PATTERN-SEEKING ANIMALS, the California-based band featuring Ted Leonard (lead vocals & guitars), Jimmy Keegan (drums & vocals), Dave Meros (bass) and John Boegehold (keyboards), are pleased to announce the band’s third studio album titled Only Passing Through, to be released through InsideOutMusic on April 1st, 2022. The album is the follow up to the critically acclaimed 2020 release Prehensile Tales.
The band check in on the new album here: “Only Passing Through, our third album picks up where Prehensile Tales left off but soon takes several stylistic detours as it progresses. Everyone involved made this album a lot of fun to make and we’re all looking forward to it to finally being heard.” John Boegehold
“This new album draws from a lot of different sources and pushes all of us to bring out our best. We all had to dig pretty deep to express out the right spirit of each song. To call it Prog would be highly inadequate. We’re all over the map and yet, there is still a very distinct sound that threads through the whole album. I’m very proud of this record and excited for people to hear it!” Jimmy Keegan
Today sees the release of the animated video for PROPER JACK FROSTER, the latest single from BIG BIG TRAIN, taken from the forthcoming WELCOME TO THE PLANET album. Proper Jack Froster is based on a story from Gregory Spawton’s childhood in the Midlands in the UK in the 1970s.
Work on the video by Swedish animator Love Andreas Gson Fagerstedt began before the untimely, tragic passing of Big Big Train’s singer David Longdon on 20th November 2021. David’s partner and the band have decided that the video should still be released to help to promote the forthcoming album to the fullest extent possible.
Watch the video here:
Big Big Train’s March 2022 UK tour will now not take place; ticket holders should contact their point of purchase for information on refunds. Prior to David’s death the band had been on the verge of announcing a North American tour consisting of over 20 shows in May and June 2022. This projected North American tour will also not be taking place.
The band will be making an announcement next year about its future, including regarding the September 2022 shows that are scheduled to take place in the UK. Ticket holders for these September shows are encouraged to retain their tickets for the time being pending that further announcement. No further comment will be made about the band’s future before next year.
As with COMMON GROUND, WELCOME TO THE PLANET sees Big Big Train retain their progressive roots but also take influence from all spheres of music. The four recent singles “Proper Jack Froster’, ‘Made Of Sunshine ‘The Connection Plan’ and ‘Lanterna’ are also included along with keyboard player Carly Bryant’s first Big Big Train writing credit and lead vocal on the captivating title track. The album is completed by the delicate acoustic ‘Capitoline Venus’, the beautiful ‘Oak And Stone’ and a pair of dazzling instrumentals, ‘A Room With No Ceiling’ and ‘Bats In The Belfry’, written by guitarist/keyboardist Rikard Sjöblom and drummer Nick D’Virgilio respectively.
Where has the time gone? We cannot believe it ourselves; it seems like yesterday that launched a record label to give a voice to those that needed to be heard. We discovered Echoes Landing on an old social network and fell in love with their self-titled debut leading to our decision to build Melodic Revolution Records (MRR) to promote that album. The band would later change their name and is better known as Scarlet Hollow who are still with MRR. To date we have released a single, an EP and two full-length releases in addition to two solo albums by these talented musicians.
This was just the beginning; we now celebrate our fifteenth anniversary with over 100 releases to date.
As a thank you to our supporters old and new, we have assembled a special digital release, “Sands of Time A Music Revolution 2006/2021”. We hope that this release will provide our listeners the opportunity to rediscover music that you may have forgotten about and discover music you may have never heard.
We consider all music progressive that has a new and cutting-edge sound and doesn’t follow the formulaic patterns of mainstream music. “Sands of Time A Music Revolution 2006/2021” is a testament that not all great music must be released via mainstream record labels. What you will experience it is an album that represents our slogan “Music you didn’t know you would love”. The album starts with the very first artist/band that we signed to the label and ends with our latest signing.
Although the sequencing of the album is straightforward; it was not an easy task to curate the songs for this release. Our first thought was to use the songs that grabbed our attention which resulted in the signing of an artist/band. However, after months of consideration and deliberation, we decided to showcase fan favorites.
This album is an excellent representation of where we started, where we have been, and where we are going. “Sands of Time A Music Revolution 2006/2021” also includes music by many fantastic artists from our sub-label PeacockSunrise Records, which is firmly in the where we are going category. PeacockSunrise Records is a natural progression of us and is still in its infancy but growing fast.
“Sands of Time A Music Revolution 2006/2021” is not for sale, but as of today it is available for full streaming. Each track has a link which will provide more band and album information and in most cases links for more music and ways to support the artist/band. Sadly, some of these artist/bands may no longer be together; they may have morphed into other bands or may not even be in this business of creating music.
We would like to dedicate this release to some people that were very important to us and our history. First, we would like to dedicate this album to Phil Naro who was part of over a dozen releases including DDRIVE, Unified Past, When Friends Come Out and Play, Colin Tench Project, Corvus Stone, King Friday, Kings, Backhand among others.
The second dedication goes out to Colin Tench who released many albums, singles and EPs with Andres Guazzelli, Corvus Stone, The Minstrel’s Ghost, Andy John Bradford’s’ Oceans5, Colin Tench Project, Halo, Transmission Rails and more.
And to Peter Jorgensen, we had just started our musical partnership earlier in the year with the release Immaterial Witness by his band Phoen1x. There were plans on releasing many more.
Thank you for sticking with us over the years and being part of this journey. If not for you… MRR and its family of artists would not exist. We look forward to serving you for many years to come.
Thank you for sticking with us over the years and being part of this journey. If not for you… MRR and its family of artists would not exist. We look forward to serving you for many years to come.
