The embryonic voyage of Catapilla 

England, early seventies. Not many years are passed from the hights of UFO Club psychedelia and music almost lives on a whole new strange form of "underground" for a free generation. The key year is 1969: two innovative records breaks that landscape with strong ideas: the former, "In The Court Of The Crimson King", will unintentionally generate the symphonic progressive music; the latter, Colosseum's "Valentyne Suite", will start jazz-prog, a floating peronalized music that will search new structures and formulas. 
 Like Vertigo's neightbours Colosseum, the west-end londoners Catapilla are intrigued by the strange possibilities of this new multifaced explorative musical mix, a sort of "embryonic fusion". The early protagonists are Malcolm Frith, drums, Dave Taylor, bass, Graham Wilson, guitar, plus a wind section (Hugh Eaglestone, Robert Calvert, Thierry Rheinhart). Joe Meek is the early lead vocalist before the first album is recorded. 

The band direction can be described rapidly as "the canterbury sound in acid": an uneasy, but somewhat essential approach to jazz-prog, without symphonic traces as in other bands of the moment such as Affinity, Cressida, or Spring. In this way, Catapilla shows their strange form of modernism that keep them out from time shifting. Their extremism starts where is the end of british blues revival, with a lot of influences of psychedelic studio work approach and the oblique meaning of "total music" as imagined being and becoming at the end of sixties. 

The band find soon Orange Music management with Black Sabbath manager Patrick Meehan, that produces their first effort. The record is released and the cover image is just surprising. To a world that till that day was just decored with beatlesque "apples", Catapilla declare theirself as (truly) "caterpillar" that destroy that utopic perfection, starts tunnels, go penetrate and rotten the idea of british pop-sykedelia, eating the green ears of pepperland people too long lost in strawberry fields. 

In "Catapilla" perhaps the production is not so strong as it was necessary: however, the many instruments and the intricated fluxus of ideas keeps a notably fluidity. The long guitar axis explorations and winds go on and on searching ecstatic notes. "Naked Death" is almost 16 munutes and "Embryonic Fusion" surpasses the 24. The former has more to be confronted with esoteric bands of that period such as Room, Hannibal, Aquila, Brian Davison's Every Which Way, VDGG or the Neil Young in his more lenghty, bluesy efforts, than to "canterbury" bands such as Nucleus or Soft Machine. In fact the scope of Catapilla music is never to update Miles Davis, and in their non-focus we can find now something in many aspects fresh and new. 

 Very few are Catapilla gigs as headliner (a sort that they shared with all minor Vertigo bands), but helped to stimulate the band to new fronteers. Catapilla in 1971 find a new standard for "avantgarde pop music", meaning "pop" not as it is today conceived. With little exemples to follow, Catapilla can now produce a totally original sound but they fail to create some attention around them as bands such as Van Der Graaf Generator. Just VDGG with their psycho-drama seems the nearest to Catapilla, with Anna Meek witch-like vhispers à la Gilly Smith. 

There will be a Vertigo tour with Graham Bond and Roy Harper after the record. Eaglestone, Frith, Rheinhard and Taylor will be substitute with Bryan Hanson (drums), Ralph Rawlinson (keyboards) and Carl Wassard (bass). "Changes" is the result of the new line-up, a true masterpiece, four tracks particularly well-produced with strange effects in studio, with a sound rather underwater-like. 

"Changes" is a record particularly otherwordly. Every picture seems not onlu played, but a particular state (or illness) of the mind. I.e., "Reflections" opens with a cappella vocal intro that sounds like sampled music from another galaxy/universe (and sampled certainly it isn't, we are in full 1971). The effect is a "liquid movement" that transcend the formal idea of "progressive music" in a cosmic way. The notes are in some point of the record such as surrounded by a circular echo, as a stone throw in the water: an idea that can sound strange but it seems very avantgardish also in 2001. 

The incredible beauty of "Reflection", by itself, can push to buy this record (I did something like this many years ago). Surely "Changes" could be astonishing and astounding for many and many listeners of today that never will hear a "progressive record". 
 
© by Stanz -> http://web.tiscali.it/catapilla