Prog4you.com - Progressive Rock Review

I’ve taken a special interest in Farpoint. They just might be the most critic-friendly band. For starters; taking constructive criticism with a grain of salt and generously share whatever sifts out from their studio sessions – I say this because they’ve made a whole four albums in less than five years and are ever-so-open to take a walk around the block with critics or fans to shoot the breeze or chat about music collections or current affairs.

At first, I wanted to turn the spotlight in their direction to return the favor for their kindness to strangers. As time went on, they improved leaps and bounds; so much that you would have thought it was a completely different group.

It’s not that earlier material was bad. Honestly, their first two albums, Grace and First Light, were good and grew on listeners. From Dreaming to Dreaming came next and it was a cut above its stellar elders.

With COLD STAR QUIET STAR, Farpoint is now a part of the permanent play-list. For me, they join the ranks of bands like Salem Hill, Little Atlas and Frogg Café, whose fruitful efforts - while obviously edible when raw – are now more colorful and practical than their conventional counterparts. One has to wonder if there is something in all their drinking water.

What’s interesting is that the title tells a good portion of the story. As if this were about the Ghosts of Mars or The Martial Chronicles, sci-fi buffs like myself would infer that this has to do with a past civilization on a remote planet. It’s just that, but like The Outer Limits; it has a twist. What it is, I’ll let you decide (or maybe I am yet to figure it out myself).

As for the musicianship, it’s Jethro Tull, but Jennifer Meek’s woodwinds are classical rather than angst-ridden or rash. Not to mention, her voice is so ethereal that it’s almost alien, and the rest of the band is the heartiest of crews. Even they could survive The Wrath of Kahn, Pinbacker’s nervous breakdown, or a super-symmetric nucleus also known as a Q-ball. Just like a tense thriller; even in its sparsest moments, their musical soup eats like a meal. Calibrated with such wary catalysts, their output is more or less an otherworldly experience.

To pray upon a single solar flare, “Darkness” is my favorite as it embellishes the listener with pitch-black licks and lunatic riffs. In regards to the aforementioned craziness, it’s more brainsick than Pink Floyd’s “Brain Damage” and dafter than Daft Punk; but, I’m down with the sickness and don’t mind the aphonic punking at all – just as long as this mental laryngitis is past its contagious stretch. So while it comes with this universal disclaimer, I enjoyed this cerebral cut the best and by the way; I really digged Frank Tyson’s chops. This critic wishes he could play the bass as good as him.

In addition, I quite liked “Quiet Star” as it takes us to the lighter side of Luna. After that, the next celestial bodies affected by their gravitation pull would be “Epilogue: Call to Arms” and “Red Shift (Alone)”. Even if I were to use Newton’s methods, their approximations would remain to be similar. From your perspective, you might see things differently. All I can do is provide the zero sum equation, which states they are seemingly equal.

Generally speaking, I would frown upon spending time circumnavigating in refrigerators or chest freezers. With Farpoint’s latest exploits, I plan to boldly go where no listener has gone before by happily stepping into their intergalactic icebox.

8.5/10

[Trivial tidbit: Jeff Hodges, artist and engineer who ‘is’ Man on Fire, was the producer of this album.]

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Discography
COLD STAR QUIET STAR (2008)
From Dreaming To Dreaming (2004)
Grace (2003)
First Light (2002)