Big Big Train on a fully blown Prog Rock concept album. To lift from their own words, searching for perfection in what could be a masterpiece.

FULL BLOWN

The fully blown (as opposed to songs on a bit of a theme – not uncommon to Big Big Train)) concept album. A rite of passage for a band in the Progressive Rock field. Never ones to do things by halves, Big Big Trains’ first foray ‘proper’ comes complete and fully immersive with a dedicated micro site and even a book by BBT author/fan Andy Stuart.

A case of “searching for perfection” maybe (thanks for the phrase, more of which later) but certainly a record into which much has been invested to stake a claim as the year’s big Prog Rock concept to take on all comers. Not that Big Big Train is a band anything less than honest and intensely humble, but Woodcut sees the collective coming together as never before on their latest opus.

The spark – the woodcut work of Edvard (‘The Scream’) Munch in Oslo’s Munch Museum. And then from Gregory Spawton, amazingly, the last remaining original band member, an insight into how the central character “is struggling with his creativity and with life. One day he is able to fashion a woodcut which he considers to be beautiful and different. Maybe it’s a dream or maybe it’s real life, but he finds himself stepping into the woodcut scene and into an alternative world.”

ARTISTIC CREATION

Woodcut then follows a continuous narrative exploring the act of artistic creation, the sacrifice and the thin line between inspiration and frustration. One that could well refer to any art form and its trials and tribulations, the pain and suffering and ultimate reward and gratification and accomplishment.

Perhaps tellingly, it’s one of the recent recruits – well, with just the one album and several tours under his belt – and main musical sounding board and partner to Spawton, Alberto Bravin who steps up as main conductor and indeed producer. Having said that, his job sees him filter, edit and pull together from a mass of contributions from band members to form the finished narrative whilst taking their own turns in the spotlight. either vocally or with their instrument.

CONCEPT TROPES…

…crop up with increasing familiarity. The bookmark provided by the ‘da – da da da – da da’ keyboard riff that’s found at both start and close of the album. the “flare on the lens” phrase that titled a previous live album reappears alongside the not unexpected twelve string acoustic pastoral moments – check Light Without Heat that shifts gear smoothly into a synth solo, the dreamy vibe of Light Without Heat and Arcadia’s opening section.

Short vignettes provide intervals between acts and with the narrative of ‘the artist’ we’re never too far from references to wood carving and the woodcuts of the album title. Indeed, within minutes we’re told of “half a lifetime’s work and not that much to show” to establish the process of creation with tracks The Artist and The Lie Of The Land straight from the BBT template with the surge and crescendo and uplifting “the way back home is clear / a burden now made light” lines. That’s before the first major contribution from Clare Lindley in The Sharpest Blade, establishing a fierce determination and heading into dense musical territory.

THE JOURNEY CONTINUES

Musically, the variety of writing input comes bursting to the fore. Albion Press sees the coolness of the jazzier aspects alongside the excitement that “this could be a masterpiece” and the expected instrumental and vocal complexities are no less evident – see the middle of Warp And Weft that starts with a simple single voice – another joins, and another and then drums and the angular rhythms and a widdly diddly synth part and guitar line begin to weave in and out of proceedings.

In time, or sooner, Chimera might be one of the tracks to emerge as a major song from the album just as Beneath The Masts did on the previous album. Passing through several sections, it feels like a big (ie – long) song in a more compact frame. One that in the past may have had brass part breakdowns, extended instrumental parts and longing atmospheres. Not that we’re ever too far from witnessing the instrumental force, now stripped back from the days of the Big Big Train ‘big’ band to a more lean machine.

The instrumental power is given free rein and in the showcase Cut And Run where the killer trio of NDV/Holldorff/Sjoblom is aided and abetted by Greg Spawton and Clare Lindley. One suspects Nick D’Virgilio in the driving seat as he is, leading the obsession in Warp And Weft – complete with complex vocal parts and weird and wonderful diversions in the finest of Prog sense.

DRAMA…MUSICAL THEATRE…

Dead Point adds a touch a drama – maybe even edging into melodrama with a flash of musical theatre – particularly where Alberto seems to be channeling a subconscience presence as his vocal takes on a darker tone. The “This cannot be real / How can this be wrong” parts, see some sort of intense voice on the shoulder, casting the shadow of self doubt.

Last Stand might be a case of leaving the best until last. You know from the opening seconds that something gargantuan is coming over the hill. One that would boldy hold a candle up to the King of massive Prog Rock crescendos, Neal Morse, in terms of construction, melody and goosebump-iness. Plus one undeniably classic, nailed on, Big Big moment (watch this space). Picking up the carpe diem vibe of the previous album’s Skates On, there’s a sense of coming through into the light. The battle between good and evil expressed as doubter/believer or hunter/prey (not dissimilar to the themes explored in Supper’s Ready) might “depend on the day” but the lasting impression is one of redemption and attaining the “gold in the skies” despite at first hearing ‘goal’ in the skies (which might be a nice alternative).

A tribute to the “poets and painters and writers and dreamers” of Meadowlands. The line in Arcadia – “woodcut gives me hope.” Given the possibility that we may get to hear the album performed at full, cue the moment of the standing ovation.

AND FINALLY – MAN OF THE MATCH

And while Woodcut is certainly the result of a band who have gelled into a formidable writing and performing unit, yet with a mischievous eye on throwing out a curveball, we ‘d declare our Woodcut MOTM as Oskar Holldorff. With an extraordinary concoction of sounds from his keyboard rig, from the soft touch piano in Hawthorn White, to lashings of Hammond-y organ and synth soloing like a man possessed, his contributions have made their mark after a bout of listening. A mention in dispatches to Rikard for his variety of solo contributions – the disagreements are set to rage about which is his best solo. Our money goes on the brief part he plays from the halfway point of Dreams In Black And White (with Counting Stars close by)where the emphasis is on the sort of Hackett / Gilmour / Rothery feel and emotion. We’ll park that thought…

Here’s The Sharpest Blade:

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