Filkins

The third solo CD by Lee Abraham that features excellent musicians from the Prog scene including John Mitchell (It Bites), Simon Godfrey (Tinyfish), Jem Godfrey (Frost), Gary Chandler (Jadis), Steve Thorne, Sean Filkins, Simon Nixon, Dean Baker & Gerald Mulligan. His latest effort opens promising with a Pink Floyd-like intro and lots of distorted guitar, swiftly turning into a Dream Theater-like continuation in the first real track Face The Crowd. The tracks have power and melody throughout - this is a great release!

Gathering Speed is the fourth studio album of the English progressive rock band, Big Big Train. It was released in 2004 by Treefrog Records. It is dedicated to the airmen and women who lost their lives in the Battle of Britain. The song The Road Much Further On was originally titled You Can't Draw Love. It was inspired by Spawton's then seven-year-old daughter. The album as a whole was a return to progressive rock for the band. It is the first album in which Sean Filkins recorded vocals, replacing Martin Read. It is also the only album in which Laura Murch recorded vocals, and the only Big Big Train album not to feature any songs solely written by Greg Spawton.

English neo-prog band who mixes elements of Yes, Marillion, Genesis and Pink Floyd. Initially formed in 1989 by writing duo Mark McLeod on keyboards and Darren Newitt on guitar, the band only became a quintet in 1993 after an ad in Melody Maker and several screenings resulted in the hiring of vocalist/guitarist Sean Filkins (ex-Soma). Filkins, in turn, recommended his Soma buddy, drummer Phillip Legende who joined in; bass player Geoff Curtis completed the line-up. With its Tolkien connotation, their name is a give-away to their style as their highly melodic album "Children's Games", released in 1994, is very Genesis-like, circa "Wind and Wuthering", with vocals reminiscent of Jon Anderson's and Nick Barrett's. Among others, the CD features a 19-minute track with Pendragon-like piano passages…

Corvus Stone's "Unscrewed" is irrisistible, as their previous albums were saturated with innovation and glorious progressive music. This latest adventure in excess is flooded with more inventiveness and dwells fairly in the realm of atmospheric diversity. Many of the tracks are remixes or revamps of earlier tracks but now with added dynamism or new instrumental sections. Overall this album is brimming over with lashings of creative musicianship. Each track brings the listener into a different mood and takes them on an adventure. It is not conceptual but somehow each track seems to belong here. The moments of brilliance are when the band allow the cork to pop and the genie to escape…