Karadara The Cream Of C Cat Trance

In the mid eighties, after the release of anthem 'Hungry, So Angry' and album The Glitterhouse, Rees Lewis, the distinctive element (voice and sax) of currently obscure but hip funksters Medium Medium, left and with drummer Nigel Stone started C-Cat Trance. They produced world and dance sounds ahead of their time and, with a floating membership varying between two and eight, they toured Europe, and released a series of albums on Red Flame/Ink Records through the late eighties.

Evident influences range from Beefheart through Parliament and Can to a variety of traditional musics (most conspicuously middle Eastern); C-Cat Trance pre-figured bands like Jah Wobble's Raiders, Enigma and a host of dance and world acts. They received consistent acclaim. Lewis' sax playing was described in the press as 'lung emptying sax', 'striking sax', 'sax bleats', 'groaning sax', 'skittering sax', screeching sax', 'wild sax', 'wailing sax', 'powerful sax', cloudy night-time sax', 'searing sax', 'sax breaks that wail like a maitresse in nipple clamps', 'sax explosions like splittering glass', 'growling sax', 'simmering, potent and seductive sax', 'bad tempered sax', 'stark sax', 'vengeful, uncouth sax', 'itchy aggressive sax'. He is now probably one of the most sampled snake charmer players this side of Kandy - almost any dance tune with horn in the title.

The tracks on Karadara: The Cream of . are selected from the first E.P. and the albums Zouave, Khamu, Play Masenko Combo and Les Invisibles. The selection also includes five unreleased tracks recorded for an album which coincided with Red Flame's demise, hence 'Karadara', which is Sinhalese for 'Trouble'.