Exposé Online banner

Exposé Online

Not just outside the box, but denying the existence of boxes.
Covering music from the fringes since 1993.

Reviews

Tale Cue — Eclipse of the Midnight Sun
(Freia Music no#, 2025, CD)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2026-07-05

Eclipse of the Midnight Sun Cover art

Decades ago, when Musea was a new label (relatively speaking), they released a CD titled Voices Beyond My Curtain by an Italian five-piece band called Tale Cue. It followed a self-titled cassette release by the band two years earlier; I think we covered the CD briefly back in Exposé #3. And it seems that was the end of their story, at least until late last year, when out of the blue a second Tale Cue CD finally appeared 36 years after the first. Surprisingly, after all those years, the core of the band is still intact: guitarist Silvio Masanotti (now covering bass guitar as well), keyboardist Giovanni Porpora — both of whom shared the composition duties on Voices — and lead singer Laura Basla. The original rhythm section got day jobs long ago, and are now replaced by drummer Alessio Cobau. Those who appreciated the band’s original CD back in 1991 will be happy to know that their sound remains intact, an aggressive progressive rock with some hints of metal, mostly in a four-to-six minute song format, with Basla’s voice, stronger than ever, fronting it all. Opening with the one-minute “Voices from the Past,” essentially an ambient instrumental prelude, the set gets into high gear with “The Rage and the Innocence,” a power-prog piece that calls together the past and the present, with majestic keyboards and shimmering guitars, and of course Basla’s voice to the fore, all picking up a faster pace in the latter half of the song. As with the earlier albums, the lyrics here are all in English, and nowhere does that carry more emotion than on “For Gold and Stones,” a seven-minute piece that covers a lot of territory across numerous sections. The slashing hard rocker “The Cue” almost sounds out of place amid the more progressive sounds occupying the rest of the album, while “Tides” offers up a tasty keyboard-based piece backing Basla’s emotional delivery. Perhaps it’s the five-part ten-minute closer “Vertigo” that covers the most ground, from Masanotti’s delicate guitar intro introducing Basla’s vocals in turn introducing Porpora’s lush keyboards in the opening movement which quickly moves to a more aggressive prog sound, switching back and forth on the four remaining sections. It’s good to have this fine band back in action again, hopefully their next release won’t take another 36 years.

Filed under: New releases, 2025 releases

Related artist(s): Tale Cue

More info
http://talecueofficial.it

 

What's new

These are the most recent changes made to artists, releases, and articles.