Nick Katona President and Founder Melodic Revolution Records and PeacockSunrise Records
Released November 21, 2021
Catalog No. MRRDR 201175 Album Art by Nick Katona, Zene Háza, Florida Ⓒ 2006/2021 Melodic Revolution Records and PeacockSunrise Records. All rights reserved.
17th June 1965 – 20th November 2021 Big Big Train are extremely saddened to announce the death of David Longdon this afternoon in hospital in Nottingham, UK at the age of 56 following an accident in the early hours of Friday morning. He is survived by his two daughters Amelia and Eloise, his mother Vera and his partner Sarah Ewing.
Sarah Ewing comments: “David and I were best friends, partners and soul mates and I am utterly devastated by his loss. He was a beautiful person and I feel so lucky to have known and loved him.”
Greg Spawton comments: “We are absolutely stunned to lose David. It is unspeakably cruel that a quirk of fate in the early hours of yesterday morning has deprived him and his loved ones of a happy future together and all of the opportunities, both personal and musical, that awaited him next year and beyond.”
David joined Big Big Train in 2009, immediately making a significant impact with that year’s The Underfall Yard album. He proceeded to record a further eight studio albums with the band, including the forthcoming Welcome To The Planet, as well as fronting the band for a series of highly acclaimed concerts from 2015 onwards. In addition last year he released an album with the late Judy Dyble under the name Dyble Longdon. On the day before his accident he had been in the studio working on a new solo album.
“David made a huge impact on my life both musically and personally,” Spawton continues. “I loved him like a brother and already feel his loss very deeply. He was a true creative visionary with extraordinary depth of talent. But above all he was a first rate and very kind man. His family, friends, BBT bandmates and crew will miss him terribly.”
The band’s Welcome To The Planet album remains scheduled for release on 28th January 2022. A further statement regarding the band’s 2022 concerts and other activities will follow in due course.
The band and their management request privacy for David’s family and friends at this extremely difficult time.
After a few years, on 11 December 2021 they will be back in Veruno with the show “The Watch plays Genesis – a prog Journey 1970-76 ”which will re-propose the most significant songs of the band English from the album Trespass (1970) to A Trick of the Tail (1976).
The unique way they know how to interpret Genesis songs – counting on a voice that like no other comes close to that of Peter Gabriel – it will offer the opportunity to hear the best of the first production of the British group that made Rock history. The same guitarist as Genesis Steve Hackett (guest on guitar on their latest album) said: “The Watch is a band of very talented people and I recommend them”. Paul Whitehead (Genesis graphic artist): “The band who remind me most of the Genesis magic. “
UK Prog Newsletter: “What’s unique here are the vocals, so very similar to those of a young Peter Gabriel ” The Watch Giorgio Gabriel – lead guitar, 12 strings acoustic and el guitars Marco Fabbri – drums and percussions Simone Rossetti – lead vocals, flute Valerio de Vittorio – piano, organ, mellotron, synthesizers, acoustic guitar, vocals Mattia Rossetti – bass guitar, 12 strings acoustic and el guitars, Taurus bass pedals, vocals
The Watch plays Genesis: “A Prog Journey 1970-76” SATURDAY 11 DECEMBER 2021 9:00 pm (open door 8:00 pm) AUDITORIUM FORUM 19 via Roma 8 – Gattico-Veruno (NO)
Arjen Lucassen (Ayreon) is back with a new Star One album titled Revel In Time. The new album comes more than 10 years since the previous release and is due out on Feb 18th, 2022 on InsideOutMusic. Today, Arjen is pleased to share the first single and video from the album’s closing track “Lost Children of the Universe.”
Watch the video here:
Arjen has this to say about the track: “This 10-minute epic is the first video clip/single of the new Star One album Revel in Time. The lyrics are inspired by the movie Interstellar.
This is a slightly different version than on the CD. On CD1 Roy Khan sings the lead vocals and on CD2 Tony Martin sings the lead vocals. For this YouTube version I combined their voices. Both such great singers, I just couldn’t choose! Hope you enjoy it. Thanks for your attention!”
CD1: 1] Fate of Man 5:29 2] 28 Days (Till the End of Time) 7:21 3] Prescient 6:34 4] Back from the Past 4:50 5] Revel in Time 4:38 6] The Year of ’41 6:20 7] Bridge of Life 5:14 8] Today is Yesterday 5:46 9] A Hand on the Clock 5:52 10] Beyond the Edge of it All 4:52 11] Lost Children of the Universe 9:46
CD 2 features the same songs as CD 1, but with different vocalists
The album will be available for pre-order on Dec. 17th and it will come as Ltd. 2CD Digipak, Ltd. Deluxe 3CD+Blu-Ray Artbook (incl. a poster of the cover artwork), and as 180g Gatefold 2LP (incl. the album on CD & an LP-Booklet).
CD 2 features alternate versions of the same songs as CD 1, but with different vocalists. Also available will be a 5.1 mix, a high-res audio version, and an exclusive, hour-long Behind the Scenes video, on the Blu-ray included in the Artbook.
Arjen explains the decision to return with a new Star One album: “Ayreon is like the mothership for all my music. It contains all the different musical styles that I like to listen to and that I love to create. But I’m always looking for challenges and trying to create something new and original as well. Working within a set of constraints forces you to do that, so sometimes I like to limit myself and focus on just one style. For example, with Star One I focus on the metal-side of Ayreon. That means you won’t hear the exuberantly liberal use of acoustic instruments that are so often featured on Ayreon albums, like violin, woodwinds, cello, horns, dulcimer, mandolin, etc.”
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