Haken

There are some great new releases coming in the next few months - new Mew album, new Prefab Sprout , the first live Genesis box set and, of course, our own little album.

Another CD I'm really looking forward to is the first release by Haken. This is a band I've only just become aware of; they had a track on the sampler CD on Classic Prog 2 which sounded slightly otherwordly, like something PFM might have recorded in their heyday. So, I sought out their only currently available release, a demo featuring 6 songs from 2007 and 2008.

It's a very strong debut. The quality is limited slightly by what I imagine was a restricted recording budget, but like all great demo's, it shows a band reaching for something that they don't quite have the resources to achieve.

When they get there, and most surely they will, Haken will be a force to be reckoned with.

Dream Theater are Haken's self-confessed heroes, but their music shows a wide-ranging set of influences. They are heavy at times, but very comfortable in the quieter sections (many heavy bands seem, to me, to play quiet bits just to make the heavy bits sound louder.) Haken do both piano and forte very well.

They also are capable of writing uncommon, haunting, melody lines and I love the structure of their songs - they are good at getting back, in interesting ways, to choruses or themes, even if they've been on a lengthy instrumental excursion.

Haken is a band to watch out for.

The view from the garden gate

Just back from a holiday on the North Yorkshire Moors.

Me being into history, we stayed at an English Heritage cottage at Rievaulx Abbey. This is a place which is both difficult to spell correctly, and stunningly beautiful.

This is a general view:



And this was the view from the garden gate of the cottage:



One of the best things was that we had the run of the site after it closed to visitors each day, which gave us the chance to enjoy sunset walks and, later on, ghostly torchlit wanderings.

Rievaulx is an utterly fabulous place. Speaking to the staff and keepers there, they were all transfixed by it. It is spellbinding.

Close of play

'tis done.

We now have a bit of time for editing, sound effects etc before mixing in September.

Now onto the 'b' sides

The album recording is completed.

We are going to spend the rest of the day on two non-album tracks, Fat Billy Shouts Mine and a cover of Master of Time, an Anthony Phillips track which was intended to be on The Geese and the Ghost but only ever got as far as a demo. It's a cracking little song.

Morning Star

Early start today. Finished off Master James and now recording the flute solo on Evening Star.

We laid some bricks today...

Victorian ones.

Now we are onto castle building with Master James of St. George.

Then we're having curry and beer.

Warning, this album may blow your girlfriend's tits off

Or so says Andy.

We're moving onto Victorian Brickwork now, one of two longer pieces on the album

We're hoping to cause some spontaneous tit detonation with this one.

Here we go...

The final recording session for The Underfall Yard is underway. We're starting today with Evening Star, a short instrumental which is intended to set the scene for the rest of the album. All sounding splendid so far.

More later.

The shop is not broken anymore

The shop is back on line (thank-you, Robert.)

New Sigur Ros

The new Jonsi and Alex album (Sigur Ros solo project) is being previewed here

Mojo has this to say:

"A yearning, almost devotional quality... file alongside Talk Talk's Spirit Of Eden and Henryk Gorecki's Third Symphony."

The shop is broken

Apologies, our online BBT shop appears to be unable to take orders at the moment.

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible and there is, of course, our very competitively-priced Amazon shop in the meantime.

Cool as Folk

Driving into Wimborne for our Saturday morning bacon sandwich, we stumbled, by accident, upon the town's annual folk festival, held under a glorious sunlit sky.

If anyone doubted that folk is overcoming the negative coverage it gets as the music of choice of middle-aged, sandal-wearing bearded-types*, then Wimborne, this weekend, would have convinced them that times have changed: folk is now cool.

What we found in this small Dorset market town was a thriving sub-culture which revelled in its eccentricity. Men, women and children wandered around wearing morris and mummer outfits which went way beyond quirky. Alternative types could be seen enjoying the music and dance alongside the gentryfolk of Dorset.

We also found an abundance of musical ability and an overwhelming sense of joy. In short, it was a brilliant experience.



* The morris dancer is often perceived as the pejorative folk archetype. But even here, things have changed. Many of the younger morris dancers have an almost goth-like image. It seems that they have passed over to the dark side.

