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Pre orders now be taken for the new album.  The preview sounds fantasic.
http://www.bigbigtrain.com/

I'm really rather excited about the new DeeExpus album due out next month. Mark Kelly from Marillion is playing keyboards and Nik Kershaw is providing vocals for one track. The album sampler sounds great.

http://www.kingof33.com/the-king-of-33.htm

After last years superb Underfall Yard I was excited to read the following on the BBT website

We've finished recording our new EP and will shortly be back in the studio to mix and master it. The plan at the moment is to release Far Skies Deep Time in late October. There will be no pre-order campaign and initially it will only be available to those who are on our mailing list (if you've bought a CD directly from us in the past and haven't changed your email address recently, then you will feature on that list.)

The Far Skies EP is generously proportioned (about 41 minutes of music) and features the following track listing:

Master of Time
Fat Billy Shouts Mine
British Racing Green
Brambling
The Wide Open Sea

Master of Time is a cover of an Anthony Phillips song. Anthony and Mike Rutherford had originally planned to record Master of Time for inclusion on one of our favourite albums, The Geese and the Ghost, but ran out of time during the album sessions. A demo of the song appeared on the recent re-issue of The Geese and the Ghost. We thought it was a beautiful song which deserved a full band treatment and so decided to record our first ever cover. Ant has heard the BBT version of Master of Time and has given us his blessing and we do hope that we've done the song full justice.

Fat Billy Shouts Mine was originally part of a suite of music for The Underfall Yard album. We didn't get chance to finish recording the song in time for the album and so are pleased to be able to release it as part of the Far Skies EP.

British Racing Green and Brambling feature a lot of music within concise arrangements. We are very proud of these two songs which both tell the story of doomed relationships.

The EP concludes with the 17 minute The Wide Open Sea. This is a very different epic for us, very unlike our previous songs of this sort of length. It tells the story of Jacques Brel and is, I think, one of the best things we've ever done.

The Big Big Train line-up on Far Skies is:

Andy Poole
Dave Gregory
David Longdon
Greg Spawton
Nick D'Virgilio

and the EP also features Danny Manners on double bass, Jon Barry on guitar and Martin Orford on keyboards.

More news soon.

I took a chance on buying this album after it got a great review in the latest CR presents Prog magazine. Initially I was bit taken aback as it wasn't what I was expecting but my initial doubts soon passed and I'm finding this to be a wonderful album that gets better with each spin, highly recommended.

Just read this on the Marillion forum

"New album in June and a summer tour!!! http://www.facebook.com/rushtheband

My copy of the album arrived a few days ago, I was a bit unsure about buying it as its had a fairly lukewarm reaction from a lot of It Bites fans, and its definitely not old school prog and is very laid back. Personally I'm really enjoying it and really like what Frank has done with some of the old It Bites material. I'm sure that it wont be to everyone's taste but I'm more than pleasantly surprised.

My copy of The Underfall Yard arrived a couple of days ago and in that time I've sort of fallen in love with it. Obviously the title track contains some fabulous synthesiser work from our very own Mr Godfrey and some sterling guitar solos from Francis Dunnery, but the rest of the album is just as exciting. New vocalist David Longdon is hugely impressive and imo BBT have really reached a new plateau with this album. I would recommend to any Frosties out there to treat themselves to an early Christmas present and snap up a copy.

http://www.bigbigtrain.com/

The new album - "The Incident"
Porcupine Tree are happy to announce the forthcoming release of their tenth studio album "The Incident". The record is set to be released via Roadrunner Records worldwide on 21st September, as a double CD.

The centre-piece is the title track, which takes up the whole of the first disc. The 55-minute work is described as "a slightly surreal song cycle about beginnings and endings and the sense that 'after this, things will never be the same again'."

The self-produced album is completed by four standalone compositions that developed out of band writing sessions last December - Flicker, Bonnie The Cat, Black Dahlia, and Remember Me Lover feature on a separate EP length disc to stress their independence from the song cycle.

Video footage of the band in the studio working on The Incident, as well as audio previews, will be available online soon. The band will tour extensively to promote the album from mid September onwards.

Any views on Oceansize would be most welcome as i'm toying with the idea of buying one of their albums.

It seems that the Dream Theatre gig in Southampton is now sold out. That will teach me to buy tickets early.

8 out 10 in the new CR. Very positive review indeed and states that "EIMA confirms that Frost* are one of the most exciting bands soldiering on beneath prog's proud flag right now".  Hoorah.

I was hoping that the new Classic Rock would have a review of EIMA, sadly not though. Do we know if the album will be reviewed in the next edition? The review of Milliontown was the main reason why I bought that album in the first place.