Nimbus

Label: Musea
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 742630045739
EAN: 0742630045739
ASIN: B0002CKCU4

Release Date: 2004-06-01

Nimbus

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General

| Rock | Styles | Music

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| Rock | Indie Music | Stores | Music

Tracks:

Ladrona De Suenos (I. Parte Uno)
911 (I. 911)
911 (II. Next Day)
911 (III. My New Home)
Volando En Uno Mismo
Sucio Nino Bien (I. Sucio Nino Bien)
Sucio Nino Bien (II. Suenos De Platino)
Dias De Sol Y Luz
Ladrona De Suenos (II. Parte Due - Puerto Prohibido)
Ladrona De Suenos (III. Parte Tre - Tragicomedia)
Un Singlo De Invierno (I. Cataclismo)
Un Singlo De Invierno (II. Esperanza Austral)
En La Cueva Y El Bosque
Reunion 2003
Hojarasca
Extension 17

Album Description

As steady as a click, CAST carries on making albums, so regularly that you have the feeling the Mexican band has always been a part of the Progressive rock scene. It even could have been so, if only a lack of funds had not forced them to wait twenty years until they could release their works. At least, since the band's birth in the Seventies, it had time to polish up its music ! "A Live Experience" showed the arrival of these musicians from Mexicali to Musea, and this allows the delighted listener to listen to their best titles recorded between 1995 and 1998. Eighth studio opus by CAST (…Since 1994 !), "Imaginary Window" (1999) develops lyrical compositions perfectly structured. "Legacy" is from 2000 and is as good as the ones before, whereas the double-CD "Laguna De Volcanes" makes for the first time, covers of former tracks in Spanish! "Castalia" is the witness of a concert given in Italy on that same year. Now with a dozen disks (Studio and live) in their pocket and as happy promoters of the BajaProg festival in Mexicali, Alfonso VIDALES and the guys could easily have some deserved rest. No way ! 2003's double-CD "Al-Bandaluz" shows that CAST is still far from reaching the end of its musical evolution. The staff is renewed, still based around its charismatic leader and the singer Francisco HERNANDEZ. From their early works influenced by Seventies Progressive rock (CAMEL, GENESIS, PREMIATA FORNERIA MARCONI…) and neo Progressive (MARILLION, IQ…), you can obviously find highly symphonic instrumental parts. The Latin side is still there, though it's not ostentatious. Actually the evolution is more generally based on a constantly rising ambition regarding songwriting. Here diversity rules. Watch out, this is an essential release for 2003 ! The concept-album "Nimbus" (2004) continues this will to embrace different musical styles, still pushing CAST closer to perfection...

Customer Reviews:

By "Mark Hughes" http://www.dprp.net/reviews/200426.html.......2004-09-30

Cast web Site:
http://www.CastLives.com/

I think that Cast are not letting the rest of the world in on a major scientific discovery they have made. Surely the only way they could have managed, in a mere ten years, to have released 20 CDs (many of which are double or packed to the limit of a single CD), organised eight successful Baja Prog festivals, maintained day jobs and still have a family life is for them to have unravelled the mysteries of time travel! Nimbus, the follow-up to 2003's double CD Al-bandaluz, continues the prolific output of this finest of Mexican bands with another eighty minutes of (mostly) new music. The ranks of the group have recently swelled with the addition of sixth member José 'Pepe' Torres who broadens the group sound by supplying saxophone, flute and clarinet. The other five musicians (Alfonso Vidales on keyboards, Francisco Hernández on vocals and guitars, Kiki King on drums and percussion, Carlos Humarán on lead guitars and Flavio Jiménez on bass) remain constant from the recording of Al-bandaluz.

The album opens with intent; the menacing, insistent keyboard riff, chunky guitars and wailing sax of the first part of Ladrona de Sueños captures the listener's attention and draws them into the album. There is a lot going on in this track that rewards repeated listenings. Two further parts to the song are sequenced further in the CD. Part two (subtitled Puerto Prohibido) is mainly keyboards and vocals while the rest of the group join in for the final part, the instrumental Tragicomedia. Both continue the somewhat menacing tone and a consistent theme is heard in each of the sections. I don't know why the three sections have been split up, they would have fitted together perfectly well as one piece (as programming the CD player to do just that proves!) However, I suppose if I understood the lyrics (all but two of the lyrical pieces are sung in Spanish) that may have been become evident!

Second track, 911 is also split into three parts but sequenced to run consecutively. The opening four-and-a-half minutes effectively combines keyboards, piano, guitar (acoustic and electric) and Spanish vocals building into the main part of the narrative, which is sung in English. A tale of death (the 911 refers to the US emergency services telephone number) this section didn't quite live up to the opening for me. However, things dramatically improve with the two instrumental sections Next Day and My New Home. I've always found Cast to be more expressive, and more adventurous, in their instrumental music and these two piece don't disappoint. The acoustic nature and flute of My New Home brings in echoes of Jethro Tull, although the ending seems to evaporate into thin air!

There are four other vocal pieces on the album: Sucio Nino Bien features some complex melodies and a nice guitar solo; Dias De Sol Y Luz is a slower number with the female vocals of guest singer Guadalupe Acuána contrasting nicely with those of Hernández; En La Cueva Y El Bosque is rather an anomaly coming across like a mediæval - classical cross; and Reunion 2003, is an acoustic reworking of a track from their 1994 debut album Landing In A Serious Mind which works well, particularly the layered vocals.

The instrumental tracks are what we have come to expect from Cast, lots of interplay between the instruments, dominant keyboards and an abundance of changes in time signatures. The addition of José Torres has provided an extra dimension and his role, particularly as a flautist on tracks such as Volando En Uno Mismo provide a more jaunty, lighter slant to proceedings. The opening to Cataclismo, the first part of Un Siglo De Invierno, is almost like Dream Theatre with its heavy guitar and bass drum onslaught but things soon settle down although the heavy offensive is resumed at the end of the second part of the song (Esperenza Austral). The CD ends with the more refrained, plaintive and acoustic Hojarasca and the altogether more jolly Extension 17.

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