CASTLE FUSION

Castle Fusion are/were a band formed in 2006. They are from Ostia Italy just southwest of Rome. As their line-up solidified over the next six years, they were a group of music students at the joyous height of exploration into music of all stripes. They played a good amount of live shows and even some prestigious ones in Rome. Being huge fans of all music, but UK prog in particular it would seem, they even performed "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers" suite to a large audience. Perusing their social media was to note that these guys loved everything from classic rock to jazz to experimental to progressive rock. It is this wide-eyed spirit of music fandom that would inform their own 2012 self-titled release. Unfortunately, a year or two after the CD release, the band's social media went silent, and there is little else out there to indicate any kind of band activity has continued. We may have another wonderful RPI one-off on our hands here. That would truly be a shame because this band should have a second act.

The various songs of Castle Fusion are a delectable sampler platter of progressive rock styles ranging from symphonic to jazz fusion to modern with even some world music, folk, and chamber music intrusion. The vocals are a mixture of English and Italian. Depending on your preferences, their approach could be good or bad. Because every song is quite different, there is a great wealth of variety---eclectic indeed---but if you like your albums to have a singular style or a good deal of song-to-song continuity, you may leave this party in a huff (which would be a mistake). The songs feel more like strangers than siblings to each other. The songwriting is naturally adventurous and youthful, at turns complex or melodic, but the playing is consistently strong. While young, these guys were good players already, and they supplement the standard rock instrumentation with brass and woodwinds. With the blending of modern and classic prog aspirations, they seem to have achieved a hybrid, personal Castle Fusion sound that transcends charges of retro-chasing, yet it also avoids the chilly pitfalls of some modern bands.

To offer a bit more detail, the 12-minute "Rose Wind Mask" is quite the eye-popping opener with swelling mellotron sounds, tons of piano, and almost a soft early-Genesis feel. Loving the precise somewhat-Collins-esque drumming. "Flowing" has a dizzying Gentle Giant thing going, quite intense with powerful vocals. "Kwaheri" (the Swahili word for "goodbye") actually drops a shot of world music into the middle of a spirited jam---it sounds like Osibisa crashed the session---definitely not your everyday symph-rock experience. "Preludio" is a somber, disquieting but thoughtful piece of 'musique concrete' that serves as a nice breather from the album's heavier sections. "Iridi" comes back with a short and sweet "Italian songs" number that would not seem out of place on a Battisti album. "Apolide" treats fans of pastoral, pretty symphonic initially, but it still has some curveballs to navigate, some saucy forks in the road. "Ten Strokes" closes with another epic track, bookending the album with the two long pieces. This one is about a dream, and the vibe certainly feels dreamlike. Flute and bassoon swirl with acoustic guitars before the band kicks in some genuine surprises and a grand ending. All together, a delightful piece of their collective hearts left for the ages.

Like Architrave Indipendente, Semiramis, or Apoteosi before them, Castle Fusion is another remarkably solid and deep debut for such a young band. The musicianship is strong, the songwriting is creative and never boring, and yet the production is not too bad for a low budget project. If you can still find a copy of this CD, you would be wise to snap it up before they are gone. I think any RPI fan with a deep bench collection is going to want this on his or her shelf. I sure hope we hear from them again someday.