Welcome to this week's Tracks Of The Week. Six brand-new and diverse slices of progressively inclined music for you to enjoy.
The return of Karmakanic won out last week with the band's ebullient new track Cosmic Love walking off qith the honours, although thry were pushed all the way by US prog quartet Earthside, and with Toronto prog quintet Derev on a respectable third palce
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.
COSMOGRAF - KINGS AND LORDS
UK prog rockers Cosmograf return with a brand new album, The Orphan Epoch, which they release through their Gravity Dream label on May 23, from which comes first single Kings And Lords with it's great accompanying video. The album seems mainman Robin Armstrong offering up a set of songs that speak of a refusal to conform, align, or coalesce.
"This is a new era of disconnection, disillusion and disinformation," says Armstrong. "Your perception will define your reality... The video was created from an old Italian Western film Se incontri Sartana Prega Per La Tua Morte which is now in the public domain. My son Sam is a media studies student and huge fan of film and we found it mirrored the song’s themes of greed, power and nefarious intent, so he re-edited it to fit the music.”
OAK - SHIMMER
Norwegian prog trio Oak return with their fourth studio album, The Third Sleep, released through Karisma Records on April 25. The dramatic new release sees the band contrasting light with the darkness as they blend sweet melodic folky passages with some crushing prog metal bleakness. The brooding Shimmer is the first single from the upcoming album.
"Those who have listened to Oak's previous releases will probably notice the clear nods, both harmonically and lyrically, to Stars Under The Water from the album Lighthouse," the band state. "The themes of conformity and condemnation are treated in a gloomy soundscape that can send the mind to dark film music. Both harmonically and lyrically, Shimmer builds a bridge from the band's first release to the latest, before towards the end you are led into a suggestive, ostinato-like coda that gives room to process and to move on both concretely and metaphorically."
JENNY HVAL - TO BE A ROSE
Norwegian art rocker, artist and novelist Jenny Hval will release her latest album, Iris Silver Mist, through 4AD on May 2, from which comes To Be A Rose, with its timewarp video featuring footage of Hval shot on various tours from 2015 to 2024. The new album is named after a fragrance made by the nose Maurice Roucel for the French perfume house Serge Lutens. It’s described as smelling more like steel than silver. That reignited Hval's interest in fragrances, which in turn has inspired Hval's new album.
"To Be A Rose was written as a restless pop structure," Hval explains. "It has a chorus, with chords and a melody, but each chorus sounds slightly different, like we are experiencing the melody from different seasons, decades or even different bodies. The clichéd rose metaphor in the song is equally restless. It can change shape into a cigarette and then evaporate to smoke. My mother and I (two restless humans) are both present in the song: "I was singing in my room, she smoked on the balcony/Long inhales and long exhales performed in choreography". If about anything, To Be A Rose is about how one thing becomes another thing, how we all come from somewhere and someone, and how this is stranger and more powerful than we think.”
PANZERBALLETT - PICK UP THE PIECES
You'll probably remember the melody from German prog/jazz metallers Panzerballett's brand new single, because it's a cover of Scottish R'n'B band Average White Band's massive 1974 hit Pick Up The Pieces. The cover is the first track taken from the band's upcoming album, Übercode Œuvre, which they release on April 25. The album features contributions from drummers Marco Minnemann and Virgil Donati, and on Pick Up The Pieces, fellow German drummer Annika Nilles.
“Pick Up The Pieces takes the classic funk groove and makes it our own by shifting between fours, fives, and sevens as subdivisions," explains guitarist and composer Jan Zehrfeld. "I wanted to preserve the original spirit of the song, but with a unique Panzerballett twist. The track is intricate, funky, and definitely headbanging material! It’s got that groove, but it’s also complex enough to keep both the jazz and metal listeners engaged.”
LUMENS - PRIMROSE
Australian quartet Lumens mix prog and metalcore on their self-titled debut EP, which is released on the Aussie prog label Wild Thing Records on April 11. Primrose is the second single to be taken from the EP, which explores internal conflict, self-awareness, and the weight of personal expectations. Melodic and anthemic, and hard-hitting in equal measures, while they may be a bit heavy for some ears, prog metal fans will probably lap this up.
“Primrose is deeply personal to me," says vocalist Rhys Jackson Stars. "It’s about the struggle to maintain a balance between satisfaction and the pursuit of true fulfilment. The primrose path may seem inviting, but sometimes, there are flowers you shouldn’t smell along the way"
O.R.k. - 16000 DAYS
Prog supergroup O.R.k., who feature Colin Edwin (Porcupine Tree), vocalist LEF, Pat Mastelotto (King Crimson), and Carmelo Pipitone, have been drip-feeding singles from their upcoming Firehose Of Falsehoods album, which they release through Kscope Music on March 21. Like many of those, 16000 Days packs an anthemic metallic punch, but also offers more in the atmospheric stakes too.
“16000 Days is a song for anyone who has reached a significant life milestone and still feels as full of unanswered questions as they did as a small child," explains abassist Edwin. "It's the closest O.R.k. have ever come to a self-help song and I am fairly sure the sentiment is universal.”
