Centipede
Septober Energy
Centipede's Septober Energy (1971), released on RCA and produced by jazz pianist Keith Tippett, is a sprawling double-album manifesto of British avant-garde jazz-rock that brings together an enormous ensemble of more than fifty musicians, including members of King Crimson, Soft Machine, and other key figures of the Canterbury and progressive scenes. Conceived as a large-scale orchestral jazz composition, the record blends free improvisation, electric jazz fusion, progressive rock dynamics, and contemporary classical textures into dense, explosive soundscapes driven by brass and woodwind sections, dual drummers, electric guitars, and Tippett's commanding piano. The music moves between chaotic, high-energy collective improvisations and more structured, thematic passages, creating an intense, sometimes overwhelming listening experience that reflects the experimental fervor of early-1970s British music. Though polarizing for its scale and abstraction, Septober Energy stands as one of the most ambitious large-ensemble jazz-rock projects ever recorded, capturing a moment when boundaries between jazz, rock, and the avant-garde were being radically dissolved.