It's Prog's brand new Tracks Of The Week! Six brand new and diverse slices of progressively inclined music for you to enjoy.
Congratulations to Halifax post-rockers L.O.E. whose moving I Was Not Magnificent triumphed in the end last week after an intense battle with US post-rock quintet Hiroe and with Sweden's doomy porggers Katatonia 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.
RAPHAEL WEINROTH-BROWNE - SPEED OF LIGHT
Thus far, striking-looking cellist Raphael Weinroth-Browne is best known to proggers for his work with Leprous, but here he breaks out on his own with a genre-bending reworking of Bach’s Prelude to the G Major Cello Suite, entitled Speed Of Light. It's accompanied by a striking video shot by Dark Fable Media, who have previously worked with Sleep Token and TesseracT. He's certainly going to give Jo Quail a run for her money!
"In 2024, I was commissioned by James Wilton Dance, an incredible UK-based contemporary dance company, to create an 80-minute soundtrack to their latest work, entitled BACH Reimagined," says the cellist. James and I are both avid metal fans and one of the guiding threads of this piece was the intersection between Baroque counterpoint and modern heavy music.
"Speed Of Light was one of the first pieces that came out of this writing process. My first impulse was to take the very familiar repeated arpeggio from the prelude to the G Major Cello Suite by Bach (popularly known as “the cello song”) and reframe it as a jagged, nasty riff. I also decided to redecorate the pattern, transposing it into every metal guitarist’s favourite scale, the Phrygian mode."
AVKRVST - THE TRAUMA
Mournful Norwegian prog rock quintet AVKRVST return with their second full-length album, Waving At The Sky, through InsideOut Music on June 13. The upcoming album acts as a prequel to 2023's debut The Approbation, inspired by a gruesome family tragedy and the bleak soul from the debut, showcased as the lonely man in the cabin in previous music videos, is one of the characters in the new album, highlighted in the video for The Trauma.
“The Trauma is the heart of the story— the origin of everything," the band reveal. "A harrowing act triggered a wound that never should have been inflicted. This is where it all begins.“
PETER BAUMANN - A WORLD APART
As a mainstay for the classic 1970s line-up of German electronic prog pioneers Tangerine Dream, Peter Baumann needs little introduction., He's returned with Nightfall, his first new album for nine years, and which is released today on the legendary Bureau B label, from which comes the haunting, drifting A World Apart.
“I love instrumental music because it bypasses any concepts, it is an expression that words can never capture," he says. "We can’t hear music exactly the same way twice, it’s always experienced differently, sometimes slightly, sometimes substantially. Like a river, never exactly the same."
GÖSTA BERLINGS SAGA - CEREMONIAL
Swedish instrumental proggers Gösta Berlings Saga are celebrating their 25th anniversary this year and will release their seventh studio album, Forever Now, through Pelagic Records on June 6. It's the follow-up to 2020's Konkret Music, and their latest single and video, Ceremonial, captures the band at their melodic and intense best.
"Ceremonial is the eclectic final track of Forever Now," the band say. It’s both lush and propulsive, highly electronic and with an ending that lingers. Eternal Rock. No more, no less. The video, directed by Martin Vogel, is 100% ceremonial VHS worship."
DAVE JONES - TREPIDATION/74 HEIST
Prog, jazz and a touch of folk all meld on Trepidation/74 Heist, a brand new track from keyboard player Dave Jones. It's taken from his new EP, Stratospheric, which sees Jones working with Ben Waghorn on tenor sax and flute, who has worked with Portishead, drummer Elliot Bennett and Tim Rose, who has worked with Toyah, on guitar and bass.
"This new EP is similar in format to Spectrum Analysis in that the tracks are relatively short (except Trepidation/74 Heist) because of their dual purpose - besides this EP release, they also serve as pieces of production music designed for tv and film, which are by nature required to be short," says Jones. "Think of them as being a bit like the instrumental sections from longer prog songs, that might normally have vocals at the start and end."
RED CAIN - FWAB (FIRE, WATER, AIR, BLOOD)
Canadian quartet Red Cain refer to themselves as power prog storytellers, and with new single and video FWAB (Fire, Water, Air, Blood), they certainly make an impact, a powerful mix of prog metal, harmonised choruses among atmospheric industrial synth backing.
"In the frozen Eastern European steppes, there stood a fell ancient god," the band relate. "Every ill word fed him, and every ill deed made him more potent. For millennia, he grew strong through kingship over mortal ill will, suffering, and pride, until his nourishment took a new form, unable to feed or strengthen. Without nourishment, the god was powerless, and without power, he slept. After millennia, fed full by ill words and ill deeds, searching for an awakening, the god demands the symbols of his power: Fire, Water, Air, Blood. Join the ritual sacrament of Chernobog. With this new release, the Slavic pagan ritual to call forth the "Black God" takes flight, asking the listener what they would be willing to change their fate."
