Cressida Asylum (1971)

More highly melodic progressive rock, this time built around longer songs and extended instrumental passages – among the latter, "Munich," which was alternately titled "Munich 1938: Appeasement Was the Cry; Munich 1970: Mine to Do or Die," was surprisingly accessible at nine minutes and change, built on Peter Jennings' extended organ cadenzas embellished with John Culley's crisp electric guitar flourishes, all wrapped around a pleasing array of melodies that easily carry the song's length. The three extended numbers that comprised the original LP's side two also make for fascinating listening, Angus Cullen's McCartneyesque vocals calling to mind the Moody Blues in their prime, while the band's hard, at times slightly jazzy, instrumental attack evokes echoes of Caravan with, perhaps, a touch of the most energetic of Deep Purple's Jon Lord-spawned classical experiments.

Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music
5 stars CRESSIDA’s “Asylum” is a wonderful example of early British symphonic progressive rock. This 1971 release mixes catchy Paul McCartney-esque vocals with adventurously colorful instrumental passages.

Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce a 2CD Anthology by the legendary Progressive Rock group Cressida. One of the finest groups to sign to the legendary Vertigo label in 1969, Cressida’s unique Progressive Rock style earned them a loyal fan base in the early 1970s, with their legend growing over the ensuing decades and their followers growing, with notable aficionados including Mikael Akerfeldt of the band Opeth. The roots of Cressida were sown in March 1968, when guitarist John Heyworth answered an advertisement in Melody Maker, and later travelled to London to join The Dominators. With vocalist Angus Cullen he settled down to some serious writing, eventually welcoming bassist Kevin McCarthy and drummer Iain Clark to the fold and now calling themselves Charge…

1971 was perhaps the best year for the lesser known British bands who still found themselves in the proto-prog category. Such acclaimed albums as Cressida's "Asylum", Beggar's Opera's "Waters of Change" and of course Spring's self-titled album were released that year. But while these albums are well known to at least progressive rock fans, Deep Feeling's album from the same year seems to be strangely forgotten, even if it occasionally boasted a higher degree of complexity than the earlier mentioned bands…