An old, challenging question: is derivative music always so bad? Listening to Starcastle's "Fountains", the opening track of their "Fountains of Light" album, I'd say no, not necessarily at least. These American boys were faithful fans of Yes and they did all they could in their career to reproduce their idols' sound. And they did it well, sometimes very well, like in this 10 minutes and more epic. The melodies are catchy, the tempo always changing, all is well set up, from the keyboard and guitar solos to the choirs, let alone Terry Luttrell's voice, so similar to Jon Anderson's.
Starcastle released 4 studio albums in the '70s and another one in 2007.
Sure, the rythm section, although very good indeed, maybe isn't as good as their model's, but I don't think Chris Squire and Bill Bruford had twin brothers, after all. Nonetheless, the song is fully enjoyable, well balanced, never boring, brilliant in spite of a barely acceptable sound quality. Some passages are really worth a second listening (and a third, why not?) and they give me the kind of joy I'm serching for when putting a prog CD in my player. A yes clone? Who cares...
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