Cool new prog music from Bruce Soord, Beatrix Players and more in 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.
We didn't have a TOTW last week, but a hearty 'well done' to Nova Cascade whse Sleeping Dogs won the previous week's. Fitting given the album is a tribute to guitarist Eric Boulette (also of Nine Sies) who sadly passed away from cancer last year and will raise money to help fight the disease.
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.
BRUCE SOORD - NESTLE IN
The Pineapple Thief frontman Bruce Soord will release his third solo album Luminescence, through Kscope Records on Septemebr 22. Nestle In is the secind single to be taken fom the album, a breezy, atmospheric tune that mixes Soord's exemplary songcraft with subtle hints of electronica and emotive strings, performed by Andrew Skeet of The Divine Comedy.
"One thing you notice when touring the USA are the sirens," explains Soord. "All kinds of sounds and sizes. I would venture out when I could and walk around the various cities we played, field recorder in hand, waiting for a siren to appear. One day in downtown Chicago, one duly arrived, in this case a fire truck. That's the sound you hear when 'Nestle In' begins and ends, setting the scene for the apocalyptic theme of the song. I was actually imagining myself simply stopping, lying in the middle of a busy street, staring at the sky as the light fades and everyone hurries past me to goodness knows where. The storm is approaching and no one dares to look.”
THE EMERALD DAWN - A MOMENT IN TIME (EXTENDED VERSION)
The beautifully evocative A Moment In Time is the very first single from Cornish prog rockers The Emerald Dawn and is taken from the quartet's upcoming album In Time which will be released through Wylde Thyme Records on September 23. The piece forms part of the the 23-minute opening track on the album. The band will appear at the A Sunday in September all-dayer at The Bedford, Balham, London on September 10.
"We wanted to do things differently this time," explains singer and keyboard player Tree Stewart. "Radio stations often don't play our music because our compositions are long-form. So we thought we'd make a more radio-friendly single to promote our forthcoming album In Time. The first track on the album is over 23 minutes long. The single A Moment in Time is made from part of that track. Actually, there are two versions. One is about three and a half minutes long, while the extended version, specially made for prog radio stations, is about four and a half minutes long. What we did to make the extended version was basically to take the beginning and end of the 23 minute album track and join those two pieces together."
PATTERN-SEEKING ANIMALS - A WINDOW TO THE WORLD
US prog rockers Pattern-Seeking Animals return with their fourth album Spooky Action At A Distance which will be released through InsideOut Music on October 27, from whcih comes new single A Window To The World. The band feature Spock's Beard singer Ted Leonard and bassist Dave Meros and former drummer Jimmy Keegan, alongside keyboardist and producer John Boegehold. Given there's not been much activity on the Beard front recently, Spocks fans will undoubtedly lap up this breezy slice of melodic prog.
"Because this is our fourth release in less than five years, my intention was to shift gears and not go over ground that's already been covered," explains Boegehold. "In addition to using different sounds, textures and musical styles, we approached the vocals, especially backing vocals from a fairly different angle. In addition, the album was recorded, mixed and mastered at a different studio with a different engineer than our previous three releases.”
"The subject matter of the lyrics include a Norse king contemplating life while being conquered, an aging seeker on the path toward enlightenment, aliens hunting down humans trying to evade capture, the life of a conflicted soldier before and after WW1, a pregnant teenager leaving a bad situation at home, a reluctant hero victorious in her final battle and a guy’s girlfriend who leaves him because of his conspiracy theories.”
BEATRIX PLAYERS - START AGAIN
Prog Award winners The Beatrix Players are back, albeit in new guise, with only Amy Birks remaining from the line-up who recorded 2017's Magnified. She is now joined by the likes of John Hackett, guitarist Oliver Day, drummer Andrew Booker and cellist Jane Fenton. The new-look band release their new album Living & Alive on September 22, and Start Again is the first single to be taken from the album.
"A song about reforming the Beatrix Players," explains Birks. "The Beatrix Players has now been a part of my life for 20 years or more and it has given me so much – like a fight with Mike Tyson at times, but what a journey, and it is so worth going through the rounds to end up with a band full of personality and respect for each other’s talent. Here is a group of people that are not just living… Oh yes, the Beatrix Players has definitely started again!"
SUBSIGNAL - SILVER (THE SHELTERED GARDEN)
Silver (The Sheltered Garden) is the first signle from Munich-based German/Dutch prog rock quintet Subsignal's upcoming album A Poetry of Rain. The song is about a traumatic experience in the childhood of guitarist and mastermind Markus Steffen. The new album, the band's sixth release, is also their first for five years, and sees the arrival of a new bass player, Dutchman Martijn Horsten.
"Music can help to overcome negative and traumatic experiences," explains Steffen. You can literally write such experiences off your soul.
"With A Poetry Of Rain we pursue the 'cultivation of sadness', just like the poets during the Renaissance, without ever falling into bottomless gloom. We try to transfer this claim into the current century."
TEMIC - FALLING AWAY
Temic are a new international prog supergroup who feature former Halen keyboard player Diego Tejeida amnd Neal Morse Band guitarist Eric Gillette long with Mararton 22 singer Fredrik Bergersen and Shining drummer Simen Sandnes. The band have signed to Season of Mist, home to Voyager, Green Canration and Crippled Black Phoenix and will release their debut album Terror Management Theory on November 17, from which comes the atmospheric prog rocker Falling Away.
"Falling Away is one of our favourite songs on the album," say the band. The song embodies all the core elements we envisioned for Temic: powerful lyrics and catchy vocal melodies at the forefront, a constant pulse underneath, dynamic and rich instrumentation all around, and electronic-influenced sounds adorning the edges.
The lyrics discuss the natural impermanence of all things from the perspective of someone who contemplates their own mortality and shares this moment of clarity with their descendants. Far from being dark, Falling Away invites you to reflect positively on the fact that our time is finite.
This self-produced video was filmed in the stunning village of Bortelid, Norway, in July 2023. This occasion marked the first time we got together in real life as a band!"
MOLYBARON - REALITY SHOW
French/Irish prog rock quartet Molybaron will release their third album, Something Ominous, through InsideOut Music on September 15, from which comes their latest single, Reality Show, another slice of uplifting, anthemic modern progressively tinged rock. The band will support Swedish prog metallers Soen on their upcoming European tour.
“I don’t think our sound can be defined by one genre,” says guitarist/vocalist Gary Kelly .“It’s certainly not by design. I write and produce all the music in the band, but I’m strange - I never really listen to music. I have no idea what’s hot or what’s not these days. I suppose this makes it easier for me to create songs, I’m not trying to mirror any one style, I just write as it comes to me, probably based on what I hear floating in the ether; in the cinema, on the TV, on the elevator, it really doesn’t matter!”
