Welcome to Prog's Tracks Of The Week. Eight brand new and diverse slices of progressive music for you to enjoy.
Congratulations to US prog duo Days Between Stations, whose Witness The End Of The World, featuring Durga McBroom on vocals, walked off with the honours last week, pipping US proggers District 97 and former Moody Blues man John Lodge.
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.
So get watching. And get voting at the bottom of the page.
AMORPHIS - WRONG DIRECTION
Finnish prog metal sextet Amorphis will release a new live album, Queen Of Time (Live At Tavastia 2021), through Atomic Fire Records on October 13. The album was recorded at one of two streaming concerts at the legendary Tavastia Club in Helsinki, Finland back in 20221 during the pandemic when the band performed their thirteenth studio album, 2018's Queen Of Time. Wrong Direction is the first signle to be taken fromm the upcoing live release.
"We shot a video for the song once back in the day when the Queen Of Time album was released originally," says guitarist Esa Holopainen. "An interesting anecdote is that Tomi Joutsen and Pekka Kainulainen [also known as the band's lyricist] both travelled to Norwegian Lapland to film the landscape shots. But in the end you could only see Pekka in the video. Poor Tomi had to travel and to spend a couple of days in Norway for nothing. The very nice video was directed by Sentenced drummer Vesa Ranta, but you can now also witness the live version of the track and I hope you enjoy it as much as we do."
CHELSEA WOLFE - DUSK
US dark folk rocker Chelsea Wolfe returns with a brand new single Dusk, her first for new label Loma Vista Recordings and he first original music following her contributions to the score of 2022 A24 film X. Typically unsettling, Dusk was produced by David Andrew Sitek of TV On The Radio and mixed by Shawn Everett (Slowdive, SZA, The War On Drugs).
The track was recorded by Derek Coburn at Federal Prism Studios and mastered by Heba Kadry. With lush production, it is intimate and expansive and features a core band of Ben Chisholm (synth), Jess Gowrie (drums) and Bryan Tulao (lead guitar).
HILARY WOODS - WHERE THE BOUGH HAS BROKEN
Irish musician Hilary Woods was previously bassist with alt.rockers JJ72, before quitting the industry in 2003. She returned with her Night EP in 2014 and has been creating intriguing art rock ever since. The foreboding Where The Bough Has Broken is taken from her self-produced fourth album, Acts Of Light, which will be released through Sacred Bones on November 3.
"Made from old newsreels of archive footage, this video muses on the beauty of community and resilience, made to a piece of music that celebrates connection and the specificity and transience of time, space, and human expression," Woods says of the striking accompanying video which she created. "This music video is a visual love letter to the Dublin City I grew up in, to the spirit of familial roots and the extraordinary moments in ordinary life that leave their lasting impression."
HEKZ - TOO FAR GONE
UK prog metallers HeKz unvei a brand new line-up n their latest album, a double concept affair entiled Terra Nova . Joining mainman Matt Young are Mark Bogert (guitar), Irina Markevich (violin) and Moyano el Buffalo (drums) with a guest contributions from keyboard legend Adam Holzman, renowned for his work with Miles Davis and Steven Wilson. Too Far Gone is the exciting lead-off track from the album
“Terra Nova is a concept piece that weaves a captivating tale of ambition, duality, and the relentless fight to conquer the darkest parts of one's personality to become the person you were born to be," the band explain.
TEETH OF THE SEA - BUTTERFLY HOUSE
London's artful psychedelic prog trio Teeth of The Sea will release their brand new studio album, Hive, through Rocket Recordings on October 6. The supremely catchy Butterfy House, which features a guest vocal performance from Snowpony's Kath Gifford, melds synth pop melodies with some quite strident guitar work, and is one of the catchiest things we've heard from the trio.
"Butterfly House marks a new journey for Teeth Of The Sea," the band say. "Always fans of synth-pop and Italo-disco, a combination of serendipity and instinct led them to combine forces with vocalist and songwriter Kath Gifford (Snowpony, Sleazy Tiger, The Wargs) to create a radiant shard of neon-tinted melancholia. Less visited by the spectres of Baltimora, Bobby O and Laura Branigan than it is a haunting ode to loss and dislocation rendered in vivid colours, it's a song that marks a meeting point between the dancefloor and the ether."
MINT FIELD - EL SUSRPIRIO CAMBIA TODO
Mexico City-based psych duo Mint Field, that's Estrella del Sol Sánchez and Sebastian Neyra, are back with a delightful slice of hazy, blissful psychedelia entitled El Suspiro Cambia Todo, sung in the band's native tongue. The track is taken from their upcoming new album Aprender a Ser, which is set for release through felte on October 27.
"Sighing is the desire for melancholy. It denotes that something is happening," the band state. "Sometimes we just need to sigh to let go. Sighing is something we do unconsciously but it says a lot about what is going on inside our mind.”
"An exploration of the different stages of a single verb: 'Suspiro' or 'Sigh'," adds director Rodrigo Pérez-Galicia. "It's both physiological and a psychological reaction that applies in many emotional stages. It's a punctuation mark for our train of thought. It marks a rhythm in our lively experience. We wanted to capture that feeling when our body demands a 'sigh'" on the visuals."
EXTERNAL - GHOST HOUSE
Finnish prog metal outfit External return with a brand new single, Ghost House, which, like 2019's Distant, hs been produced by VOLA frontman Asger Mygind, and accompanied by a dark yet eye-catching video. It's a track with depth that also packs a punch, mixing a memorable chorus with knottier rhythms. For a band that began life a straight ahead thrash metal outfit back inn2014 External have developed into a much proggier proposition in 2023.
The video for Ghost House was directed by the band’s bass player Samuel Järvinen, and the song was mastered by Samu Oittinen (Korpiklaani, Insomnium).
