Canterbury Scene Music

The Gilgamesh album opens with the three-piece-suite: "One End More / Phil's Little Dance - For Phil Miller's Trousers / Worlds Of Zin". With a total running time of over ten minutes in this opening number, there's plenty of time for a wild excursion into typical experimental Canterbury Scene territory. It's mostly laid-back instrumental Jazzy music, focusing mainly on keyboards, electric guitar and delicate understated percussion, with occasional harmonising vocals courtesy of Amanda Parsons. This dynamic and ever-changing style of inventive Jazz Fusion will be instantly recognisable to fans of Hatfield & the North and National Health, so even if you've never heard this particular Gilgamesh album before, listening to this album on the record player will sound as comfortably familiar as wearing a comfy woolly sweater or donning a pair of fluffy carpet slippers that have been warmed-up by the fire. Having been introduced to the album, it's now time to meet "Lady and Friend", which opens as a tranquil keyboard piece to put one in a relaxed frame of mind, but be prepared for the occasional outburst of strident electric guitar when you least expect it. This is like the kind of cool Jazz you might hear played in a cocktail lounge, only this endlessly entertaining music comes shaken and stirred with a slice of lemon and a cherry on top. Notwithstanding the fact that the complex instrumental Jazz on this album has so far been as enigmatic as the mysterious legend of Gilgamesh, "Notwithstanding" takes us into even wilder exotic realms of musical experimentation, which will no doubt leave fans of the Canterbury Scene sound awestruck in amazement at the musical proficiency on display here. For the uninitiated though, this may be one step beyond what is enjoyable or even listenable.

Arriving at Side Two now comes "Arriving Twice", a short and sweet, pleasant stroll along the mellow Canterbury Scene trail. We come to the second of the three extended three-piece-suites on the album now with "Island Of Rhodes / Paper Boat - For Doris / As If Your Eyes Were Open". It's a seven-minute pleasure cruise opening in calm waters, but with occasional large waves in the shape of dynamic keyboard and guitar runs. This is music that should come supplied with a windbreaker and a sou'wester hat, as it's a constantly changing fusion of Jazz and Rock, charting an unpredictable course through some choppy windswept waters. It's time now to spare a thought "For Absent Friends", a gentle acoustic guitar diversion running at just over one minute long, and we're all at sea again with the final three-piece suite "We Are All / Someone Else's Food / Jamo And Other Boating Disasters - From The Holiday Of The Same Name." There are no real surprises in store here. It's a very familiar 8-minute-long pleasure trip aboard the good ship Canterbury for another weird and wonderful excursion into the outer reaches of complex Jazz Fusion. To play us out now comes "Just C", a 45-second-long gentle tinkling of the keyboards to put one in a relaxed and mellow frame of mind.

This Canterbury Scene album of experimental Jazz Fusion will almost certainly appeal to fans of Hatfield & the North and National Health, so even if you've never heard this album before, you'll know exactly what to expect from Gilgamesh if you're at all familiar with those two legendary bands of the Canterbury Scene. If you've already headed up the Great North Road to the sound of Hatfield & the North and picked up a prescription for National Health on the way, then Gilgamesh would make an ideal third stop-off point on the musical journey along the Canterbury Scene trail.

  1975: Gilgamesh - Gilgamesh - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGfb2R92OHul3x-CqZ-98b5x_jTK5V6xL

  1978: Gilgamesh - Another Fine Tune You've Got Me Into - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nqt4337ICei0okkug7Mk73cdviOD2_MSQ

There's plenty of time for "Reflection" on this opening 12-minute-long, psychedelic Jazz-Rock freak out. If you're on a mission to boldly go where no man (or woman) has gone before to explore strange new music and to seek out "new" artists and "new" albums, then beam up right here and be transported back nearly 50 years in time and have a listen to this extended and exotic psychedelic Jazz-Rock Jam session. "Reflection" features echoey swirling vocals, a reverberant saxophone atmospherically phasing in and out and the ever-present sound of a psychedelic acid guitar soaked in reverb. If you're in an insouciant mood, then a bright sunburst of unrestrained Jazz-Rock "painted" in vibrant psychedelic colours might be just what you need. Be prepared for a dramatic metamorphosis eight and a half minutes into the song though, when this Catapilla song emerges like a beautiful butterfly into a floaty hypnotic ambience of swirling and echoey sound where you can be carried away peacefully into a sea of love and heavenly dreams. This music is groovy, baby! Returning to Earth now and our destination is London for "Charing Cross". This begins as a lovely laid-back and mellow Jazz-Rock groove. Prepare to be carried away by the soaring and uplifting vocals from Anna Meek with a cool saxophonist in accompaniment. There's a dramatic change of pace midway through the song though, when there's a sudden burst of energy and the song barrels out of "Charing Cross" station with all the power of a diesel locomotive daubed in psychedelic rainbow colours.

Side Two opens with "Thank Christ for George". There's no clue as to who the mysterious George might be, but putting that aside, it's another 12-minute-long psychedelic Jazz-Rock jam, featuring those lovely swirling and mellifluous vocals from Anna Meek with the gorgeously smooth and sophisticated sound of the saxophone in accompaniment. It's another two-part number, beginning as an uptempo and upbeat psychedelic Jazz groove and emerging into a slow dreamlike sequence where you may be tempted to just lay back and let the hypnotic and transcendental waves of music wash over you in an ocean of calm and peaceful serenity. If you haven't quite reached the heights of musical nirvana just yet, then the final meditative laid-back instrumental groove on the album, "It Could Only Happen to Me", might just help get you there. . It's seven minutes of sheer unadulterated psychedelic joy and saxophonic delight!

This mesmerising album of hypnotic beauty is like a potful of calming musical nirvana without the aid of marijuana. In the same way as nature can transform a grubby caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly, the British band Catapilla have transformed sound into beautiful music with this marvellous album of Jazz-Rock drenched in bright and radiant psychedelic colours.