Eclipse Of The Midnight Sun is the third album from Tale Cue emanating from the creative tour de force that is Northern Italy, so it always bodes well. I hesitate to call this a 'follow-on' since the band's last release under this moniker was Voices Beyond My Curtains released over 30 years ago, before the band fell silent in 1992. Now from out of the silence, the music returns. The whys and for how longs are just more mysteries likely to go unanswered for now, but which fit in with the overall atmosphere - even the artwork invites the audience to structure their own narrative suggesting a world of imagination whose true deep secrets may or may not be revealed. So what happens then when after all the years of keeping the stories (and this is a story-teller's album) hidden on some dusty shelf, they come tumbling into the light? Well, a bit like that. There's no shortage of ideas and they come cascading thick and fast. This can make for a disconcerting experience on first encounter, but given that our readers are more likely to prefer music to engage with, rather than aural wallpaper, I mean this as a compliment. Reflections on memory love and loss jostle with steampunk infused tales of adventure, perhaps all typified by The Cue which the incredibly helpful notes provided describes as 'A musical Pandora's box,' and I can't come up with a more appropriate description; industrial rock guitar steaming into an exhilarating flexing of the band's considerable musical muscle. I don't throw around comparisons lightly, but at times I was reminded of the heavier elements of Deadwing era Porcupine Tree. As an example of the mutability of tone and mood provided in the release, at the centre of the album the rousing tale of Gordon Sinclair introduced with blistering guitar riffs from Silvio Masanotti, sits next to the reflective Tides with keyboardist Giovanni Porpora providing full orchestration and piano, while Masanotti adds sympathetic bass lines; vocalist Laura Basla handles the changes with great delicacy, switching with ease from an ethereal spirit slipping into the mists of time, to a dramatic stage diva and full blown rock belter. I can say no more than that versatility and virtuosity are a byword across the board. The album is capped with the monumental 5-part, confessional Vertigo exploring the fragility of mental states and the creative process. I wouldn't want to read too much into that, but hope that the penultimate track We Will Be Back Once More is more of a programmatic statement. Hopefully it won't be too many years before we hear from Tale Cue again, but for now I am happy that you are all here and making great music. ****- Andrew Cottrell Where to buy? |
