We’re back with a brand new Tracks Of The Week! This week we’ve got another seven new and diverse slices of progressively inclined music for you to enjoy.
So Steven Wilson notches up his second win in recent weeks in TOTW with his rather creepy new video for On Chapel Slope. Pure Reason Revolution’s Annicke Shireen made second place all her own and Arabs In. Aspic came a respectable third.
The premise is simple – we’ve listened to a batch of new releases by bands falling under the progressive umbrella, and collated them together in one post for you – it 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 (please, don’t forget the photo!) and biog with quotes to us here.
SKYLAKE – WIDE OPEN
This is the first time we’ve heard Dutch prog quartet Skylake, but the breezy and melodic Wide Open certainly leaves us wanting to hear more! It’s the first new music to be shared from their upcoming second album, The Deep Dive, which is released through The Rock Company on November 12.
“We poured our heart, soul, blood, sweat, tears, sanity and more into this album, and we are incredibly proud of it,” says guitraist Bert Laan. “We dived deep to refine our sound, to figure out what works and doesn’t, and ended up embracing what makes us sound like us. The result is The Deep Dive: a dynamic album featuring heavy walls of sound, lush acoustic passages, energetic and intricate rhythms, and vocals ranging from confident and powerful to delicate and vulnerable.”
BOSS KELOID – PEDESTAL
Wigan’s heavy proggers Boss Keloid are back with the lengthy Pedestal, which follows a more intricate musical path than previous single, Landslide. Both are taken from the band’s upcoming sixth studio album, Float & Aperture, which they will release through Church Road Records on October 23
“The lyrics to Pedestal explore both the positive and negative sides of isolation, as well as its causes and effects,” the band say. “The song also contains a 10-year-old riff from the Keloid archive we finally found a way to use properly. Enjoy!”
ALCEST – PROTECTION
French atmospheric dark prog duo Alcest have announced they will release their very first live album, Live At Hellfest 2022, through Nuclear Blast on December 4. They’ve released the emphatic Protection, originally from 2019’s Spiritual Instinct album, as the first taster.
For many here, possibly, the first example of the band’s music you’ll have heard, but maybe not quite as heavy as you may have feared? The album seamlessly weaves together evocative fan favourites spanning their entire career prior to 2022, tracing an emotional trajectory from their groundbreaking 2007 debut Souvenirs d’un autre monde through to 2019’s acclaimed Spiritual Instinct.
ARCANE ALLIES – AESTESIA
Berlin/Cologne-based genre-bending prog trio Arcane Allies have released the title track to their upcoming studio album, out November 20 through Crazysane Records. The band’s sound is described as pushing the boundaries between psychedelic rock, krautrock, ambient, doom, jazz and free improvisation, drawing inspiration from pioneers such as CAN, Neu! and Kraftwerk, as well as minimalist composers Terry Riley and Steve Reich.
“We wrote Aestesia about two years ago, originally as an ambient synth piece,” the band say. “Later, it became a demo for a doom project that never ultimately came together. As we tried it with Arcane Allies in the studio, the song has finally found its own way.”
SCARDUST – SYMPHONY
Cinematic prog metal quintet Scardust have shared a video for their cover of Symphony, originally by UK electronic band Clean Bandit. The band’s new cover features electronic violinist Mia Ansasno as well as singer Noa Gruman’s Hellscore Choir.
“Symphony by Clean Bandit has always felt like such a beautiful and emotional song, and we immediately felt it had the potential to become something very Scardust – combining prog metal, the Hellscore choir, and Mia’s incredible violin playing,” the band enthuse. “Sharing the adventure of Sabaton’s Legendary tour this last winter with Mia made us want to create something together again, and this song felt like the perfect opportunity.”
HYPNO5E – TRAME NOIRE
French prog quartet Hypno5e have shared a video for the wonderfully atmospheric ten-minute-long Trame Noire. It’s the title track of the band’s upcoming seventh album, which is released through Pelagic Records. At the same time, to celebrate Hypno5e’s more than two decades of existence, a complete 13LP discography box set will also be released.
“With ‘Trame Noire’, the title track of our new album, I wanted to extend into images the themes that run through my music: memory, loss, dreams and the ghosts of the past,” says vocalist and guitarist Emmanuel Jessua. “I directed the video myself, working with models, collages, drawings and various forms of superimposition. The journey through these shifting spaces, and the apparitions that inhabit them, are fragments of the character’s memories, condemned to wander through this world. He is confronted with the traces of what he has lived through, but also with his own image, which returns like another ghost.”
(LouderSound)
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