Great new prog music from John Lodge, TesseracT, The Flower Kings and more in Prog's Tracks Of The Week
Welcome to Prog's Tracks Of The Week. Eight brand new and diverse slices of progressive music for you to enjoy.
A lot of late movement from last week saw UK prog metallers Age Of Distraction eventually end up winning last week's TOTW, with Cornish alt.proggers Haunt The Woods in second and Trecor Rabin's Push, the leading track for much of the week ending up third.
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.
So get watching. And get voting at the bottom of the page.
JOHN LODGE - PEAK HOUR
Moody Blues bass player and vocalist John Lodge has returned to the band's early triumph, 1967's groundbreaking Days Of Future Passed, with a re-recoding, Days Of Future Passed - My Sojourn release later this month, with a vinyl version following in November, recorded with his 10,000 Light Years band and featuring the late Graeme Edge. He's certainly added new life to Peak Hour.
"After my Days Of Future Passed tours in Feb/Mar and July of this year, I was blown away by the reaction of everyone to my new concert and the fans response to my version of the album that changed my life," says Lodge. "I'm delighted that we are now releasing this in the UK, and making it available to all. I am hoping that this will bring a new generation of listeners, that they may then rediscover the original recording, and the beautiful vocals of Mike Pinder, Justin Hayward, Ray Thomas and myself. I miss the Moodies, but I'm so grateful to the fans who have continued to support me, and give me the opportunity to continue doing what I love. I dedicate this album to Graeme, Justin, Mike and Ray, to Tony Clarke, and to all the fans that are with me on this my sojourn no matter when you joined..."
TESSERACT - LEGION
It's not just Tesseract"s sound that is getting ever more cinematic in scope. just check out their wold new video for Legion, the new single taken from the band's War Of Being album, which is outnow on Kscope Records. It's the band's first ever concept album, which has been garnering rave reviews, but also sees the band venturing into the world if interactive gaming and, hopefully, a novel to boot.
"Conceptually, Legion sets the scene by introducing "Fear" and its various cunning forms," says singer Dabiel Tompkins. "Fear binds and restricts us from unlocking truth and obscures the paths that lay ahead in a deliberate attempt to skew our vision. From the perspective of our two main characters (Ex and El), Legion sees Fear tearing the fabric of their lives apart, as they experience their world crumble whilst dealing with the chaos and confusion surrounding them. The music video focuses on Ex's experience of the same chaos, taking hold of the spaceship The Dream as it crashes on 'The Strangeland' - the introduction to the story of the War Of Being."
L.O.E. - SUNSET SILHOUETTE
Halifax post-rockers L.O.E. released their debut album, The World And Everything In It, in June to much success - the vinyl edition sold out in a mere six days. And the band are about to head out on the road to celebrate the record. The band have also recorded a new live session for their upcoming Sunset Silhouette EP, which has been filmed at the The Mill TV. Sunset Silhouette features speech from US Vice President (1969-1973) Spiro Agnew who talks of the American venture in to Vietnam. Much like the speech embodies a cautious message of the journey ahead, Sunset Silhouette tries to capture that voyage from solitude and embrace being together once again.
"Sunset Silhouette looks to the horizon for the dawn of new beginnings," the band state. "The song was written at our first reunion after 3 long months of solitude following the first Covid lockdowns in the U.K. It was the first time we had graced a room together again as friends and as a band eager to make music again.
"Our rehearsal studio was filled with uncertainty, excitement and tentativeness.We tried to translate the emotion we all felt in that room in to delicate melodies and excitable piano lines. The writing of this song was an outpouring of gratitude and comfort in being back in each others company. It was an organic process and a cleansing of the mind to finally play music together again."
MYRKUR - MOTHLIKE
Danish folk/prog/metal artist Myrkur, otherwise known as Amalie Bruun, returns with he brand new album Spine, which is set for release on October 20th via Relapse Records, and from which new single Mothlike, with its striking video. Spine finds Myrkur at her most at,ospheroc and melocis. We suspect bug things are coming her way.
"Early on in the process, I knew that translating Mothlike into a video required the notion of transformation—like caterpillars do turning into moths," she explains. "It led me to think about artists, how they are often met with defiance and rejection when they bring something new to the table, before getting recognized after perseverance and determination. The video is quite literally the illustration of this process, until the eye-opening reveal of a new truth expanding your vision."
DAYS BETWEEN STATIONS - WITNESS THE END OF THE WORLD
US prog rock duo Days Between Stations have returned with a new single, the cheerily titled Witness The End Of The World, which feature s a striking vocal performance from sometime Pink Floyd vcalist Durga McBroom and a guest appearance from Yes bassist Billy Sherwood. The song was originally released in 2020 on their album Giants but due to the pandemic, the music video production was delayed, which turned out to be an unfortunately apt circumstance given the lyrics.
"I remember hearing this song that Oscar had written. I’m always turned on to songs that become your companion through life, its notes and meaning altering with you through your path in life," says guitarist Sepand Samzadeh. "When you feel the song is one thing it morphs into another. We filmed this video during the end of COVID... boy did it feel like the end of the world. I feel the apocalyptic imagery was inspired by how society and friends and family were all rattled by this disease."
THE FLOWER KINGS - MOTHER EARTH
Opening with a vocal blast followed by some Brian May-esque guitar, Mother Earth is the brand new single from The Flower Kings, taken from their recently released new album Look At You Now.
"Mother Earth is the 3rd ’single’ from our new album; a song written by our bass man Michael Stolt - with help from Jannica Lund," expalins Roine Stolt. "A song looking at our environmental crises - at a time when we see them unfolding with terrifying precision - while our leaders seem to be ignoring much of the urgency of these matters. The “looking at us NOW” - is real - we’re nearing the eye of the storm and yet profit goes before concern about our wounded planet. A time for healing is imminent. So, enjoy our new single boys and girls - this track is a free agent but also a part of our new concept piece."
DISTRICT 97 - X FADED
Chicago prog quintet District 97 will release their new album Stay For The Ending, through Spirit Of Unicorn/Cherry Red on October 20. X-Faded is the band's brand new single from the upcoming album, featuring a powerhouse vocal performance from Leslie Hunt
"The lyrics are a rapid fire observation of the world at large," Hunt explains. "They cover a wide variety of topics including natural disasters, climate change, abortion, political indictments, toxic optimism, confirmation bias and a woman’s right to choose.
"This record represents us at our most collaborative and dynamic. We tried some new things and chased different aesthetics than we have in the past and I think the result is our best sounding album to date with some of our strongest compositions.”
"After 15 years of leading District 97, I'm thrilled that we continue to push ourselves to new heights in every realm of our music making," adds drummer Jonathan Schang. "This is the strongest collection of songs we've ever assembled."
EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY - LOVED ONES
End is the frst album from US post-rock quartet Explosions In The Sky for seven years, out now through Bella Union. Loved Ones is the third single to be taken from the new album, melding the quiet restraint and crushing weight of their early recordings with the aural exploration and ornate experimentation of their later works, accompanied by a striking video featuring footage shot and edited by Kyle Snider.
"Our starting point was the concept of an ending—death, or the end of a friendship or relationship," state the band. "Every song comes from a story, or an idea one of us has had that we’ve all expanded on and made its own world. Maybe it’s our nature, but we kept feeling that the album title was ultimately open to a lot more interpretation—the end of a thing or a time can mean a stop, but it can also mean a beginning, and what happens after one thing ends might pale in comparison to what it becomes next."
