Welcome to this week's Tracks Of The Week. Seven brand-new and diverse slices of progressively inclined music for you to enjoy.
After a few weeks of bands walking away with the honours, last week was a much tighter affair. Eventually Portuguese prog trio Phase Transition pipped Marko Hietala with their new single Becoming, (R)evolution, with Randy McStine and Marco Minemann only just behind in third place!
The premise for Tracks Of The Week is simple - we've collated a batch of new releases by bands falling under the progressive umbrella, and collated them together in one post for you - makes it so much easier than having to dip in and out of various individual posts, doesn't it?
The idea is to watch the videos (or listen if it's a stream), enjoy (or not) and also to vote for your favourite in the voting form at the bottom of this post. Couldn't be easier, could it?
We'll be bringing you Tracks Of The Week, as the title implies, each week. Next week we'll update you with this week's winner, and present a host of new prog music for you to enjoy.
If you're a band and you want to be featured in Prog's Tracks Of The Week, send your video (as a YouTube link) or track embed, band photo and biog to us here.
SOLSTICE - FIREFLY
UK proggers Solstice have shared the first new music from their upcoming Clann album with a video for first single Firefly, although attendees of Solstice gigs might just have heard this joyous piece before. Very much THE band in prog at the moment. Solstice romped home in this year's Readers' Poll, winning Best Band and Guitarist for Andy Glass, and with strong showings in other categories too. Clann is out through specialist US label Progrock.com Essentials on April 4. It deserves to be huge!
"Firefly was written right after completing the Light Up album and the song’s appeared in virtually every set list since," says Glass. "It’s the opening track on Clann and, with my engineer's hat on, became the sonic benchmark for the whole record.
VENNART - THE FAMILIAR
New music from Mike Vennart is always a treat, and he really ladles it on thick with his latest offering. The Familiar is a whopping great sixteen-minutes of, as the former Oceansize man puts it "propulsive psych-doom". It dropped on an unsuspecting public this morning and there is a Steven Wilson spatial audio mix and a very limited vinyl edition featuring screen-printed artwork, of which there were a few left at the time of writing. You can hopefully still grab them or the download, here.
"This is a piece leftover from the In The Dead, Dead Wood writing sessions, and deliberately left of off Forgiveness & The Grain," Vennart explains. "It didn't seem to be friends with any of the other songs, preferring, instead, its own brooding and ugly company. It's a bad, bad trip."
SALLY POTTER - COMING HOME
You may look at the name and think the films Orlando and The Party, and you'd be right. But film director Sally Potter has musical pedigree too. Her younger brother was Nic Poitter of Van der Graaf Generator fame and, fans of Henry Cow take note, Fred Frith plays guitar on Coming Home, as well as appearing in the video. Potter releases her new album Anatomy, through Bella Union on May 2.
“I wrote Coming Home as a song of loss about an ancient tree that has been cut down to make way for a train line,” explains Sally. “I found myself contemplating trees and the profound interdependent relationship we have with them, personally and globally. I wanted to evoke the relentless sound of an approaching train with rolling drums and a wailing guitar, to express a state of furious mourning for destroyed forests – ‘the ones that breathe for you and me’. But Coming Home is also a song of private grief for loved ones cut down before their time, whether human or of any species.”
LIGHTS OF SKADI - SPECIES
Swedish prog rock band Lights Of Skadi re-appeared last year, after a five-year hiatus, albeit in slightly slimmed-down guise and with a brand new album, A Cinematic Experience. The band are, to all intents and purposes these days, the multi-instrumentalist, and producer Jörgen André and on the majestic Species, the second single to be taken from the album, he's joined by singer Carl Sjursvens and guitarists Alexander Borger and Jesper Jansson.
"The name Lights Of Skadi refers to Norse mythology," says André, of the band's name. "Skadi, the Norse giant goddess of winter, hunting, and skiing. She rules over mountains, wilderness, winter, revenge, knowledge, harm, justice, and independence. Passionate in her pursuits, especially in the pursuit of justice, Skadi is also determined to live her life the way she wants and not be told by the gods of Asgard. Skadi is the personification of strength, courage, and perseverance – words that also sum up the qualities of Lights Of Skadi."
![Lights Of Skadi - Species [feat. Carl Sjursvens] (Official Music Video) - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/mn53sqn5JjI/maxresdefault.jpg)
DIM GRAY - MYOPIA
Norwegian art-rockers Dim Gray release their third album, Shards, on their own Dim Gray Records on February 28, from which comes new single Myopia. The new single sees the band enlist the help of fellow Norwegian musician Vaarin, whose delightful vocals add a whole new dimension to the Dim Gray sound.
"We are thrilled to feature Vaarin on Myopia," the band say. "She’s an incredibly talented and interesting artist, and took ownership of the song from the first note. Her voice is full of suspense, which really underlines the drama and emotion in Myopia. It’s a song about echo chambers and tunnel vision; about tearing down something that belongs to someone else in order to build something in one's own image.”
JOHN LODGE - WHISPERING ANGELS
It may be John Lodge solo, but the wistful Whispering Angels drips with the kind of symphonic richness the Moody Blues made their own. The song is taken from Lodge's new EP, Love Conquers All, which is released today, and is co-written with son-in-law and current Yes singer Jon Davison and also features contributions from Geoff Downes, Dave Colquhoun and Ray Nesbit.
“I’m so happy to share this EP with you today, it truly was a personal journey for me, and very much a healing one," says Lodge. "I’m so grateful to Jon, Geoff, and all the other great friends and family who stepped in to add their incredible musicianship and great talents to the songs, and think we created something special together. And as I said on the EP notes, most importantly with eternal love and thanks to my wife, Kirsten."
PEARL HANDLED REVOLVER - SPACE INVADER
Bedford-based quintet Pearl Handed Revolver are a difficult band to pin down musically. They've featured on various prog bills, but musically they're a little darker, and indeed rockier. That 60s Doorsian swirl is evident on new single Space Invader which is taken from the band's new album, Tales You Lose, which is the band will release on April 18.
"The album is bookended by our most expansive, apocalyptic offerings conceived to date,| the band say. "The core of the record is a pulsating collection of witching hour melodies and strobe-lit rhythms behind deep lyrical themes.”
