Welcome to Prog's brand new Tracks Of The Week. Six brand new and diverse slices of progressive music for you to enjoy.
With Download Festival happening last weekend, last week was a quiet one for releases, so we didn't have a Tracks Of The Week last week. However a big well done to Oliver Wakeman, whose Instead Of My Fear walked off with the honours the week before, holding off strong competition from Hasse Froberg And Musical Companion and with Louise Partricia Crane 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 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.
CHARLOTTE WESSELS - CHASING SUNSETS
Charleotte Wessels is best known as the former frontwoman for Dutch symphonic metallers Delain whom she left back in 2021. She's about to release her third solo album, The Obsession, which while retaining traits from her Delain days, sees her spreading her musical wings somewhat, and should certainly appeal to fans of the more Ayreon/Nightwish area of prog. Chasing Sunsets is the second single to be taken from the upcoming album, which will be released through Napalm Records on September 20.
"When I released the initial version of Chasing Sunsets on Patreon, it was an instant favourite, and it grew so much since then as we worked on it for the album, I can’t wait to share this track with the world," Wessels exclaims. "There’s an underlying theme of self-preservation and greed in the song that we visualized in the music video. I’ve never felt so much like we’re living in the Hunger Games where parts of the world continue lavish lifestyles while others suffer complete devastation. We worked with this theme in the music video through an artificial beautiful landscape and styling, all staged in a barren space with burning trees."
RENDEZVOUS POINT - PRESENCE
Norwegian prog rockers Rendezvous Point release their third album Dream Chaser through Long Branch Records today! And to celebrate the previous TOTW winners have shared a new video for Presence which is at onve epic-sounding yet infused with a memorably hooky chorus, a major fact of the Rendezvous Pint sound. You can read a full feature with the band in issue 152 of Prog.
"Artists often strive a whole lifetime searching for something abstract, a feeling of perfection in what you do or create," the band say. "Since it’s an abstract and subjective thing, the artists‘ search for perfection often results in a lifetime of always wanting more, better, bigger and deeper. This leads to chasing something unclear and un-touchable, like a dream. It seems real and reachable, but never is,“ comment the band."
OCEANS OF SLUMBER - POEM OF ECSTACY
Texan prog metal quintet Oceans Of Slumber recently announced details of their upcoming album Where Gods Fear To Speak, which will be released through the band's new record label Season Of Mist Records on September 13. The atmospheric Poem Of Ecstacy is the latest new music from the band, a grandiose and epic slice of prog metal that spans everything from ambient soundscapes to dystopian prog metal, and featuring, as fans of the band would expect, a towering vocal performance from vocalist Cammie Beverly.
"Where Gods Fear To Speak exists somewhere between The Handmaid's Tale, The Dark Tower and Cormac McCarthy", Dobber Beverly says. "It's part science fiction, part western gunslinger with a heavy dash of post-apocalyptic survival. Every time you make a new record, you think it's the best, but Poem Of Ecstasy is easily one of the best songs we've ever written. It sounds like an energetic, pissed-off-band, with enigmatic storytelling and all those magical things."
THE GIFT - THINK OF ENGLAND
UK prog rockers The Gift return with their first new album for five years when they release new album Seven Seasons later this year. The first taster from the upcoming album is the band's video for Think Of England, featuring some epic dad dancing from singer Mike Morton, and musically clearly carries on the more contemporary sound the band achieved with 2019's Antenna album. Seven Seasons is a concept album inspired by the Shakespearean notion of ‘7 Ages Of Man’.
"Think Of England was conceived in the febrile atmosphere of 2020’s lockdown," the band state. "Mike Morton had long been intrigued by the deeply questionable command to ‘Lie back and think of England’. It had always struck him as more than overbearing, unsavoury advice to a Victorian wife. It also smacked of the self-denial and silence which so often abounds when the elite make decisions on behalf of the many. Considering events since 2016, it seemed a fair description of the state of our nation."
IAN WILLIAMS - CHRONOPOLIS
“Think Vangelis sharing ideas with Tangerine Dream and Jean-Michel Jarre," is how London-based musician/composer Ian Williams has been described. And listening to his new single Chronopolis, we can see where people might get that idea from. Williams' musical past includes being a founder of pre-dream poppers Beautiful Pea Green Boat as well as a member of Gamine, before exploring dark piano-led textures with his 2019 solo debut The Dream Extortionists.
Chronopolis takes its title from a J. G. Ballard short story and has been edited down from the version that appears in Williams' current album Slow-Motion Apocalypse. Williams will next be heard on the soundtrack for French director Eric Michel's upcoming WW2 spy documentary, Le Mystère Lucie (Code Name Lucy), which will be released in July.
FAR AWAY - I WON'T SAVE YOU
Far Away are a French prog metal quartet who are about to release their second album, Solastalgia, through M&O Music later this year, and from which the richly atmospheric I Won't Save You is taken. The band released their self-produced debut album Viaje back in 2019, which was inspired by travels through South America. In between the two albums the band also produced the soundtrack to the short documentary Une Nuit en Antarctique.
"This album brings to light our common eco-anxiety and lets us convey and catharize [sic]our emotions through our songs, making our music sensitive, powerful and authentic," the band say.
