Wednesday 30 December 2020

North Star not to be confused with Northern Star

 







The Philly-based prog band North Star started in 1984 with the cassette only Triskelion (rereleased amazingly 4 years later as LP and CD) then followed up in 1985 with a brilliant opus of Genesis-inspired symphonic prog, i.e., the dreaded 'neo-prog' labeled type of music, called Feel the Cold, e.g. the just gorgeous Genesisian track Tomorrow Never Comes




I mean it just hits a home run for me every day, all the way. Almost an insult to call this neoprog which usually implies elaborate and twisted vocal articulations about wizards or goblins on top of simplistic keyboards plus fake strings playing ordinary chords. Instead, this is the real deal, sounding like Genesis had they adhered to the progressive spirit of the early seventies moving on forward a decade, genuinely original.

Years later, perhaps immune to the punishment of being utterly ignored (remember the popular music of the late 80s? prog rock couldn't possibly have been more unfashionable) they produced some more music, starting in 1992 with the Power album, which I found disappointing but others maybe not. Here they really come into that neoprog designation. On that opus though their Meltdown really brings home the dissonance-crammed classic prog rock sound, god bless 'em:




I always found the Michigan-based band called Northern Star easy to confuse though the music is totally different and comes straight up from the 70s, since it combines basic ssw, pop, rock, and occasional lapses into fusion into a really mixed-up whole, kind of like the Sailor LP or so many others of the 'lesser progs' I posted in late 2019 like Chalis, Project Tyme, Grok, Syn Cast the First Stone, etc.  These bands always wanted to have it all I guess, in terms of the best track, it's clearly the Galaxy one, which, truth be told, is one of my favourite tracks from all American prog (along with hundreds of others, as my wife always reminds me):




I love the symphonic quality to the composition here, very dramatic.


5 comments:


  1. Northern Star:
    https://www.sendspace.com/file/8tc2zc
    https://www45.zippyshare.com/v/tta6WF6T/file.html
    North Star 3:
    https://www48.zippyshare.com/v/ADPx3J6h/file.html
    https://www.sendspace.com/file/o6mrbe

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  2. the requested nucleus awakening and live albums, hopefully the correct:
    https://www.sendspace.com/file/qtjca3

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Tremendously, Julian! That goes double for the North Star material (I remember liking the cassette back in the day).

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  3. ..."on top of simplistic keyboards plus fake strings playing ordinary chords" - thanks a lot!!! You made my day : )
    - It's actually quite exact characteristic of what I thought is "progressive" when I was ten years old (which is the time I got into Marillion or Saga)...

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  4. 1984's Triskelion is an absolute jewel of creative musical goodness...
    ...that highly-enjoyable Vibration Of Life territory :)
    'Another Road Of One' ...again that great feeling of unlimited optimism, what once was just part of being alive, now is a fading relic...
    'Time Traveller' I'm following these footprints into the Future, leave this stale outhouse-fake-reality far behind....
    Love the covers from the 2nd Lp (is one of the bros holding a sextant? Far out....) and notice it was released on the once great Synphonic Records! (good ole Greg and Synphonic hipped me to so many essentials, I used to place orders by phone specifically for our spirited conversations, which by the end of, I had many more titles in my order based on his great recommendations - always awesome leads TY bro!!! reminds me, he finally has for sale the unreleased 2nd Atlantis Philharmonic Lp(!)...titled Grand Master, I do believe...he told me years ago he would have access to it, and sure 'nuff...def on the TO GET list!)
    'Feel The Cold' is pure symphonic genius synth-prog gifted to us from higher dimensional templates!
    'Sands Of Time'...now this one, dam brother, I pass the peace-pipe in gratitude! You know how I like to use this phrase :)
    So many essentials of musical creativity you've shared with us over the years, thereby rescuing them from being lost, like our footprints - lost, in the shifting Sands Of Time...now the worthy are imprinted in eternity, available forever to all attracted wavelengths and like-minded beings to access at the appropriate time :) ......."whoa whoa there prog-noob! You can't just walk into Don Bradsham-Leather's 'Distance Between Us' or Igor Wakhevitch's 'Hathor'!!! Someone might get scared!! Start you off on the Floyd/Genesis/Yes/Moodys/Tull PROG 101 course...once you can listen to The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway in the dark (bonus points for synchronized fist-pump and yelling at top volume "Don't look at me! I'm not your kind! I'M RAELLLLLL!!!) and memorize all the passages to Tales From Topographic Oceans, you'll graduate into PROG 201 and be acquainted with such rogues as The Mothers Of Invention, Hawkwind, The Sun City Girls, H.P. Lovecraft, Pulsar and Kim Fowley (not a word on Fowley! Yes he was on the 1st Mothers Lp Freak Out! but he is essential!!! Bwhahaha)
    just some ragged-ass old pirates, ridin out the storm...
    ...into this world we're thrown....
    the smoke rings Thank You brother
    :)

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