OK, here’s some music that various members of the Prog team have been grooving to this week…
We spend all week checking out new music - like you, we love it. So instead of making you wait ‘til the next issue to froth majestically over the great and good of the prog world, each week we’re now bringing you a selection of what we think is hot (this week, anyway). Sometimes it might be a taster of things to come, or it might be an old favourite that’s caught our ear once again. Either way, it’ll always be something worth listening to. So, from the Editorial team, the Limelight section of the magazine, and one of our esteemed writers (this week it’s Emma Johnston), here’s a mercurial selection of sonic delights to ponder over the weekend. Please do tell us what you like….
EDITOR: JERRY EWING
Camel – The Cloak And Dagger Man
We got the sad news that Chris Rainbow had died yesterday. I always liked his work with the Alan Parsons Project, but the first time his vocal really grabbed me was when I heard this, originally as a single from Camel’s 1984 album Stationary Traveller. This version is from the live album Pressure Points. filmed at London’s Hammersmith Odeon. R.I.P. Chris…
DEPUTY EDITOR: HANNAH MAY KILROY
Sólstafir – Lágnætti
Bit of a throwback here; this moving and mesmerising track is taken from the Icelandic post-rockers’ Otta, which was my number one album of 2014. It’s hauntingly beautiful, particularly when paired with the breathtaking Icelandic landscape featured in the music video.
ART EDITOR: RUSSELL FAIRBROTHER
Tool – Silly Little Love Song
How on earth could you improve on Silly Love Songs by Wings? I know… turn it into a paen to tortured obsession. Replacing butterfly kisses with nipple clamps, back in 1996, The Replicants employed the only vocalist up to the job, Maynard James Keenan. Need a first song to dance to at your wedding anyone?
NEWS EDITOR: NATASHA SCHARF
Arcane – Promise Part 2
Taken from the Aussies’ crowd-funded double album Known/Learned, opener Promise Part 2 perfectly balances melody and heaviness with just the right amount of melancholy. Gorgeous.
Listen to the track here.
REVIEWS EDITOR: GRANT MOON
Argos – A Seasonal Affair
Stumbled across promising German outfit Argos – their album A Seasonal Affair is out mid-March. Shades of Canterbury in here, all very enticing…
WRITER: EMMA JOHNSTON
Turbowolf – Solid Gold
Bristol’s prog wolves in groove rock clothing are one reliably weird form for their new album Two Hands, and nowhere is that more apparent than on this track. What sounds like a children’s choir is given a terrifying alien makeover via frontman Chris Georgiadis’ synths, while the band’s beefy riffs are underpinned by a storm of squealing, swirling prog electronics. Release the ‘Wolf!
LIMELIGHT BAND
Hookworms – Away/Towards
Take a cosmic, transcendental trip with this northern quintet: imagine Wooden Shjips and Suicide rammed into a psychedelic wormhole.
