It's the return of Prog's Tracks Of The Week. After a couple of weeks away as we were engaged in a bit of time off or at Summer's End Festival, we're back with another seven brand new and diverse slices of progressive music for you to enjoy.
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.
ALEX HENRY FOSTER - A MIND'S TAPESTRY
Canadian post-rocker Alex Henry Foster has been a busy man this year. Last month he released A Measure Of Shape And Sounds, his second album of the year, and one which represented a richly atmospheric journey made of several layers of guitar loops, reverberations, resonances, and oscillations juxtaposed together to create a sonic multi-directional contemplative maelstrom. Taken from the album, A Mind's Tapestry, is represented with a new video that is centred around water.
"I found [it], since it’s our main physical component, to be the perfect representation of the intangible state of inner peace we all look for at some point in our existence," Foster reflects. "The song represents a sense of personal weightlessness in regard to our existential impermanence. It’s an empowering acceptance of sorts... It’s about the peaceful yet defiant nature of 'being'."
YENISEI - THIS PLACE WAS A SHELTER
Formed in 2018, Yenisei are an instrumental post-rock quintet from Kraków, Poland, who will release their third album, Home, on October 25. As you will hear from the single This Place Was A Shelter, the band's sound is now a far cry from the metal quartet they began life as. The loss of a singer and an unsuccessful attempt to find a replacement saw a shift towards writing more instrumental-based music over their first two albums, The Last Cruise (2019) and Reflections (2021), which really seems to have come to fruition on Home.
"Home is a thoughtful and inspiring record that shows the band's ability to create post-rock music with a unique approach," the band say. "Yenisei's main characteristic is very melodic instrumental music which incorporates sounds and moods from many different subgenres. Home is an appropriate follow-up to our 2021 acclaimed album, Reflections.
THE PROGRESSIVE SOULS COLLECTIVE - JAKE TO THE BONE
The impressively named The Progressive Souls Collective is the brainchild of musician Florian Zepf, who enlists the help of various luminaries from the prog world to bring his own anthemic prog metal visions to fruition. The band have thus far released both the Sonic Birth and Sonic Rebirth albums, and their latest project is covers album Encore Vol. 1: Sonic Tributes, which will be released by Metalville Records in October.
Featuring progged-up covers of songs by the likes of Massive Attack (Teardrops), Pink Floyd (High Hopes) and here, Toto's Jake To The Bone, the jazz-fusion instrumental from the band's 1992 album Kingdom Of Desire. This new version features Alex Landenburg (Kamelot, Cyhra) on drums, Jamie Powell on bass and Gerald Peter (Cirque du Soleil) as a keyboard soloist.
LAIBACH - LEBEN HEIßT LEBEN
Slovenian collective Laibach are certainly in a world of their own. From declaring their own independence from the then Yugoslavia to music that's ranged from industrial, avant-garde, classical and a host of subversive cover versions. And that's what we have here, their version of Austrian Euro-poppers Opus's 1984 hit Live Is Life.
The band are currently celebrating their third album, Opus Dei, originally released in 1987 and which featured Live Is Life ( as well as Opus's own Opus Dei - which translates as 'God's work') and a cover of Queen's Borth Of A Nation. Laibach will release Opus Dei Revisited, a collection of new versions which, of course, radically interrogate the source material, set for release on double vinyl and double CD through Mute Records in December.
TERAMAZE - UNTIDE
Prolific Melbourne prog rockers Teramaze are back with another new album, the Teracoustic Sessions: Volume 1, which, as the title implies, is an acoustic album reworking material from the band's extensive back catalogue. "Stripped down to just acoustic guitar and vocals, this collection offers a raw and unembellished take on our music—no frills, no effects, just the essence of Teramaze," the band say.
Teramaze have released no less than six studio albums over the past five years! Count 'em: I Wonder (2020), Sorella Minore (2021), And The Beauty The Percieve (2021), Flight Of The Wounded (2022), Dalla Volta (2023) and Eli: A Wonderful Fall From Grace earlier this year!
ROSS VALORY - ROOT DOWN
Ross Valory will be best-known to many as the bass player from US mega-successful melodic rockers Journey. But before the massive hits in the 80s, Journey's first three albums; Journey (1975), Looking into The Future (1976) and Next (1977), represented a far proggier sound with strong elements of jazz-fusion. Hardly surprising when you consider guitarist Neal Schon and keyboard player Greg Rolie had played in Santana, drummer Aydnley Dunbar had played with Zappa and Valory with the excellently named Frumious Bandersnatch and then the Steve Miller Band.
Valory's debut solo album, All Of The Above, revisits some of that earlier Journey sound, and although this cover of jazz fusioneer Jimmy Smith's Root Down is not on the album, it kickstarts a new performance video series recorded at Valory's North California studio.
WE ARE BODIES - LOST
Lost is the new single from We Are Bodies, the electro-prog duo comprised of BirdPen and Archive's Dave Pen and France-based composer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Robin Foster. The duo began collaborating in 2011 and released an eponymous debut as We Are Bodies in 2015. Second album, The Love Was All We Had, is released through Wearebodiesmusic on December 6.
Lost is referred to as "an upbeat earworm about a twisted relationship and a central protagonist who has tried his best to make it work but is ultimately left with nothing."
