Cast
Landing in a Serious Mind

The Cast are one of the most prolific groups that have ever existed in the progressive music scene. Mexicans from Mexicali, a city overlooking the Baja California on the border with the United States, the Cast formed in 1978 and started playing progressive music following in the footsteps of the classic '70s groups (especially Genesis, but also Jethro Tull, Yes, and EL&P). After many years spent cultivating this hobby, composing dozens of pieces and playing numerous concerts, the group members decided to invest some money and start recording the vast amount of musical material they had written up to that point. It was 1993, 15 years after the formation of the group, when they began recording the first ten pieces that would go on to comprise "Landing in a Serious Mind," released the following year.

The album thus represents the Cast's first calling card presented to progressive music enthusiasts around the world, as well as one of the not-so-frequent examples of prog coming from a country we are more accustomed to associating with tacos and tequila rather than the musical genre we love so much. In any case, even from this first work, the Cast show that they know how to play quite well and compose good progressive tracks on par with groups from countries with much more entrenched traditions in the genre (to the point that nothing would ever hint at the nationality of those playing).

The pieces suffer from a recording that is certainly not impeccable (which ultimately somewhat affects its overall enjoyment), but it must be said that they are quite pleasant to listen to, even if they show a still somewhat fragile personality, resulting in them being a bit anonymous and all somewhat similar to each other. Certainly, "Just Another Way" strikes thanks to a very beautiful and melancholic melody, while the final track, "Chris Col," gives a burst of energy to a listening experience that was beginning to become tedious, but in general, it must be said that the album, although well above average, will not go down in the history of progressive music. In any case, the group has good means at its disposal; maybe just a little more maturity is needed to produce something decidedly better.