87/94

The six compositions on this compilation CD from the Italian band Cage sound very melodic, pleasant and alternating. The English vocals are decent but no more than that. The strong point is the tension between the mellow parts with classical piano and the more fiery and bombastic parts with harder-edged guitarwork, tastefully layered with duo-keyboard play (organ, piano, Mellotron, synthesizers). The highlight is the long track "The feebleminded man" (20.57) featuring many shifting moods, a strong and dynamic rhythm-section, fiery electric guitar and many fluent synthesizer flights. The most captivating moment is the final part: first tender piano and soft vocals, then ominous guitar that gradually culminates in biting, the atmosphere turns into very bombastic and finally there is an exciting duel between spectacular guitar and flashy synthesizer. This is a good and entertaining progrock CD but I would like to make a deal with every Italian band: please sing in Italian, I will award this with an extra star, OK?

As far as I know this Italian band never released a studio album although they did release an EP which featured the 21 minute track "The Feebleminded Man" which is also on this compilation cd. The songs here were composed between 1987 and 1994 as the title suggests. The music reminded me of GENESIS at times and features some beautiful piano playing and melodic guitar.The vocals are in English and are well done.

"Again Autumn" is an instrumental and one of my favourites. We get to hear the heavenly piano playing right away before synths and drums build to a full sound. The guitar joins in and it sounds really good. There is a nice contrast between the mellower piano passages and the more bombastic sections that follow. The frequency of this increases towards the end of the song. If is the most GENESIS-like track on here in my opinion, and it's on this song that we hear vocals for the first time. Some blistering guitar before 3 minutes with an impressive section to follow of different sounds coming and going quickly.

"The Feeble Minded Man" is that 21 minute epic i was talking about earlier. And as much as they offer up twists and turns and shifts in tempo like you would expect on such a long track, this one doesn't hold my attention at all. Sure it has it's moments but i would have prefered more interesting shorter songs. "The Chapter" opens with a fairly heavy 1 1/2 minute intro before it settles down with drums, bass and guitar. The tempo picks up and the piano leads the way. Vocals 4 1/2 minutes in. Guitar and some good drumming before piano ends it. "Riding The Deep" is another instrumental. It is fairly mellow for the first 2 minutes before a full sound with drums and synths lead the way. Nice sound.The contrast continues. "Thinkin' All" ranks right up there with the opening track for me. Vocals and piano get things started but it's the guitar that soars a minute in that I really like as the drums pound away. Synths follow.

Good but not essential by any means. An enjoyable listen though.

A very talented band hailing from Carrara,Italy,CAGE were found in 1987,toured constantly in the central and northy part of Italy and recorded their first ''lost'' album ''The feeble-minded man'' in 1993.Soon after they disbanded to reunite in 2000 and release a great compilation entitled ''87/94'' in 2005.This work contains material from their first early period,including the 21-min. epic ''The feeble-minded man''.Heavily influenced by bands like GENESIS,YES and KING CRIMSON,they create beautiful soundscapes based on the excellent analog-keyboard sounds,the melodic guitar parts and the needed synthesizer flights in the vein of MAGELLAN.They also make massive use of the piano to add a more symphonic feel to their compositions,while some of the complex or atmospheric guitar passages will remind you of ROBERT FRIPP.All in all,this is a very pleasant and enjoyable effort,which will be well-received by most of the prog community.