HOUSE OF CARDS

Rich Casey's second album "House Of Cards" is a huge leap forward from his excellent first album. This new CD has less instrumentals, with more vocals by guest Gabrielle Agachiko; her dulcet tones lend more credibility to the melodies. The songs are more structured for the most part, with little of the '80's new age synth blips and bleeps which appeared on the first album. There are also less obvious references to Genesis than before; some traces still exist: there are a couple of nods to Nursery Cryme era organ, and some Wind & Wuthering string stylings, but for the most part, Casey has come into his own sound. It's heavily keyboarded: even drum samples are not used in many songs- percussive synth chords take over instead. Symphonic in nature, the melodies tend to be melancholic, and are easily remembered, with lots of mellotron-styled samples. All in all, another album which demands to be heard frequently. I'm already looking forward to the next one.