It's Prog's brand new Tracks Of The Week! Six brand new and diverse slices of progressively inclined music for you to enjoy.
It was a close-run race last week with French prog metal quartet Schrodinger and Lancastrian rockers Wytch Hazel battling it out between them. It looked like the latter had triumphed but a late Gallic surge saw Schrodinger come through as winners at the last minute, with Gwenno back in third place.
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.
CHIMPAN A - WICHITA LINEMAN
There's no denying what an amazing song Jimmy Webb's Wichita Lineman is, not least Glenn Campbell's popular version. UK pop prog duo Chimpan A have decided to cover the song, bringing a new wistfulness and depth to it as part of their campaign as they build up to the release of their latest album, M.I.A. Vol. 1 on August 29 through Tigermoth Records. The album's a defiantly old school reaction to the ‘TikTokification’ of music, as the pair see it, while the covers the band are releasing ahead of the album are what the duo - Magenta's Rob Reed and singer Steve Balsamo - see as "untouchable sacred cows!"
“The project has always been a joy," enthuses Balsamo. "I love the collaboration and bringing together amazing musicians and crashing them into each other to see what happens. Rob is such a fabulous producer, really understanding sound and he is really able to get the most emotional impact out of the songs and what the musicians bring to The Chimp’s table. It always comes down to songs, so songwriting is the backbone of the project, but what we’ve tried to do is deconstruct and mess with the process. It was all a kind of chance, or synchronicity."
WHISPERS OF GRANITE - SPIRALS
Whispers Of Granite is a new duo comprising of Trude Eidtang, previously known for her work with Norwegian prog rockers White Willow and pop proggers When Mary, along with German proggers Frequency Drift's keyboardist and composer, Andreas Hack. The pair's debut album, Liquid Stone, is out through Apollon Records on July 4.
As a mirror to the album, which offers a unique fusion of melancholic folk, indie and progressive rock, Spirals is a delightfully atmospheric and melodic piece, fired on by Eidtang's expressive vocals and Hack's instrumental deftness of touch.
LEONI JANE KENNEDY - JESSE
You can't have failed to notice young guitarist and singer Leoni Jane Kennedy these past few months. Aside from featuring highly in the new Band/Artist category in Prog's recent Readers' Poll and featuring in the Limelight section, she's been out on the road performing with both Solstice (filling in while Ebony Buckle toured her own thing) and as a member of The Anchoress's band. Jesse is her latest single, a sultry ode to friendship, taken from her debut solo album Synthetic.
"Jesse and I would always sit for hours in his car after the pub and chat away about anything and everything, or sit around a fire with some beers and tequila, talking about life stories and emotions through different experiences and how amazing but devastating everything can be all at once," Kennedy explains. "It was really important to me that this music video captured our friendship and JJ has done an incredible job again! A tear was brought to my eye thinking of all the years we've spent hanging out and being mates - to see this on the big screen was so beautiful. Jesse and I both truly felt a sense of honour seeing this as although we're generations apart in age, it's never stopped us from being so totally vulnerable, open and honest with each other about absolutely everything. It's a friendship I will value for the rest of my life and to have it encased in a short film is so incredibly beautiful."
REUBES - TOMORROW ISN'T THERE
East Anglian musician Reubes has spent time with local act The Brink as well as drummer with Pink Floyd tribute Pure Floyd, but it's as an artist in his own right that he sees his future and he'll release his debut solo album, Inanna's Garden, on his 25th birthday on June 23, from which comes the bright and breezy Tomorrow Isn't Here. Interested parties can get the album via officialreubes@gmail.com.
Placing his sound firmly in pop prog territory, mixing the likes of Peter Gabriel, Nik Kershaw and Toto with prog rock riffs and synth sounds like Genesis, Marillion and It Bites, Ruebes says, "I've had a lot of comments that it sounds in the realm of Steve Lukather, Peter Gabriel, It Bites and John Mitchell." Now it's over to the listeners...
QUADVIUM - ADHYASA
With two renowned bassists in their line-up - former Soen and Testament man Steve Di Giorgio and Jeroen Paul Thesseling - you'd expect prog metal/fusion outfit Quadvium to have a pretty low-end sound, and indeed they do on Adhysia, tken from the band's recently released debut album Tetradōm, out through Agonia Records. Add in Dutch drummer Yuma van Eekelen (Our Oceans) and American guitarist Eve (Myth Of I), you have something quite intriguing. The excellent animated vuideo from Romanian artist Costin Chioreanu merely adds to the appeal. For fans of instrumental progressive metal fusion – and fretless bass!
"We had an intention many many years ago to make some music together… to feature two predominantly multistring fretless bass players playing in duet form," both Di Giorgio and Thesseling reflect. "That is to say, neither being rhythm bass & lead bass nor some trading off hot solo licks mess. But easier said than done! While hanging out, we exchanged some thoughts about how it would be to form a group to support our bass-ic needs. At that time, it was just a spontaneous idea, but over the years, the topic was brought up again and again. This vision was blurry at best, and it took us a long time to not only imagine how to feature the bass in this way."
PSYCHONAUT - ENDLESS CURRENTS
Belgian psychedelic post-rock trio Psychonaut can pack a hefty musical punch and take the listener on a more introspective journey, often both together in a single song. As is the case with new single Endless Currents, which is taken from the band's upcoming album World Maker, an album recorded during a period of personal change for the band members - guitarist/vocalist Stefan De Graef became a father while his own father was diagnosed with terminal illness - which informed both the band's outlook and sound.
"In the face of life’s soaring highs and desolate lows, World Maker is direct and brave without sacrificing any of Psychonaut’s raw power, creative innovation or inimitable musical depth," says the band's label. "Where their previous full-length offerings have charted grand introspective courses through time and space, World Maker is breathtaking in its uncompromising clarity: a father singing to his newborn son as a son bids his own father farewell."
