Welcome to Prog's brand new Tracks Of The Week. Six brand new and diverse slices of progressive music for you to enjoy.
Well done to US spiritual prog band EchoVerse, whose track Not Like The Other won last week's Tracks Of The Week, with a strong showing from Ebony Buckle in second place and French prog trio Lizzard 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.
ULVER - HOLLYWOOD BABYLON
Norwegian avant-garde progers Ulver are releasing their latest album, Ghost Entry, track by track and the recently released Hollywood Babylon is the fifth single they've released this far, a pulsating slice of electronic-driven proggy goodness with shades of Depeche Mode. Dark, but richly melodic too.
"This time we’re gonna keep dropping tracks till it becomes an album," Ulver have said of the method of release. "It’s a backwards way, with no pre-order, promo people or anything, but that’s how we wanna roll. Quite liberating in these twilight years. We’ve made enough albums the conventional way, and the kids don’t care about that anyway. So feel free to spread it on the Tik Tok or what have you."
SIMONE SIMONS - R.E.D.
Listening to R.E.D., the new single from Epica singer Simone SImons and collaborator Arjen Lucassen, it's kind of what you might expect, and then again, it isn't. There's no disguising Simons' amazing vocals and a Lucassen touch of bombast, but there's underlying electronica and industrial elements on display. It's taken from Simons' debut solo album, Vermillion, that's set for release on 23rd August through Nuclear Blast, easily the proggiest thing the singer has created.
"R.E.D. deals with the rise of artificial intelligence, imagining a future where the creation begins to outpace the creator," says Simons. "It reflects on the AI's growing self-awareness and its unfulfilled desire to experience emotions, something that its synthetic nature makes impossible to ever realize. The song also looks at the double-edged nature of technological advancements and the profound existential questions that are becoming ever more important to address."
DARK SKY BURIAL - THE JEWEL INSIDE THE TOAD'S HEAD
If we mentioned Shane Embury of Napalm Death the sound in your head would most probably not be Dark Sky Burial. The experimental side-project "started out as something influenced by Italian horror movie soundtracks but has moved way beyond that," Embury explains. He's just released his fourth album under the Dark Sky Burial banner, Solve Et Coagula, from which comes The Jewel In The Toad's Head, and let's face it, song titles don't come more proggy than that!
"Four is the number of wholeness," Embury continues. "So maybe I am symbolizing my desire for personal wholeness through the album’s journey? From prehistoric times, the number four was employed to signify what was solid, what could be touched and felt. Its relationship to the cross (four points) made it an outstanding symbol of wholeness and universality, a symbol which drew all to itself."
THROAT - THROAT
Throat have been described as a "surreal, often disconcerting sound", and listening to their new self-titled track, it's not difficult to hear why. Throat are in fact Mark Mckowski of The Lost Brothers and Nick Power of proggy psych band The Coral, and Throat is their very first release. Equally unsettling is the video, created by filmmakers Devin Morgan and Eddie Levine!
"Throat is seven minutes of surreal, often disconcerting sound," the pai say. "Like discovering a cassette buried in the dirt, decayed by time, filled up with field recordings of plucked strings, footsteps, theremin and cardboard box percussion, mystery music that unfurls with the addition of a walkie-talkie vocal and an ominous, descending analogue bass sound."
GIANT WALKER - SILHOUETTES
Newcastle's prog rock quartet Giant Walker continue to make a name for themselves as they gear up to release their second album, Silhouettes, through Church Road Records on September 20. The band will be playing Radar Festival at the end of this month and will head out on tour around the UK with Australian alt.proggers Future Static in August.
"Thematically, the song explores feelings of being constantly beaten down to the point where you want to bring everyone down with you - almost like life is out to trip you up at every corner and then smiling when you fall," says vocalist Steff Fish of the gentle title track from the upcoming album. "Epitomised by the lyric - "I could dig a nice hole in the ground, but then I guess I can’t watch the world drown”..."
JOHAN STEENSLAND - THAT MAN ISN'T ME
Swedish independent artist, multi-instrumentalist and YouTuber Johan Steensland has been working on Crossfade, his prog rock concept album back in 1985 when he built his first own eight-channel studio! A good thing's worth waiting for and That Man Isn't Me is the fifth single that he's taken from the album. The concept relates to characters Joseph and Linda and what happens in the aftermath of their turbulent break-up.
"It’s a 52-minute intense story about the aftermath of a couple’s chaotic breakup," Steensland explains. "The music is progressive and highly advanced with time signature changes, themes recurring in different shapes, and other classic prog elements."
