Welcome to another Tracks Of The Week. Five brand new and diverse slices of progressive music for you to enjoy.
Congratulations to former Delain singer Charlotte Wessels, whose emotive The Crying Room walked off with top honours in last week's Tracks Of The Week, followed by new prog project Frant1c and with Tim Bowness 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.
GOD IS AN ASTRONAUT - ODYSSEY
Irish post-rockers God Is An Astronaut release their brand new studio album Embers through Napalm Records today. The new album sees the band mixing psych and krautrock with their expected post-rock atmospherics with bothers Torsten and Niels Kinsella and drummer Lloyd Hanney joined by guest musicians including Dara O'Brien, Jo Quail and Sean Coleman. The epic-sounding Odyssey is the third single the band have released from the album.
"Odyssey is the echo of loss, born from the raw grief of our father’s passing," the band explain. "A journey of sound — acoustic guitars, cello, sitars, and heavy riffs — leading through sorrow, finding light in a psychedelic crescendo. It’s not just a tribute, but a space where sorrow and joy become one."
LOWEN - WAGING A WAR AGAINST GOD
London-based Middle Eastern prog metal quartet Lowen will release their new album, Do Not Go To War With The Demons Of Mazandaran through Church Road Records on October 4. Waging A War Against God is the third single the band have released from the upcoming album.
"This song explores the folly of tyranny. It asks: 'why do we grasp at eternity when we know it will leave us behind?'," explains Iranian-born Nina Saeidi. "This song embodies the longing for safety and the fight for freedom. The pomegranate is an ancient symbol that embodies fertility and abundance, but it is also the basis for the invention of the grenade. In the video it is shown as a synecdoche for the way that the bodies of women have been abused and dissected throughout history. There are also several alchemical Easter eggs for those who enjoy such symbolism. At the midpoint of the video, the narrative turns and the regenerative, divine strength of women and the power they command ultimately wins out against tyranny.
"The video was an incredible collaborative effort with Topher O'Meagher from Watchmaker Studios, Lowen and Dinko Pehlic, a professional MMA fighter, coach and musician in the band Vehement, who kindly agreed to fight and judo throw me for several hours one sunny afternoon under the white cliffs of Dover."
TOMO KATSURADA - ZEN BUNGALOW
Tomo Katsurada is probably best known to Prog readers as the founder and frontman for acclaimed Japanese psychedelic band Kikagaku Moyo. Currently based in Amsterdam where he has set up his own Future Days Shop record label, Katsurada will release his first solo EP, Dream Of The Egg, on his new label on November 15.
Zen Bungalow is the first track released from the new EP, on which Katsurada has collaborated with Japanese visual artist Shoko Otake on a unique picture book, where they aim to push the boundaries of physical media by merging music with visual storytelling. It's the first in a series of five planned releases.
PIPE-EYE - LORDS OF LITHIUM
Pipe-eye is better known as Cook Craig, multi-instrumentalist with Australian psych/prog warrior King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, and is also the name he records under for his non-KGWL musical ventures. Craig will released a new album, Pipe-defy through (p)doom Records on October 18. Lords Of Lithium is the first taster of the music to come...
"At around the time that I was starting to write songs for the album, my mum gave me a bunch of old CDs from my early teens that I hadn’t listened to in ages," Craig explains. "There was heaps of Grandmaster Flash, Herbie Hancock, Zapp, Stevie Wonder and other stuff like that. When I kept writing songs they kinda just started sounding like that… so I guess it kinda just kickstarted an old obsession I had for that style of music."
RED CAIN - FIRESTARTER
Canadian prog metal quartet Red Cain have returned with their first new music for 2024 with enigmatic single Firestarter. The band, who released third album NÄE'BLISS last year, have taken inspiration from the popular action role-playing game Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree for their new music.
"Elden Ring is not only a brilliant game and a visual masterpiece, but also a storytelling phenomenon that deliberately has lore gaps to let fans and players create their own stories and interpretations of the lore," the band say. "This strongly resonates with our approach as musicians, as they always write music for their fans to read in unique ways and weave into their mythology."
