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Review:
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This Italian band is rooted in 1987, soon they took
part in several shows, festivals and competitions in cities
like Sienna, Rome and Milan. In 1992 Cage got a contract
from the label Toast in Torino and in the same year they
released the single View. A year later Cage released their
first album entitled The Feebleminded Man. In 1994 Cage
appeared on the Italian TV with a video clip but later that
year several members decided to work on their own musical
ideas. However, in 2000 they joined again and devoted themselves
to a new project, to be heard on the demo that Cage recorded
in March 2001. Cage appeared on the satellite channel Rock
TV and in 2003 the band recorded the CD entitled 87-94.
It contains 6 very melodic, pleasant and alternating songs
(recorded between 1987 and 1994) with a lot of tension between
between the mellow parts with Grand piano and the more fiery
and bombastic parts with harder-edged guitarwork, tastefully
layered with duo-keyboard play (organ, piano, Mellotron,
synthesizers). Since that promising album we had to wait
5 years until Musea released this new CD entitled Secret
Passage.***
On Secret Passage the six-piece band Cage features
dual-keyboardplay and a guest-musician on flute in one track.Three
songs are recorded in 2007, four in 2008 and one is a live
track “some years ago, somewhere” ... as the bands writes
in the booklet. I am impressed by the variety in the 8 compositions,
the skills of the musicians and the awesome interplay (The
Scream as the best example). In comparison with their previous
effort entitled 87/94, Cage delivers a more jazzrock-oriented
sound like Movements (delicate fretless bass work), Bitter
Honey (flashy synthesizer solo and harder-edged guitar solo),
Marta (subtle volume pedal guitar, sparkling piano and a
strong build-up with exciting interplay between guitar and
organ), Time To Go Back Home (great dynamic atmosphere in
the end) and M31 (an exciting guitarsolo with strong build-up
and omnipresent electric piano work). Remarkably: the titletrack
is a solo piece on classical guitar with hints from Steve
Hackett and in The Scream the vocals are mighty close to
The Watch’s singer Simone Rossetti.***
In my opinion Cage has made a captivating blend of Classic
Prog and jazzrock, more mature and elaborate than ever before!
www.progwalhalla.com
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