Vocals, photos, and curry

Last week we spent some time at Aubitt Studios recording vocal, flute and mandolin parts for The Underfall Yard. This was the first time that David has recorded with Big Big Train and I am pleased to report that we had two brilliant days. The sessions were incredibly productive and we had an absolute blast.

We started with Winchester Diver before tackling the rather formidable 23 minutes of the album's title track (a song which Rob thinks will be his biggest ever mixing project.) We finished the sessions with The End of the Line. That leaves just two more songs to do to complete recording on the album (we also have two additional non-album tracks to finish off.)

Martin Orford joined us for a celebratory curry at the close of recording on day one. Martin had spent the day on the footplate of an engine on the Mid-Hants preserved railway line and seems to have no regrets at all about leaving the music business (although I did catch him reading the IQ article in Prog magazine, and we are hoping to lure him out of retirement for a solo or two in the future.)

As well as the recording sessions, we also took part in the first photo shoot of the new BBT line-up (more pics on our Flickr page.)

Finally, I had the pleasure of meeting Simon and Paul from Tinyfish who are working with Rob on the mix of their first DVD. From what I saw and heard, the DVD is going to be a cracker.

Some video footage of The Underfall Yard vocal sessions will be online soon.

Picked up a good book

One of the things I find most frustrating is that I'm not particularly well-read. I went through a phase in my 20's when I started to read some of the classics and some more challenging modern fiction. I even bought Ulysses, but put it away until I was ready for it.

Truth is, I don't think I'll ever be ready for it. I got fed up one day when reading some impenetrable passage of magical realism by an author whose name I cannot remember and picked up Julian Rathbone's The Last English King instead. This was different, this was...fun. And interesting. And very moving.

After Rathbone, I got into Bernard Cornwell, Conn Iggulden, Steven Pressfield and then went back to David Gemmell (I read Gemmell's fantasy novels when I was a teenager and loved them; my 13 year-old son has subsequently worked his way through my ageing collection of Gemmell paperbacks with great energy and passion.)

From historical fiction, I moved on to factual historical books (again, something I read a lot of when I was a teenager)and also discovered a love for books about engineering and popular science. And that, broadly, is where my tastes lie now. In fact, my current reading list covers rather typical 40-year-old-male territory. By the side of my bed, should you choose to look there, you will find books on Alexander the Great, Anglo-Saxon England, Victorian Engineering, D-Day and disused railway lines. Oh, and also an autobiography by Bill Bruford.

In fact, probably the only constant in my reading habits over the last quarter of a century has been books on rock music. And I think Bruford has just written one of the best of them.

Bruford's book is not yer typical kind of book about rock. If you're after a straightforward canter through Bruford's musical life, then this isn't the place to start. Instead, it's a portrayal of the world-view of an unusually thoughtful musician coming to the end of his career. Sure, there are some interesting anecdotes in there about Yes and Crimson and Genesis, but this book is valuable because of its insight, because it makes you think.

Is this the best prog album ever made?

Selling England has been voted the best ever prog album by readers of Classic Rock Presents Prog.

I voted in the poll, which has just been published in the second issue of Prog, and put Selling England at number one. However, I haven't listened to it properly for a while so, as the light faded, I drifted off into the garden for a listen on my iPod to give it a critical appraisal.

I could go on and on about the extraordinary ensemble playing, sophisticated writing and arrangements, the beautiful pastoral feel and the several key moments on the album that almost define prog at its best.

But I won't. I'll just say that, yes, it is the best prog album ever made.

Infamy, infamy...

The Progressive Rock Hall of Infamy site is an interesting new blog.

Whatever your opinions on the content of the blog, it's certainly written in a combative style.

