CARTOON

A tight little trio that manage to sound like a sprawling band, Cartoon were an avant-prog unit operating out of Arizona whose debut represents a thumb to the eye of commercial expectations. Like the Muffins, Cartoon blended the humour and compositional rigour of early Frank Zappa with influences from the RIO and Canterbury scenes, though to my ears Cartoon lean a little lighter on the Canterbury and a little heavier on the Henry Cow-ish side than the Muffins do. A few symphonic touches are thrown in here and there, such as a little lift from Beethoven in album opener Shark. Unjustly overlooked, perhaps some progressive label could look into doing a rerelease of this one, because it doesn't deserve the obscurity it's been languishing in.