The pain comes when the
album, still but an acetate, is played through, the lights come on and it was a corker
– a veritable 35 minutes of ear-tingling joy. "Sorry no copies available for at
least a month."
USUAL QUALITY
The packed room of
journalists and media-men in unison sighed that audible display of frustration that comes
when the palate has been treated to a most exquisite dish …then told to come to the
banquet next week.
The title track "Catch
Bull At Four" is on first hearing a marked development for Cat. For while the usual
quality hallmarks like high-strung melodies, exotically shifting rhythms and harmoniously
plucking guitar are all in evidence his voice has opened considerably.
One track is about a
"boy with the moon and stars on his head." Six minutes of Cat’s new found
metallic voice over Alun Davies’ busy acoustically-cutting guitar which etches a
vivid backcloth. The words wafted in one ear ….. triggered rare evocative emotions of
captured love …. Then sped through and out of the other ear leaving a desire to hear
it all over again.
Then comes one that again
has that tight membrane-bursting vocal and an instrumental backing as electricity charged
as the sound of 500 Swan Vestas being slowly scratched over coarse abrasive sandpaper. It
sparks, hisses, and finally flares into flamboyant flame fanned by machine gun drumming.
LIGHT AS A CAKE
Then sounds of a morning
songbird, piping flute over virtuoso violin … a melody as breathlessly light as a
Kipling cake! As Cat mentioned in his recent interview with Disc – he feels music as
a sexual release. The perfect example of that is "a track with" a sensuous
rakish voice that informs you that "Love heats my blood …. So let’s live
for today." No wonder this is being considered for a single. |
|
By the second side of the
album, I was too weak and drunk with music to make exacting notes …. But I recall
hearing a piece with heavy major chord changes breaking into teardrop violin that swelled
into a sea of orchestral tears, fuzzy bass-lines that started out at a trot developed into
a canter, and ended at breakneck full gallop and vibrant driving piano.
The show stealer was
"O Caritas" a song by Cat and Jeremy Taylor and sung in Latin! All over a hot
olive scented Mediterranean music. Greek style bouzoukis and Spanish rhythms ….. no
wonder when the track faded a voice at the back was heard to say "Ole Kebob!"
The
last track is like a smokey
smouldering log fire –
the warm embers of this
song will help us all through
the bitter cold winter ahead
(there’s pessimism
in August for you!) as it
glows and flickers on your
turntable. The lyric through
is a plea to end destructive
attitudes. |