Here is an excerpt from PRHOI. It's an attack on Yes which sidesteps the obvious targets and takes a swipe at Relayer, Going For the One and Tormato (best not to read any further if you like everything Yes have done):

'Over the years, thinking more and more about the time lost to Rick Wakeman’s keyboard peregrinations and Anderson’s sheep-being-slaughtered vocal excesses, I came to despise Yes, blaming them for ruining Prog and making an already bleak and sorrowful world an even darker place with the truly wretched excess of their output. There have been many things said about Yes, and if I wanted to, I could keep the PRHOI in business for the next five years just publishing reviews of Yes albums proper, various side-projects and the myriad groups they somehow inspired to make similarly indulgent and pointless music. I’m going to pass on that option, as I’m forbiddingly depressed enough already to ever survive writing my thoughts on Tales from Topographic Oceans or Wakeman’s own Journey to the Center of the Earth madness. Instead, I’m going to deal with three of the albums that Yes released over a roughly 40 month span in the mid to late 70’s, albums that signaled a band in decline and yet simultaneously at the height of their powers. For as they died, like a great god or king, they resolved to take everyone down with them, and the results of this infernal pact with the Lords of Suck were Relayer, Going for the One, and Tormato – the last perhaps the worst and most ridiculous title ever bestowed on any album, crap or classic, Prog or mainstream. Look at that goddamn album cover, look at it – and tell me your liberal heart still yearns to abolish capital punishment for a crime against aesthetics so vile and miserable. Shark Sandwich was made up, but these motherfuckers were coming from the heart.'


'The incomprehensible – and in my view inexcusable – long-term popularity of Yes is largely due to a phenomenon I have observed in other culturally-challenged sub groupings of society – prison Nazis, collectors of Thomas Kinkade paintings, people with a lot of Pottery Barn flatware in their kitchens. The problem is one of mistaking all similar product with being of similar quality; i.e., if I like King Crimson, it is only natural that I would have a yen for Yes. If I drink beer, then Budweiser or Kokanee will be fine if Pilsner is too expensive. If mushrooms make for a good trip, perhaps I’ll try huffing nail polish remover. The point is, none of these quasi-syllogisms ring true, and are in fact dangerous misjudgments that help define the culture whore as opposed to the truly cultured.'

I happen to think that Going For the One is one of the greatest of all prog albums, but I have some sympathy for the PRHOI position on Relayer (excluding the lovely 'Soon' section, of course)...

'Relayer was in the spirit of earlier Yes efforts, meaning that the record starts with a 21:55 second “song” that is about as focused as a drunk’s urine stream and hops from notion to notion (none of the elements could be properly called “ideas”) like a third-grader who forgot to take his Ritalin. Sadly, as Steve Howe’s guitar work is often dynamic – there is even what appears to be a little nod to Jimmy Page’s brilliantly messy solo from “Heartbreaker” on “Sound Chaser” – the music is controlled by the interruptions of Alan White’s overly noisy drums and the unusually aggressive vocal stylings of Anderson. Indeed, what identifies Relayer the most to me is its sheer noisiness – new member Patrick Moraz, having replaced the grandiose stylings of Rick Wakeman on keyboards, is given little chance to do other than offer fills to violent bursts of cacophony and the ever-present threat of Anderson’s bleating; allowed to calm these tracks down a little, Moraz might have proved valuable. As it is, he’s lost in a mix overrun mad with ego'

Tormato, however, gets the full broadside:

'Finally, the triumvirate collapses utterly on Tormato, an album so worthless that I almost feel bad for the kind of band that would produce such drek. Not a lot can be said about the banality of this waste, so why not just consider the song titles and tell me that you have any desire to actually listen to the fucking thing: “Don’t Kill the Whale”, “Arriving UFO” and “On the Silent Wings of Freedom” – the last very probably the worst song on any of the three disastrous albums in question'

It's worth reading the whole post at the Hall where a number of other bands and sub-genres are targeted in similar fashion.

Where there's prog there's brass

The first of a number of videos on the making of our new album, The Underfall Yard, can be found here. This short film is about the recording of the brass session for the album and, if you have a fast enough internet connection, is best watched in high definition.

One beautiful summer's day, a couple of years back, I was in Bath, near the Parade Gardens, when I heard the stirring sound of an English brass band. I can't remember what they were playing, but it was a slow piece, and this extraordinary, melancholy music filled the gardens where children played and old men slept in deck chairs. At that moment, I realised that Big Big Train needed a brass band.

We commissioned Dave Desmond to to write some arrangements for a brass quartet and recorded a session with Dave (trombone), Nick Stones (french horn), Rich Evans (cornet)and Jon Truscott (tuba) a couple of weeks ago. It was a very enjoyable session which captured the sound that I had heard on that summer's day in Bath.

