THE DIFFERENCE MACHINE

"The Difference Machine" is the seventh (counting the two demo albums) full-length studio album by UK progressive rock act Big Big Train. The album was released through English Electric Recordings in August 2007. After years of label issues, financial issues, and lineup changes, Big Big Train opted to set up their own label in 2007 (English Electric Recordings) and to start to release their albums (and related projects) through that label. "The Difference Machine" is the first release on English Electric Recordings. It´s the successor to "Gathering Speed" from 2004 and it´s the point where Big Big Train went from being a part-time hobby project to becoming a real professional band (although "Gathering Speed" certainly has its moments of glory too).

Although it wouldn´t be until the release and success of "The Underfall Yard" (English Electric Recordings, December 2009), that Big Big Train would have their final breakthrough, the overall quality of "The Difference Machine" has significantly changed in a positive way compared to the previous releases by the band. Sean Filkins already showed that he had a strong voice and a pleasant melodic delivery (influenced greatly by Peter Gabriel/Phil Collins) on "Gathering Speed", but on "The Difference Machine" he comes into his own and delivers an even stronger vocal performance. The sound production on "The Difference Machine" is also a feature where Big Big Train have succeeded in enhancing the quality of their output. Every album before this one featured decent, but not great sounding production values, while "The Difference Machine" features a professional, organic, and detailed sound production perfectly suiting the band´s progressive rock sound.

Stylistically late 70s Genesis is still a strong influence on the band´s sound (both Yes and King Crimson could also be mentioned as valid influences and there´s a jazz-rock influence heard here and there, which should be mentioned too), but there are also moments of 80s neo-progressive rock, and there are even a few moments where I´m reminded of late 90s/early 00s Porcupine Tree. So Big Big Train have a lot of different influences in their music, and they seamlessly combine them into their own sound. This is both melodic, beautiful, mellow, powerful, epic, symphonic, atmospheric, and above all cleverly written music. It´s challenging but never at the expense of melody and memorability. So most of the time the progressive nature of the music is pretty subtle, although Big Big Train are certainly compenent and technically well playing musicians and also deliver more challenging and harder rocking moments.

"The Difference Machine" are made up of three longer epic tracks (14:40, 13:39, and 12:38 minutes long), which are all succeeded by a shorter "intro" track and then the 7:34 minutes long closing track "Summer's Lease". It´s a high quality release throughout and every track feels like a beautiful and intriguing musical journey. There are so many different things happening all the time but even when the tracks change in the most abrupt manner, it still feels like a natural continuation of what came before. Nothing sounds forced or placed somewhere just to be there. There is a plan and obviously a great understanding of composition and form. A 4 - 4.5 star (85%) rating is deserved.

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