And we're back! Welcome to Prog's first Tracks Of The Week for 2024! Six 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?
We bring 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 or musical artist 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. We share the winning video every Friday afternoon on the Prog socials.
CALIGULA'S HORSE - THE STORMCHASER
Australian prog rockers Caligula's Horse return with brooding new album Charcoal Grace at the end of January, and the emotive The Stormchaser is the third release thus far from the upcoming album, which was borne of the static hopelessness that the pandemic forced upon the band and described by them as "the grim allure and strange beauty in stillness, silence, and loss."
"The Stormchaser is about the divide we all saw through the pandemic," explains guitarist and singwriter Sam Vallen. "How, rather than banding together to overcome the challenge of those years, many chose to serve themselves at the expense of their community and their society. Watching this, as we all did, was a humbling and infuriating experience, and it has lingered in all of us. Musically, The Stormchaser is quite different from those we've revealed so far from Charcoal Grace, emphasising space, dynamics, and timbre with a particular focus on the emotional range of Jim Grey's vocal.”
PER WIBERG - DEAD SKY LULLABY
Former Opeth keyboard player Per Wiberg continues his musical journey with The Serpent's Here, which he will release through Despotz Records on March 15. It's Wiberg's second full-length solo album following on from his 2019 debut Head Without Eyes and 2021's All Is Well In The Land Of The Living EP, and finds the musician very much in a rock'n'roll frame of mind
"I’d like to think Dead Sky Lullaby’s good traveling music, a kraut/space rock rager that boasts a Hawkwind-meets-Sonic Youth vibe with a big chorus in the vein of Killing Joke," he says. "It was recorded live in the studio, it shows and it sets the tone for the rest of the album. It’s kinda divided in two parts with different types of choruses, the first part’s a bit wilder and the second has more of an epic melodic feel to it. It’s all tied together by the apocalyptic lyrics and a beat that could go on forever and ever and ever... Enjoy!"
NORTH SEA ECHOES - OPEN BOOK
North Sea Echoes is the new project from Fates Warning men Jim Matheos and Ray Alder, which must be good news for Fates Warnng fans uoswet by Alder's declaration in a recent issue of Prog that the band weren't planning n recording any new music. North Sea Echoes' debut album, Really Good Terrible Things, will be released through Metal Blade in February ,might be mellower than Fates, but its sense of melody and brooding atmospherics are bound to delight fans regardless.
"With Ray's lyrics about ending and beginnings, it felt like a good mood to start off with," says Matheos.
"The line 'we're a cloud behind the moon' is referring to the fact that we are all basically an impossibility," adds Alder. "Yet here we are. And we will go on until we can't. I'm speaking of inevitability."
TODAY WAS YESTERDAY - A LOUDER SILENCE
US musicians Angelo Barbera and Ty Dennis are Today Was Yesterday, and they clearly have some impressive names in their little back book! The duo's upcoming self-titled debut album, which is released through Music Theories Recordings/Mascot Label Group on February 23, features the extraordinary guitar talents of Rush's Alex Lifeson and The Doors' Robbie Krieger. It's the former adding. a fiery but so recognisable solo on new single A Louder Silence.
"A Louder Silence is my favourite track off the record," says drummer, percussionist and programmer Dennis. "For me, this song is a great representation of our sound as a band. Like all great songs, this track has an impact that has the listener taking the journey with us through delicate intros, through melodic verses and powerful choruses, and it's rounded out by an incredible, out of this world guitar performance from Alex Lifeson."
"A Louder Silence deals in today’s mindsets of opinion narratives over facts in politics, medical, romance, or any topic via social media," adds vocalist, primary songwriter, bassist, guitarist, pianist and programmer Barbera. The shaping of minds to be fooled by opinion narratives and not facts; your basically saying words without saying anything that’s factual."
WORRIEDABOUTSATAN - I USED TO PHOTOGRAPH TREES WHEN I WAS YOUNGER
UK electronica/post-rocker worriedaboutsatan, otherwise known as Bradford-based Gavin Miller, releases his new album JÆJA today! The title refers to an an old Icelandic word that basically means “well, then!” and it features this 15-minute epic too! It's the fist of several records the industrious Miller will be involved with that will be released this year and he's also planning some live work, with a band featuring his partner Calla, who's also worked with Maybeshewill and The Anchoress.
"The track is taken from a new album, out Friday, calledJÆJA - it’s an old Icelandic word that basically means 'well, then!' - I’ve caught myself muttering it for years, so thought it’d be quite fun to name an album after! It’s made up of two long tracks very much modelled on the prog/ kosmische sound - lots of motorik drumming and hypnotic synths. Very much me trying to shamelessly copy Neu, Can, Tangerine Dream, etc..."
EMERALD CITY COUNCIL - BEST LIFE
US melodic prog rockers Emerald City Council are a US prog quintet fronted by vocalist and keyboard player Jake Livgren, sin of former Kansas founder Kerry LIvrgen, and Best Life is the new single taken from the band's recent album Motion Carries which is out through Melodic Revolution Records. The single serves as a four-minute excerpt from Platforms Of Illusion, a six-part 20-minute epic on the new album. The album also features contributions from actors Jeffery Combs (Star Trek, Re-Animator) and Steve Rankin (Star Trek, X-Files).
"Platforms Of Illusion explores different aspects of social media, from fun and frivolous to the slightly annoying, and the darker areas of our identity," the band state. "Best Life is the second section of piece, and showcases the more laid back acoustic side of the band.
