Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Folky, Pre-Bop Nelson, May 12, 2000
Bill Nelson's career has gone so many fascinating places. He's worn the mask of guitar hero, ambient wizard and outre film and play score generator. Prior to his time of multi-volume electronic CDs, ringing guitar and .com commercial soundtracks, there was Northern Dream.A folky current ran through the first Be Bop Deluxe album, notwithstanding its rock and glam influences. Northern Dream, though, is an earlier, independent label work which is unalloyed folk-rock, emphasis on folk. This is a medium which works very well for Nelson. One wishes that his evolution had included a few more species of this sound. For me, the highlight of the work is "Rejoice", a quirky bit of acoustic syncopation. The whole thing, though, is worth a listen to hear Bill Nelson prior to the time that either the daemons of commerce or the goddesses of experimentation took Mr. Nelson and whatever argonauts were at hand to places very different from this simple, folk-rock sound. Northern Dream is not a production masterpiece (in fact, it's got a sort of Dreamboat Annie charm, in that its production values are simple but add to rather than subtract from the charm). But it's sincere music, and sincerity, at this distant remove, has its own virtues....
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Art School Dance goes on forever..., January 30, 2002
As legend would have it, this was the album that Bill recorded in fellow band member Richard Brown's bedroom. Dang, you can even hear a toilet flushing in the background. While the album is ten thousand light years from the techno wizardry of Roy Thomas Baker, who produced Futurama, it remains a true classic for any serious fan of the Man. The songs are indeed more inclined towards folk, but you can certainly hear Bill's guitar style developing, and his soloing is most impressive. I still have the vinyl and the Teenage Archangel/Jets At Dawn single that came along later, also on Smile, but the CD is infinitely more convenient, and highly recommended. Go for it.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Adventures in a Yorkshire landscape, October 4, 2000
This album was, I believe, released solely through a small record store in Wakefield I used to frequent in my youth. An album photo was taken in a park near where I lived. One of the real powers for me of Bill Neslon's music is the way he takes the sights and sounds of his (and my) native Wakefield and transfigures them, weaving images with wonderful, hanting sounds. Although not featured on this album my favourite, Adventures In A Yorkshire Landscape is an audio landscape painting of my native county that is so evocative it always -- ALWAYS -- makes my spine tingle.
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by Bill Nelson 
