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 trio head With Wings, whose Galaxy was last week's top voted track, followed by prog/folk duo Maer and US prog rockers Pattern-Seeking Animals in second and third place respectively.
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 bring 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.
THE FLOWER KINGS - DAY FOR PEACE
Swedish prog rockers The Flower Kings have just released their latest album Look At You Now through InsideOut Music, from which comes this gentle and prescient tune, Day For Peace, which features an emotionally impactful vocal appearance from Iamthemorning's Marjana Semkina. As one might expect, Look At You Now has been welcomed with open arms by the prog community and the band are currrently on tour throughout Europe.
"This is one of my personal high points on the new album - simple, but full of nice orchestral details," says mainman Roine Stolt. "Not a regular prog-epic - a plead for sanity, peace, and compassion in this troubled time. It is getting more urgent each day - unfortunately - as we see the violence unfold each day and the senseless wars kill and destroy people’s lives. The beautiful female voice here is Marjana Semkina from Iamthemorning."
MARIUSZ DUDA - BOTS' PARTY
Riverside and Lunatic Soul frontman Mariusz Duda releases his latest solo abum, AFR AI D, through Kscope Records on November 17. Away fromboth Riverside and increasingly Lunatic Soul he album continues to explores electronic soundscapes and looks at the growing commodification of AI and specifically with artificial intelligence entering the mainstream. Bot's Party is the second single to be released from the album.
"Bots' Party was inspired by two things, French electronic music in the style of Air or Daft Punk, and video games with robots in them (NieR:Automata, Stray, Machinarium)," Duda explains. "I often associated French electronica with the use of processed vocals (Jean Michel Jarre's Zoolook) and so I wanted to use them here to symbolise the language of artificial intelligence."
GREEN LUNG - ONE FOR SORROW
Green Lung might not be a name too familiar with prog fans. Yet. But the band's blend of 70s style heavy rock and Hammond-laden Atomic Rooster-style riffing will surely go down well with those that enjoy a blast of retro prog-flavoured rock. Green Lung's latest album, This Heathen Land, is released through Nuclear Bast Records on November 3 and you can watch the suitably spooky video for One For Sorrow below. You'll be able to read about them in upcoming issues of Prog Magazine.
"This was the last song we wrote for the album, and it's the only song on This Heathen Land that doesn't relate to a physical landscape of Britain, but instead the skies above," explains singer Tom Templar. "It features some of my most personal lyrics yet, but it's still steeped in folklore - the variation of the popular One For Sorrow rhyme at the end dates back to 1780, and is wonderfully creepy. We were delighted to welcome back Julian Firth to play the ornithologist in the music video, along with Blackthorn Ritualistic Folk, who created some incredible costumes and a truly uncanny magpie creature."
TIGER MOTH TALES - WE'LL REMEMBER
It's an emotive return from Tiger Moth Tales, with this tribte from TMT mainman Peter Jones to the late Big Big Train singer David Longdon. The soulful tracks is taken from The Turning Of The World, the brand new Tiger Moth Tales album, which has just been released through White Knight Records. The new album sees Jones taking a slightly more stripped back approach to creating music, although losing none of his melody and impactful songwriting.
"We'll Remember is my tribute to David Longdon, still deeply missed by so many including myself," explains Jones. "It features backing vocals from Christina Booth and Rob Reed. As we all worked with David on Spectral Mornings in 2015, and because Rob, Christina and myself were all together when we found out about David's sad passing, it seemed only fitting for them to be involved, and they sound fabulous of course. I wrote the song very soon after David's death, so it was a raw, honest and direct song of sadness. But it's also in celebration of his amazing gift and legacy, which we will continue to remember.”
BEATRIX PLAYERS - YOU CAN'T HIT A NAIL
The new-look Beatrix Players, who, alongside founding member Amy Birks, now feature John Hackett on flute, guitarist Oliver Day, drummer Andrew Booker and cellist Jane Fenton, continue their emergence i to the spotlight with You Can't Hit A Nail, another track taken from brand new album Living & Alive.
"There's always scope in prog for using classical instruments in interesting ways," says Hackett. "Robin Miller's oboe playing on King Crimson's Lizard or on my brother Steve's Voyage Of The Acolyte, for example. Here, what starts as a quite a funky riff goes in a different direction in the middle with the flute and cello solos-it could almost be Khachaturian."
D'VIRGILIO, MORSE, JENNINGS - TINY LITTLE FIRES
Nick D'Virgilio, Neal Morse and Haken singer Ross Jennings have returned with a second album full of sweet, West Coast-style vocal harmonising combined with elements of more progressive music more familiar to fans of their day jobs. Sophomore, the follow-up to 2021's Troika and from which the bright and breezy Tiny Little Fires comes from, will be released through InsideOut Music on November 10.
"The melody for Tiny Little Fires came about as a result of messing around with my son's toy Xylophone," says Jennings. "You never know when or where inspiration strikes but when it does, you just gotta harvest and harness it. And so with that Xylophone hook, along with the alternating time signatures, an entire song began unravelling and building in my head and at the first opportunity I demoed a full band version of the track. It came together extremely fast and the final recording with our three voices, along with Nick's live drums and Neal's additional Wakeman-esque keys, didn't differ too much from what I visualised that morning goofing around with my toddler!"
OZRIC TENTACLES - LOTUS UNFOLDING
As you might expect, the title track from the upcoming new Ozric Tentacles album is a blissed out journey of amazing sounds. Lotus Unfolding is the band's sixteenth studo album, and will be released through Kscope Records on October 20. As you might expect from the band, the visualizer video that accompanies the track is awash with vibrantly bright colours and patterns that really enhance the music.
"The concept is, as usually wide and open to interpretation but basically is a sonically illustrated excursion through some of the musical realms we found ourselves in this time around," explains Ozrics mainman Ed Wynne of the new record. "Designed to elevate and delight the senses, should that be required, because if the day feels like an unfolding lotus, it’s probably going to be a good one."
