Memphis’s Electric Room Productions happily announces the release of their second full-length album, the self-titled debut of local experimental rock act Breaking the Cage. The instrumental duo, featuring Tim Vaziri on Gibson ES 335 (that’s a fancy guitar, kids), and Kent Stratton on Yamaha drums (same guys who make motorcycles), has been active in the Midtown scene for the last two years, playing frequently at the popular night spots of our great city’s coolest sector. This release marks the beginning of their journey from the smoky beer halls to the living rooms and bedrooms of Memphis and beyond.

The self-titled debut of Memphis two-piece Breaking the Cage is a thrilling showcase of two guys with broiling with talents. It’s a Merchant-Ivory film, a Dolce and Gabbana spring collection, a Jordan-Pippen offense. First, the obvious; Kent Stratton (drums) and Tim Vaziri (guitar) are great musicians. In fact they ascend beyond great by each approaching their instrument in a unique way and offering us new ways to listen to hear these familiar tones. Stratton’s tight and intricate rhythms play gracefully beside Vaziri’s expressive and vast guitar. It’s a clicking and chiming bramble of thuds and booms, a six-armed insect playing two drum kits simultaneously. Vaziri’s guitar rides on the back of this elegant bug, an orchestra in a single instrument. Think of the music on Jeff Buckley’s Grace album, or Vinyl Killer by Drums and Tuba. With a few choice visits from other musical devices, like the cool and lonely cello monologue in the wintry Failing, and the heroic trumpet visit in The Cat that Went to War this album lives a rewarding life from its wide-eyed, confident beginning to the final track’s funeral dirge and decomposition. But secondly, and at least as important; they are composers, craftsmen, artists. Though lacking any words except a child cheerfully announcing “That’s it!” at the final song’s close, this album tells a story. Certain to be different for each listener, this story is epic. In this way it’s similar to Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, minus the narrator. These characters, whoever they are, are up to high-stakes stuff. Hearts are broken, people die, eras end, high hopes lead to great triumphs. It’s a piece of cinema that we, as the listener, get to fill with actors and plots. Breaking the Cage has supplied the drama and the literature. This album is highly intellectual pop music.

Electric Room
P. O. Box 22127
Memphis, TN 38122

Matt Timberlake, Media Relations
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Breaking the Cage is a Memphis duo with Tim Vaziri on guitar and Kent Stratton on Drums. Though instrumental and experimental, the music they create has a deeper genetic relation to rock n roll than to jazz. It’s a dramatic, modern sound with a rich variety of emotions and textures performed by two players at the top of their game. Think Radiohead without vocals and bass, or maybe Dick Dale if he’d been a college professor instead of a surfer.

Forming in April of 2005, their first batch of songs was written by Vaziri after the first gig was booked. He and Stratton, who have played together since they were twelve years old, have since shaped Vaziri’s compositions into epic mini-symphonies with wicked pop smarts. They released their first self-titled album on Electric Room Records in August 2006. Its 12 songs show a creative force striving for and successfully achieving real-deal status. Currently in the process of concocting their next rounds of tunes, they’re toying with line-up changes, perhaps the addition of a bass player or multi-instrumentalist. Certainly a well chosen player will add an exciting new dimension to their already broad sound.