Note: Both albums are available on itunes.
The Tea Party - The Edges of Twilight
1."Fire in the Head"
2."The Bazaar"
3."Correspondences"
4."The Badger"5."Silence"
6."Sister Awake"
7."Turn the Lamp down Low"
8."Shadows on the Mountainside"
9."Drawing down the Moon"
10."Inanna"
11."Coming Home"
12."Walk with Me"
The Tea Party came out on the Canadian music scene in the early 90’s, where the prevalence was for a grunge-inspired rock that sold well, with the likes of Our Lady Peace and Moist. With their first LP, Splendor Solis, they combined their rock background with a strong blues and progressive sound, which was already present on their debut EP. After the critical and public success at home and (surprisingly) on a smaller scale, Australia, they gained a quite fanatical following their sophomore album, The Edges of Twilight, which pushed their former sound to the world fusion rock that would define them.
The Edges of Twilight reminded of the Led Zeppelin Arabic sound on Dazed and Confused or Misty Mountain Hop, The Doors, but with a much richer dimension and distinctive flavor added to it, all the while keeping a strong relation to their previous work. Using 31 instruments in their recording session provides a rich texture to the music.
Edges was divisive critic-wise. Some ripped them for their new direction, some lauded the effort. Beside that and the obvious remark that Jeff Martin’s voice and appearance are like Jim Morrison (hell, he has the same initials…), it still quickly became the definitive Tea Party album not only for me, but for the majority of the fans. It was also their high point, and would try to repeat the success they had with it by either veering off to another direction of going back to it, but never able to achieve it.
The Tea Party were renowned to have some of the best live performance out there, especially considering that they would nearly always play without backing musicians, an impressive feat considering the trio would easily reproduce the authenticity of their album’s work without resorting to the huge number of instruments they used to record Edges of Twilight and their other albums.
On the album, “Sister Awake” would become their anthem of everything the band stood for from day one, and would be so until their break-up in 2005.
If you like this, you might want to check out their earlier album, Splendor Solis (1993), and the follow-up, their much darker and electronic experiment, Transmission (1997).
Rob Dougan – Furious Angels
1."Prelude"
2."Furious Angels"
3."Will You Follow Me?"
4."Left Me for Dead"
5."I'm Not Driving Anymore"
6."Clubbed to Death (Kurayamino Variation)"
7."There's Only Me"
8."Instrumental"
9."Nothing at All"
10."Born Yesterday"
11."Speed Me Towards Death"
12."Drinking Song"
13."Pause"
14."One and the Same (Coda)"
15."Clubbed to Death 2
You already heard a song or two by Rob Dougan. Yes you did. Unless you lived under a rock, or in Albania. Why? The Matrix. Remember the Lady in the red dress scene, where Morpheus is training Neo? That groovy song that added much more coolness to the said scene? Bam! That was Rob Dougan. And Dougan, a DJ and producer of artists like Dido and Faithless, was asked to do more stuff that was eventually put on the Matrix: Reloaded soundtrack (the fight in the castle if I remember correctly).
I actually stumbled upon Furious Angels by hearing a track in my local music store. I inquired about this strange mix of classical and electronic music, and immediately bought the CD. Not knowing it was the same guy that was on the Matrix soundtrack, nor that the said song was on it.
The CD is about ego. Yes, Dougan has ego, but also a shitload of talent. Since he’s a classical musician by training, its interesting o know that he played every instruments found on Furious Angels. The said ego can come out by the quite strong like the Tom Waits-like “Drinking song” probably the weakest on the CD, but that not the say that the man sucks at singing, as he proved it on “Left me for dead”. The track “Furious Angels” is quite representative of the style, even if it veers from soundtrack music "Will You Follow Me?" to “Drinking Song”.
All in all, it’s also a divisive album that you might completely dislike by its nature, but it’s one I love even if it’s flawed. A great and lush mix of symphonic music and throbbing rhythms.
