Check out Snarky Puppy's performance video of Bet

(Image credit: Francois Bisi)

Four-time Grammy-winning fusion collective Snarky Puppy have shared a live-in-the-studio video for their latest single, Bet. It's taken from their new album, Empire Central, which is out on September 30 via GroundUP Music.

The 16-song follow-up to 2019's Immigrance was recorded in front of a live audience over eight nights at the Deep Ellum Art Company in Dallas. Bassist and band leader Michael League formed the first line-up of group in the city in 2004, while studying jazz at the University of North Texas.

According to the band, Empire Central “expands upon our wide array of influences, including blues, hard rock, classic soul, modern gospel, funk, new tech, fusion and jazz.” League adds that the songs “ended up being a lot more direct and funkier than those on our previous records. I think it reflects the many moods of the [Dallas] scene.”

The album posthumously features pioneering American keyboardist/vocalist Bernard Wright (whom the band describe as their “musical godfather”). Tragically, Wright died in a Dallas traffic accident in May, shortly after the recording sessions had finished. He was 58.

On August 2, the band will launch a podcast with Osiris Media following the making of the album, and they'll support the album release with a European tour in October and November. Further US tour dates are scheduled for spring 2023.

Contributing to Prog since the very first issue, writer and broadcaster Natasha Scharf was the magazine’s News Editor before she took up her current role of Deputy Editor, and has interviewed some of the best-known acts in the progressive music world from ELP, Yes and Marillion to Nightwish, Dream Theater and TesseracT. Starting young, she set up her first music fanzine in the late 80s and became a regular contributor to local newspapers and magazines over the next decade. The 00s would see her running the dark music magazine, Meltdown, as well as contributing to Metal Hammer, Classic Rock, Terrorizer and Artrocker. Author of music subculture books The Art Of Gothic and Worldwide Gothic, she’s since written album sleeve notes for Cherry Red, and also co-wrote Tarja Turunen’s memoirs, Singing In My Blood. Beyond the written word, Natasha has spent several decades as a club DJ, spinning tunes at aftershow parties for Metallica, Motörhead and Nine Inch Nails. She’s currently the only member of the Prog team to have appeared on the magazine’s cover.