It's Prog's brand new Tracks Of The Week! Six brand new and diverse slices of progressively inclined music for you to enjoy.
A massive well done to young UK prog rockers Ihlo whose brand new single, Empire, won a very close run race last week. They beat off competition from Nad Sylvan and with Prog's own Grace Hayhurst coming in 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.
WE LOST THE SEA - EVERYTHING HERE IS BLACK AND BLINDING
Kicking this week off with something cheery! Seven minutes plus of dark Australian post-rock from Sydney sextet We Lost The Sea. Taken from A Single Flower, the band's first new album for six years, which is released through Dunk Records in Europe on July 4. The accompanying video for Everything Here Is Black And Blinding is actually the band's first-ever music video.
"This is technically We Lost The Sea’s first proper music video," the band say. "It’s always been a challenge to try and make videos for songs as long as we write. So when we landed on this seven-minute banger, we decided to go for it. We enlisted the help of our friend, and fellow Bird’s Robe band dad, Simeon (SEIMS, Birdman), who is a TV guy by trade, to help us put this together.
"He and the team did an incredible job and made it look like a million bucks (definitely did not cost a million bucks). The video follows a sole protagonist (the very talented Emma Dunstan) who dances and writhes her way around a cursed space to outrun her inner demons, only to embrace the darkness in the end. To tie it in to the wider theme of the album, it references inspiration from Frida Kahlo, a revolutionary, artist and somewhat cursed individual herself.
"This song is meant to be a protest, a war cry against evil. It has two distinct halves that transition from dark to light, which brings it into the world that we’ve created for the new record.”
JAKKO M. JAKSZYK - I TOLD YOU SO
The King Crimson guitraist and vocalist gets all introspective with his latest single, I Told You So, from his upcoming solo album, Son Of Glen, which he releases through InsideOut Music on June 27. The album serves as a companion piece of sorts to his acclaimed memoir Who’s The Boy With The Lovely Hair, which was released in October 2024, and explores many of the themes and the subjects that the book touches upon.
"The song is about confronting and understanding childhood trauma does not, necessarily, make the innate feeling those events created disappear," Jakko explains. "I finally discovered who my father was after decades of fruitless searching.
"This was only 3 years ago. Turns out he was a US airman stationed in England in the 50's who went back to the States and that he died when I would have been 14."
RAPHAEL WEINROTH-BROWNE - LIFEBLOOD
Canadian cellist Raphael Weinroth-Brown gets all moody and atmospheric with his new video for Lifeblood. Probably best known to proggers for his work with Leprous. He follows his previous single, Speed Of Light, with the epic, slightly Eastern vibe of Lifeblood. It's also the title of his upcoming album, which will be released on October 3.
"Lifeblood is dark, yet uplifting; it evokes a sense of fierce determination and bold empowerment," says Weinroth-Browne. "With this piece I wanted to convey the feeling of abandon and inspiration that artists experience in a flow state, whether during the creative process or on stage. I’ve spent my life chasing these fleeting moments where the music seems to play itself and have attempted to capture this in my performance on Lifeblood.
"I had an absolute blast shooting the music video for this track with Grupa13. As a long-time fan of their work, it was a dream come true to collaborate with them on this project. Despite being on set for 12 hours inside a freezing cold monastery, I thoroughly enjoyed the process, particularly the anvil scenes and the heavy breakdown section at the end. I love the way it all turned out and feel that the video truly encapsulates the overarching theme of this song.”
GWENNO - Y GATH
Trilingual art rocker Gwenno is back with a delightful slice of whimsical psychedelia in Y Gath, the third track thus far to be culled from her upcoming album, Utopia, which she releases through Heavenly Recordings on July 11. Altjhoguh she sings in English for the first time on the new record, here it's Welsh (she also sings in Cornish too), and Y Gath features a guest appearance from fellow art rocker Cate Le Bon. One for all feline psych fans...
"Y Gath means The Cat," Gwenno explains. "I just don’t know how I feel about cats, you know? But I also think it’s because I am a cat in many ways. I see myself in these creatures and I’m part envious, part disgusted by them. So it’s a song about cats and birds nodding at you, and the style of the song evolved quite naturally into something very familiar and Welsh. And then when I asked Huw (H Hawkline) and Cate (Le Bon) to be on it, it just made complete sense. We all knew what it needed to be, because we’ve all grown up on S4C and 70s psychedelic rock music, and Welsh language music. So we didn’t need to have a big conversation, we just know what this is about.”
SCHRODINGER - BIRDS AREN'T REAL
French prog metal quartet Schrodinger have enlisted the help of Kin (Nik Barker), vocalist with Australian prog metallers Twelve Foot Ninja for their new track Birds Aren't Real. The song, inspired by an Internet conspiracy theory as you will glean from the accompanying video, is taken from the band's upcoming studio album, Starseeidiot, which is due in October.
"It’s a musically intricate piece inspired by the bizarre internet conspiracy theory that claims birds are actually government surveillance drones," the band say. "Somewhere between metal fusion, groove-laden riffs and eccentric storytelling, the track reflects both our progressive DNA and Kin’s unmistakable charisma.
“This track was just a perfect match for Kin’s voice, so we thought we had to make it happen with Adnane (our singer). We reached out to him, and he was immediately on board. The result is far beyond our expectations.”
ROCKING HORSE MUSIC CLUB - THE HAUNTED LIFE
US prog septet Rocking Horse Music Club, a band unafraid to wear their Genesis influences on their sleeves, go the full hog this time and enlist Genesis royalty in the form of Tony Banks to guest on their new single, The Haunted Life. The song is from the band's latest album, The Last Pink Glow, an interpretation of Jack Kerouac’s unfinished novella, The Haunted Life, on which the band worked directly with Jim Sampras, the Literary Executor from the Jack Kerouac Estate.
"The video, which is more of a short film than a traditional music video, follows a young writer coming of age in the summer of 1941, as portrayed in Jack Kerouac's novella, The Haunted Life," explains RHC's Brian Coombes. "The video, which stars Alden Harvey as a young Jack Kerouac, was directed by the immensely talented duo of Matt Michaud and Nathan Richer. It was filmed on location in Lowell, Massachusetts."
WYTCH HAZEL - ELEMENTS
Lancastrian God-fearing, white-clad rockers Wytch Hazel might not be regulars in Prog, but occasionally they release something that hits the right note. New single Elements is just that. An infectious slice of rock that sounds like Blue Öyster Cult have been jamming with Kansas! It's taken from Wytch Hazel V: Lamentations, released through Bad Omen Records on July 4.
"Elements is a nod to both 70's FM radio rock and bands who experimented with interesting and progressive ideas such as BÖC and Kansas," says vocalist/guitarist Colin Hendra. "Lyrically, I really enjoyed playing around with the concept of weather and how powerful and beyond the control of man it is. It felt like a challenge at the time, and a little out of my comfort zone, but I'm extremely happy with the song as a whole. It feels cohesive now the time has been spent on it".