The video contains music from three tracks on the album, Evening Star, The Underfall Yard (which builds on themes established in Evening Star), and Victorian Brickwork.

Next month, there will be a second video featuring the first vocal sessions.

The brass is done

Our session with the brass quartet the other night was a huge success. I'll be posting some footage of the session on our new YouTube channel in the next few days.

In the meantime, here is a pic of Jon Truscott, one of our brass players, in action (incidentally the deeper notes of a tuba make Moog Taurus Bass pedals sound, frankly, a bit wet.)

Successful parenting

At certain times parents will reflect on how good or bad a job they have made of bringing up their children.

My daughter has just named her cat after the foremost Icelandic post-rock band*. This makes me feel that I am not doing too badly at the moment.





*His full name is Sigur Hoppipolla Ros. Not a name I'm looking forward to having called out at the vets.

New album: progress report

There is a point reached in the making of an album when the creative process almost becomes of secondary importance to project management. We’ve reached that point now. This is the most complex album we’ve worked on, with a number of different threads that we need to draw together. The convergence point is getting ever closer as the album is due to be released later this year, and it is time to get organised (our main organisational tool being a notebook called ‘The Underfall Yard Bible’ which is rapidly filling up with aide-mémoires .)

A lot of work is happening at the moment. I’ve just finished off the lyrics for the album and David is developing the vocal and flute parts in his studio, preparing for recording at Rob’s place in the next few weeks. Andy and myself are going back over the album demos (which are evolving into the finished tracks) and re-recording bass, guitar and keyboard parts as necessary (some parts will make it all the way from the demo onto the album if they fit the bill.)

Meanwhile, a number of CDR’s of work-in-progress have been (or will shortly be) despatched to various guest artists so that they can prepare their contributions.

Early next month, we have a session booked at Rob’s to record the brass parts with the chaps from Kate Rusby's band (the elegiac sound of an English brass band is what we’re trying to capture) and then we need to crack on and get the session for the string quartet booked up.

In view of Big Big Train's new line-up, we'll also be launching a new YouTube channel in the next few weeks. We'll use the new channel to document progress with the album recording.

So, it’s all beginning to happen, the pages of the 'Bible' are filling up and it looks like we'll be spending another summer indoors, topping up our studio tan.

New Interview

A new interview with me has just been uploaded onto Progwereld (it's in Dutch.)

Spotify

A new web-based music service called Spotify has been getting a lot of press coverage recently.

Thanks to our good friends at CDBaby who handle our digital distribution, Big Big Train will shortly be available on Spotify, so I thought I'd check it out to see what it offered.

After a quick software download and a few minutes of testing, I am able to report that Spotify is completely brilliant. And utterly addictive.

As I'm writing this, my Spotify connection is temporarily unavailable and the lack of streamed music from the site is making my experience of working on this computer much less pleasurable. Sure, I could put a CD on, or fire up iTunes, but I want the diversity offered by Spotify and I want it now.

So, what is it? (as Cat once said in Red Dwarf.) Well, as Cat went on to say in the same sketch, it's a sort of magic door. The door leads into an endless music library where you can instantly play (almost) anything that's ever been released. Songs are streamed on request to your computer. Audio quality is good. You can pause, rewind and fast-forward. You can create playlists and save your favourite songs. You can find links to other similar artists. However, you never own the music as it isn't downloaded or saved, only streamed.

Spotify are hoping, in the future, to make available all of the music which has ever been released. At the moment, they are a long way short of this (there are some major gaps - eg Pink Floyd), but vast numbers of songs are being added every day and they are not just focusing on the major artists.

I tested the depth of music on offer by looking for music by one of my favourite bands, Mew. As far as I could see, everything they've ever released is on there, including some obscure 'b' sides I'd never heard before. I then went prog-surfing and found music by the big boys (Genesis) down to more esoteric bands like Gentle Giant. They even had every PFM song.

I went looking for more modern prog. There is nothing yet by Frost or Spock's Beard, but The Tangent are there, as is The Old Road CD by the internet's arch-enemy, Martin Orford (but, strangely, no IQ.) I then checked out some of the heavier bands I like - Oceansize and Mastodon, Draconian and The Mars Volta, all present and correct.

