STAR PERIOD STAR

— First review of this album —

Inventive US band from Chicago, formed in 1993 around guitarist/vocalist Dan Sweigert and featuring Chris Block on bass, who had just quit from Avant/Noise Rock act Cheer- Accident.The original crew featured also Dan Van Schindel on drums.Block and Van Schindel were soon replaced by Jerry Overmeyer and Dave Rosato respectively and a second guitarist, Rolly Cesar, joined the band.This line-up recorded a self-titled debut in 1996, after which Star Period Star were again reduced to a trio with Overmeyer and Cesar out of the picture and Alex Perkolup taking over the bass.A second, privately released album followed in 1998, carrying the title ''Jet propulsion mystery summer''.

According to the band, the initial aim was to come up with a weird blend of SONIC YOUTH-like attacking Post-Punk/Noise Rock and complex Prog ala Red-era KING CRIMSON.They have a done a nice job on this album and the description aforementioned is close to the album's style, where powerful, deep bass lines and vocal distortions meet with acrobatic guitar work in a ROBERT FRIPP style, switching from crazy rhythms to sudden breaks with complicated music.Drumming is very jazzy and technical and the album contains also some sporadic piano and keyboard samplers for a deeper sound.The style of Star Period Star is very personal and attractive, unless you dislike the words SONIC YOUTH combined.Mainly instrumental, the music is incredibly energetic with unexpected twists, jazzy leanings and furious grooves, ending up in schizophenic guitar moves by Sweigert.Some of the vocal lines along with the more downtempo parts of the album are reminiscent of RUSH and ECHOLYN.The longer tracks are unsurprisingly the most flexible ones with a combination of a frenetic KING CRIMSON guitar manifest, loose sound experiments and propulsive dissonances with a slight RASCAL REPORTERS atmosphere.

If I should imagine how King Crimson would have sounded if they recorded ''Red'' in late-90's, the sound of Star Period Star on ''Jet propulsion mystery summer'' could have been a proper answer.Guitar-dominated Power/Prog with Alternative/Post-Punk aesthetics.Recommended.

— First review of this album —

Stark contrasts are what Star Period Star is all about. The tracks are not just stylistically distinguishable one from another, but often have multiple personalities themselves. This is a buffet of sound, one that contains several delicious things to digest. However, the vocals are sometimes unnecessarily distorted, as though to compensate for a lack of confidence perhaps, which is unfortunate, really. Rather than mask imperfections, the distortion calls attention to them, and it simply sounds messy. If you thought Gentle Giant should have been weirder and should have rocked harder, this will be something of interest.

"Survivorman" Sputtering guitar and organ churn out a wild wave of Spock's Beard-style progressive rock. The last instrumental minute moves quickly from quirky to slippery synthesizer soloing.

"Snares" After an almost unaccompanied vocal, the band burst in with a heavy, plodding series of riffs, later to be joined by distorted vocals. The piece closes with a satisfying oddity that bizarrely channels Gentle Giant almost perfectly. It is this final section that I wish Star Period Star had developed further; it's one of the rare moments that the vocal effects serve an aesthetically pleasing purpose.

"Looking for You" The band excels in rolling out exciting series of rocking riffs, and this is no exception. This time, they roll the distortion considerably off the vocals, and while the weak spots are there, the outcome is a marked improvement overall. What follows is a series of keyboard and guitar solos, all solid, and played over shifting rhythms and progressions.

"Synesthesia" A much cheerier, almost new wave progressive rock tune, "Synesthesia" makes excellent use of major-seventh chords and eccentric, almost nonsensical passages- fun stuff.

"I'm Into Miracles" For a change of pace, the listener is treated to a peaceful acoustic song featuring a smooth lead guitar tone filling out the sound but letting it breathe. The vocals are, as usual, shaky. The rest of the band enters, injecting energy with layers of diverse sound. The second half of the song is a raunchier thing, with growling guitars in 9/4 time, a stark contrast to the far more pleasant first half.

"( .. )" An avant-garde fit of noodling, this is seasickness in sonic form.

"A Means to an End" One would be reluctant to believe that after the conclusion of "(?)" and the start of "A Means to an End" that one was still listening to the same band. This is practically commercial-grade pop with disco leanings. As with other tracks, the second half bears little relation to the first, this time providing a straightforward guitar solo with a few unconventional twists in the chord progression.

") .. (" Mostly silence broken by discordant strums, this is a curious conclusion to a curious album.