON AIRPLANE,you're quite close to how this band sounds like.''Catapilla'' is one of the most daring examples of a band,who succesfully blended brass-rock with psych/progressive rock with nice results.A great debut indeed!

I'm usually a sucker for great jazz-fusion combos that can lay down a mean jam, but there are times when the jams don't result in me getting excited about the music. Case in point, this English jazz-rock group with the unusual name Catapilla.

The sound is cluttered with saxophones, but the guitars do break out and give nice riffs/solos. The band overall plays a brand of jazz-rock not dissimilar to that of Chicago's, but the compositions come only to knee's height of Chicago's calibre.

Here's how I see CATAPILLA; if the song is under ten minutes, it's not terrible. If the song is over ten minutes, prepare for the underwhelming soloing exercises. Either way, you'll have to put up with the strange vocals of one Anna Meek, a woman who sounds like a hybrid of Grace Slick and Eddie Vedder.

I can explain my love for the two shorter songs by making my case against the longer ones. For ''Naked Death'', the song starts out nicely but later trudges into ten minutes of the least exciting jamming I've heard in my life. This is saying something from the man that kisses the throne of Chicago's ''Liberation''. ''Embryonic Fusion'' has more structure but still feels like it has to jam (filling out record space). I swear there's a part that feels like a three minute section is looped for ten minutes; plus, there's a spot where the guitar simply vanishes from the production.

''Promises'' and ''Tumbleweed'' really showcase what Catapilla could do in terms of songwriting and keeping the jams to a reasonable length. Interesting fusion but an incredible endurance test to listen to in one go.

Part of the extensive Vertigo stable of jazz-prog bands travelling in the wake of the mighty Colosseum, Catapilla's debut album is notable mainly for the vocals of Anna Meek, who this time around tends towards adopting a powerful Janis Joplin/Grace Slick roar as opposed to the Gilli Smyth-style space wails that would dominate the band's second album. The group as a whole is tight, but this time around show a certain lack of polish - there isn't much distinguishing them from any other group working this particular angle at this stage of their development, beyond Meek's vocals and the admittedly diverting sax playing from Hugh Eaglestone and Robert Calvert (no, not the Hawkwind Calvert, a different one).

The group would undergo some lineup changes and tighten up their style for the next album, which is generally superior; I'd only recommend this one to people who are absolutely in love with Changes, or to people who simply can't get enough of the Vertigo jazz-prog sound.

6/10

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.

One of those early progressive albums that positively drips with a hazy, late-sixties vibe, the debut album from little-known jazz-influenced outfit Catapilla is an underrated little gem blending elements of jazz, avant-garde folk, heavy prog and psychedelia to strange yet highly satisfying effect. Seven-strong, Catapilla's line-up featured Robert Calvert(no, not that one; Sax), Hugh Eaglestone(sax), Malcolme Frith(drums), Anna Meek(vocals), Thierry Reinhart(wind instruments), Graham Wilson(guitar) and David Taylor(bass), most of whom would re-appear on the groups second, and final, album 'Changes' a year later. With only four songs, this self-titled effort features a dense, multi-layered sonic tapestry of sounds, falling almost halfway between the jazz-flecked epics of Frank Zappa's more adventurous pieces and the fuzzy jazz-fusion of Nucleus and Soft Machine. The difference, however, are the deliberately manic vocals of Anna Meek, who squawks, sings, screams, howls and hollers her way right through the album in a show of pure, unbridled passion that needs to be heard to be (dis)believed. Of the four tracks - all are great - it is the final, firey epic 'Embryonic Fusion'(what a name) that finds the group at their most adventurous, the bleating saxophones, edgy guitars and skittering drums creating a swirling, almost mystical jazz journey that brings to mind the more eclectic works of Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock et al, though with a hard-rock edge that soaks everything with a late-night effect often found in the best of cool jazz. Highly recommended to all fusion fans as well as lovers of classic progressive rock, this debut album is a wonderfully obscure relic from bygone days. Enjoy.

