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Reviews

Cast — Landing in a Serious Mind
(Bandcamp no#, 1994, CD / DL)

Cast — Sounds of Imagination
(Bandcamp no#, 1994, CD / DL)

Cast — Third Call
(Bandcamp no#, 1994, CD / DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 1995-07-01

Landing in a Serious Mind Cover artSounds of Imagination Cover artThird Call Cover art

Cast is a Mexican neo-progressive band who have been together for well over a decade, performing and recording. I'm assuming that up to this point in time they have released only cassette tapes of their material — Sounds of Imagination contains seven tracks that were recorded in 1985, roughly 40 minutes of material, rounded out by almost 25 minutes of new material recorded in '94. Likewise, Third Call contains essentially a full album's worth of material recorded in '89, again rounded out to almost 65 minutes by the inclusion of recent material. Only Landing in a Serious Mind contains all new songs. The lineup has changed somewhat over the years, but essentially they are a five-piece of guitars, bass, drums and keys, with a dedicated lead vocalist. The early material features vocalist Francisco Hernandez, who later switched to guitar, to be replaced by Dino Carlo Brassea. Fernandez' singing voice is a bit like a harsher take on Bernardo Lanzetti mixed with typical neo-isms. Brassea's voice weighs in a bit closer to a Phil Collins sound, and is a marked improvement over Fernandez. Cast's songs are all sung with English lyrics, a bit of an accent at times, but certainly no more pronounced than many of the European bands. Musically, the early material follows the lead of Genesis circa 1978, Fish-era Marillion, and perhaps some Saga. The more recent (especially the '94 material, and even moreso on Landing...) is far more original, driven by keyboardist Luis Alfonso Vidales, stylistically somewhere in the realm of Wind and Wuthering era Genesis. Overall, Landing is a good album; the others don't fare quite as well due to the older, more derivative material, yet are redeemed to an extent by the newer material added in. Another minus on the older stuff is the marginal sound quality, while the material on Landing generally comes off better sound-wise. That's the place to start.

Filed under: New releases, Issue 7, 1994 releases

Related artist(s): Dino Brassea, Cast, Alfonso Vidales

More info
http://castoficial.bandcamp.com/album/landing-in-a-serious-mind-1994

 

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