FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA

The roots of Big Big Train can be found in 1987, when guitarist Greg Spawton decided to move from Birmingham to Bournemouth, where he met bassist Andy Poole.Poole was a big fan of Prog music and a former roadie for The Lens and IQ.The duo decided to record some songs together, leading slowly to the formation of Big Big Train in 1990 with the addition of Ian Cooper on keys, an ex-bandmate of Poole in a band called Arcshine.They recruited Canadian singer Martin Read and 15-year old drummer Steve Hughes and recorded the demo cassette ''From the river to the sea'' on an 8-track recorder from April to June 91'.Following some good gigs, the album was reissued in CD the next year with two more tracks, recorded in early 92'.

At these premature stages Big Big Train had adapted a typical Neo Prog sound akin to ARK, early PENDRAGON, ELEGANT SIMPLICITY and maybe IT BITES, leaning often towards more poppy directions with sensitive vocals, but the music is fairly grounded within the Prog Rock limits with fairly intricate compositions covered by heavy doses of melodic parts.Even if the songwriting skills of the group fail compared to their later days, their underground sound, the strong late-70's GENESIS influences and the decent orchestral synthesizers should have been a nice cure for any starving Prog fan back in early-90's.The album suffers from a mediocre drum programming at moments (responsible for which was Ian Cooper) and an overall thin production, but the compositions are pretty decent, featuring a nice combination of poppier rhythmic tunes, emotional singing, melodic textures with bits from symphonic showering.Of course the atmosphere is maybe too romantic and less captivating with the band reminding more of an early-80's act, but the talent is certainly there: The melodies are good, the arrangements are decent, the pieces are long enough and the flashy, instrumental parts are more than welcome.

Documental album from Big Big Train's baby steps.Typical Neo Prog with little originality, average sound quality but containing some really fine cuts.Recommended, especially if you are a fan of the style.