STEFAN TURNER, STOKE NEWINGTON, 2012

Catapilla is one of those bands that never manage to survive in early '70's in prog rock realm. They've done two albums, the first one selftitle from 1971 is maybe their best one and most intresting but is not very diffrent then the second one Changes from next year. What we have here is eclectic brass prog with some jazzy psychedelic touches giving overall a very intresting atmosphere. The sax has an important role and having lots of space in solos combined with keybords and very unique and powerfull voice of Anna Meek. If I'm not very attached by the vocals here, the instrumental parts are quite ok, even great in places, Tumbleweed and Promises are the best from here, only 4 pieces, the last one Embryonic fusion has almost 25 min. A very intresting band for that period, very much in sound and manner of composing with lets say Flock among other with avant prog moments very well performed but I think the longer pieces has to much improvisation elements that at some point is little boring and aimless. Anyway a good album, good band they didn't gone with the flow in that period performing symphonic prog they optain for more avant jazzy prog quite original in places but in same time date it. The voice of Anna Meekis an acquired taste for sure. For me 3 stars, nothing more nothing less.

An eclectic group from the early Seventies, Catapilla released two contrasting albums that boasted a tough but playful female singer and were full of furious and hair-tearing heavy jazz rock. A seven- piece group that wielded two saxophone players and another member on additional wind instruments, their self-titled debut in 1971 delivered two extended epics of endless improvised jamming passages with additional shorter compact pieces, aided by a welcome dirty production and a ferocious lively energy.

Arriving with droning sax before a filthy blast of heavy snarling guitar, the almost sixteen minute opener `Naked Death' slugs the listener in the face right from the start. A heady brew of thick and purring upfront bass, a battery of rumbling drumming with sax sultry and sweaty one minute, maddening and unhinged the next. The bookended voice of Anna Meek is anything but, instead she's a gutsy tornado of Janis Joplin-esque howling that resembles a witch and a banshee violently making love! She's really there to introduce and close a lengthy jam of funky breaks, jazz-fusion embers and fuzzy acid-rock blaring electric guitars, making for an epic full of great foot-tapping, head-nodding power throughout. The groovy `Tumblewood' is almost poppier in comparison with a sweet reflective lyric and Anna's voice taking on a cooing, motherly warmth in between constant little bluesy soloing from the fellas, and `Promises' slinks with funky danger and plenty of If-like call- and-response honking sax blasts.

But best of all might be the twenty-four minute second side `Embryonic Fusion', a whirling and unrelenting storm of dual-sax demolition, drifting ruminative clarinet, pumping distorted bass, brooding organ, a battery of rambunctious drumming and scuzzy acid-rock guitar-slinging. Anna's deranged voice drifts ethereally then erupts with foaming acid back and forth, the epic seamlessly transitioning in and out of sprightly up-tempo pounding jazzy runs, sombre and noisy Soft Machine- flavoured breaks and break-neck dying assaults. Constantly reprising musical themes worked in reign all the constant jamming commotion in cohesively without sacrificing intensity and vigor, and it delivers a fiery and dynamic conclusion.

Singer Meek's mostly roaring vocal may be a divisive issue for some listeners, but there is just so much great playing squeezed onto this lengthy 49 minute album, and while the follow-up album may offer a bit more subtlety and variety, this debut makes for an addictive and raucous blast of power all its own.

Four stars, but add an extra half star if you can handle the vocals!

Have you tried this one yet?

Life is too short to listen to Yes and Marillion clones, have a real taste of something TRULY original. I had to dig deeper into this band: weird name, obscure LP with abysmal sales and even weirder art cover and even weirder singer.

Everything is here to give you a real challenge: long (but stimulating) rock jams of guitar-bass-drum-saxes and a singing style I never heard outside an asylum. Just by listening, you could think Anna Meek is the scariest woman you've met. The kind who would seduce you but stab you instantly after. I'm not joking: her style is atonal, dissonant and bordeline insane; a nice walk hand in hand with a woman raised by angry wolves.

Have you what it takes to tame this beast? Can you go through and come out sane? Can you find the conducting thread in this record and even...enjoy it?

A truly original experience, a solid sonic challenge and a FUN one at that.

Classic I-don't-give-a-crap record!