MUSIC FROM LEFT FIELD

Cartoon's debut album was impressive in part because they were able to give the impression of a sprawling lineup with just a trio to hand; for their second album, they add more personnel, but otherwise they still occupy the hinterland between Zappa, Canterbury, and the RIO scene. As the clown on the cover may suggest, the RIO side of their sound this time draws a little less on Henry Cow and a bit more on Samla Mammas Manna, due to a similar interest in working circus music into the equation, though for an idea of just how spawling their range of influences is just listen to the epic opener Quotes and see how many musical references you can find tucked in there. (They even start playing the piano opening to Lennon's Imagine at one point). Never reissued on CD in full, most of this can be found on the Sortie collection, which trims off the admittedly rather disposable Trio in order to fit this and the debut album onto one disc, but Sortie is some 30 years past at this point; surely a new reissue is overdue?