I also looked for some new music. The brand new Bell X-1 album got great reviews in the papers at the weekend. That was there, although the new Doves album isn't yet available.

I haven't even started to get my head around what Spotify will mean for the music industry and for independent bands like BBT. It certainly gives a lot more opportunity to legally sample the range of music on offer by bands. However, whether that will translate into sales is harder to assess. Some people may find that Spotify offers all the music and convenience they need. Others will use it to sample new music and better inform their purchases. So, from the industry perspective, I'm not too sure about Spotify.

Speaking as a fan and consumer of music, however, I'm all for it. I've already heard some music I'm going to go on and buy and other stuff that I've always wanted to hear but would never fork out for.

Do check it out.

We should get behind this...

The inestimable Classic Rock has announced that it will be publishing a quarterly journal of prog rock called, rather catchily, 'Prog'.

I'm not sure if Classic Rock are just taking a punt at a new launch to see how it goes, or if this is based on strong sales of the one or two prog special issues they've published in recent years (and therefore a genuine sign of rising fortunes for progressive rock) but, either way, prog fans should get behind this magazine.

Introducing David Longdon

Photograph by Kevin McGary

I would like to welcome David Longdon as Big Big Train's new vocalist.

David Longdon is a progressive rock singer, songwriter and multi instrumentalist who was born in the city of Nottingham UK in 1965.

He formed several bands but it was his time with The Gifthorse that led to bigger things. David signed to Rondor Music and recorded for Epic records. They supported Kirsty MacColl, Blur and The Pogues amongst others.

David is also a long term member of the Louis Philippe band, appearing on Jackie Girl (1996), Azure (1998), A Kiss in the Funhouse (1999), My Favourite Part of You (2003) and The Wonder of it All (2004) culminating in the release of the Louis Philippe Live (2007) CD taken from their two concerts at The Bush Hall, Sheppard’s Bush along with The High Llamas. Musicians also performing on these albums include Daniel Manners (Cathal Coughlan), Dave Gregory (XTC, Dukes of Stratosphere) Sean O’Hagen (High Llamas, Microdisney), Cathal Coughlan (Microdisney, Fatima Mansions)

It was in the final days of The Gifthorse that David was invited to audition as a potential replacement for Phil Collins as lead singer in Genesis. He survived the auditioning process and worked with Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and producer Nick Davis from May to November 1996 on recordings that would become the Calling All Stations album. They were also working with Stiltskin vocalist Ray Wilson at the same time. Eventually they decided which one out of the two would get the job.

David’s first solo CD Wild River (2004) featured many musicians collectively known as The Magic Club. The CD contains guitar playing and Mellotron work of XTC’s Dave Gregory.

In 2008 Martin Orford (formerly of IQ) invited David to sing on his swan song album The Old Road. David sings lead vocals on Ray of Hope and Endgame.

David brings a superb singing voice to Big Big Train as well as considerable experience and expertise. We can't wait to start working with him on The Underfall Yard and on future releases.

Goodbye to Steve and Sean

We are now well into the recording sessions for the next album, The Underfall Yard and it's time that I mentioned some changes to the band's line-up for the forthcoming release.

With the exception of Bard, Steve Hughes has drummed on all of our albums so far. However, Steve is busy with other projects at the moment and we have decided to continue and develop our work with Nick D'Virgilio for The Underfall Yard and future releases.

Steve joined BBT when he was still at school and, in the early days, he bunked off many lessons to attend rehearsals . His fluid fusion-style playing was a significant feature of our developing music. We remain good friends with Steve and his playing will feature on the re-recorded versions of Downhilling and Kingmaker, two songs from our early demos which will be released at a later date.

Sean Filkins joined BBT as our vocalist for the Gathering Speed release and went on to feature on The Difference Machine. Sean provided some beautiful vocal performances at a time when I was developing a different style of writing for BBT (a more, if you will, 'progressive' sound) and I would like to thank him for his contribution to Big Big Train.

With The Underfall Yard, we are moving into a new era for BBT and we have decided to strengthen the band's line-up by recruiting a new singer who, we think, will help to further develop our sound.

I'll announce his name and provide some biographical details in the next few days.