Neo-proggers Drifting Sun have announced that their album Trip The Light Fantastic from 2015 is available again after being out of print for some time. It was viewed as a comeback release for the band that has now been given a new lease of life, and is revamped into a sleek 6-panel digipak with a classy 12-page booklet.

As with all the band’s albums it is available via its Bandcamp page: https://driftingsun.bandcamp.com/

The band has also reported its frustration at delays in getting the vinyl edition of the current album Forsaken Innocence released. Quite simply, there’s a lack of vinyl affecting many bands attempts to release albums at the moment. The band says; “I am very saddened to publish this post today, but I feel that at this stage I have no choice but to announce some bad news about the progress of our Forsaken Innocence vinyl.

To get our album out both on CD format and as a vinyl record, we teamed up with Oskar Productions in Poland, on the back of a promise that the vinyl would be manufactured and ready to ship by the end of January at the latest. We’d got quotes from other suppliers but Oskar’s ability to deliver the vinyl by then won us over.

Unfortunately, Oskar have now told us that the COVID pandemic situation and broken supply chains harassing many economic areas has revised their plans, and that the production of the vinyl will be delayed until March or even April (at this stage, we don’t even want to hazard any guesses as to when exactly the record will be ready).

We’re deeply sorry that we have been let down like this. Here is what I am offering, which to me seems like the best solution under those dreadful circumstances:

Anyone of you who has made a purchase and feels that the new March (or April… ) deadline is too long a wait, can email me at driftingsunweb@gmail.com if they wish to get fully refunded on their purchase.

I’m really disappointed by this, and hope you will understand that I am trying my best to move forward and come up with the best option to sort this mess…”

There’s a massive shortage of vinyl right now for the production of albums, and a comparatively limited number of pressing plants available. Vinyl is a growing section of the music industry, with sales increasing quite dramatically in recent years, even managing to outsell CDs in 2020 for the first time since 1986. A good part of the problem for independent and smaller company releases is that there is a huge overwhelming number of releases coming from established acts. The likes of Adele, Ed Sheeran, Abba, Coldplay, Taylor Swift, and others along with the re-release ambitions of classic artist such as Fleetwood Mac, David Bowie, Metallica, Pink Floyd, The Beatles et al take up a lot of time and resources at the pressing plants.