Catalyst: "A Tear And A Smile"

Catalyst is one of those groups I thought I’d never find on original vinyl.  They only made four albums for the Cobblestone and Muse labels, all of which are incredibly obscure, even by rare groove standards.  Their fourth and last, “A Tear And A Smile,” may be the rarest of the bunch, and is by a long shot the funkiest.  While their earlier records featured sporadic soul-jazz jamming in the midst of heady, almost avant-garde spiritual cuts, “Tear…” is no-holds-barred funk-fusion.  The opening track, “The Demon,” is broken into two parts, starting with a grim, dirge-like synth-funk groove, moving through a hard fusion section, finally bursting into all-out street-funk towards the end.  Other highlights include “Fifty Second Street Boogie Down,” which is as earthy and strutting as its title suggests, and the haunting “Suite For Albeniz,” a series of variations on a Spanish-flamenco theme that beats groups like Weather Report at the whole “world-fusion” game.  In the ‘70’s, fusion groups were a dime a dozen, but very few ever sounded this intense, or committed to their craft.  It is truly a shame that, after “A Tear And A Smile” failed to make a major (or even minor) commercial impact, the Philadelphia-based band called it quits.