The Tea Party - The Edges of Twilight
1."Fire in the Head"
2."The Bazaar"
3."Correspondences"
4."The Badger"5."Silence"
6."Sister Awake"
7."Turn the Lamp down Low"
8."Shadows on the Mountainside"
9."Drawing down the Moon"
10."Inanna"
11."Coming Home"
12."Walk with Me"
The Tea Party came out on the Canadian music scene in the early 90’s, where the prevalence was for a grunge-inspired rock that sold well, with the likes of Our Lady Peace and Moist. With their first LP, Splendor Solis, they combined their rock background with a strong blues and progressive sound, which was already present on their debut EP. After the critical and public success at home and (surprisingly) on a smaller scale, Australia, they gained a quite fanatical following their sophomore album, The Edges of Twilight, which pushed their former sound to the world fusion rock that would define them.
The Edges of Twilight reminded of the Led Zeppelin Arabic sound on Dazed and Confused or Misty Mountain Hop, The Doors, but with a much richer dimension and distinctive flavor added to it, all the while keeping a strong relation to their previous work. Using 31 instruments in their recording session provides a rich texture to the music.
Edges was divisive critic-wise. Some ripped them for their new direction, some lauded the effort. Beside that and the obvious remark that Jeff Martin’s voice and appearance are like Jim Morrison (hell, he has the same initials…), it still quickly became the definitive Tea Party album not only for me, but for the majority of the fans. It was also their high point, and would try to repeat the success they had with it by either veering off to another direction of going back to it, but never able to achieve it.
The Tea Party were renowned to have some of the best live performance out there, especially considering that they would nearly always play without backing musicians, an impressive feat considering the trio would easily reproduce the authenticity of their album’s work without resorting to the huge number of instruments they used to record Edges of Twilight and their other albums.
On the album, “Sister Awake” would become their anthem of everything the band stood for from day one, and would be so until their break-up in 2005.
If you like this, you might want to check out their earlier album, Splendor Solis (1993), and the follow-up, their much darker and electronic experiment, Transmission (1997).
Rob Dougan – Furious Angels
1."Prelude"
2."Furious Angels"
3."Will You Follow Me?"
4."Left Me for Dead"
5."I'm Not Driving Anymore"
6."Clubbed to Death (Kurayamino Variation)"
7."There's Only Me"
8."Instrumental"
9."Nothing at All"
10."Born Yesterday"
11."Speed Me Towards Death"
12."Drinking Song"
13."Pause"
14."One and the Same (Coda)"
15."Clubbed to Death 2
You already heard a song or two by Rob Dougan. Yes you did. Unless you lived under a rock, or in Albania. Why? The Matrix. Remember the Lady in the red dress scene, where Morpheus is training Neo? That groovy song that added much more coolness to the said scene? Bam! That was Rob Dougan. And Dougan, a DJ and producer of artists like Dido and Faithless, was asked to do more stuff that was eventually put on the Matrix: Reloaded soundtrack (the fight in the castle if I remember correctly).
I actually stumbled upon Furious Angels by hearing a track in my local music store. I inquired about this strange mix of classical and electronic music, and immediately bought the CD. Not knowing it was the same guy that was on the Matrix soundtrack, nor that the said song was on it.
The CD is about ego. Yes, Dougan has ego, but also a shitload of talent. Since he’s a classical musician by training, its interesting o know that he played every instruments found on Furious Angels. The said ego can come out by the quite strong like the Tom Waits-like “Drinking song” probably the weakest on the CD, but that not the say that the man sucks at singing, as he proved it on “Left me for dead”. The track “Furious Angels” is quite representative of the style, even if it veers from soundtrack music "Will You Follow Me?" to “Drinking Song”.
All in all, it’s also a divisive album that you might completely dislike by its nature, but it’s one I love even if it’s flawed. A great and lush mix of symphonic music and throbbing rhythms.
