CHUD album of the Month: The Tea Party and Rob Dougan

[Martin Savage]

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.

[Judas Booth]

Fuck yes on The Tea Party. Martin, you got me into them what...about a year or so ago? Allow me to once again thank you for doing that. I really wish that I had discovered them and seen them live before they had ceased to be.

I'll agree on his album choice as well: 'the Edge of Twilight' is fantastic. The songs are great, and the musicianship ON the songs is fantastic. Great pick.

[Dragon Ma]

I haven't heard Fire in the head for years, their sound always came off as Led Zep vs The Doors, I never really got into them but I'm willing to give them a shot.

[Swearengen]

Nice choice. I have all of Tea Party's albums and have been listening to them since 95 or so. They played at a local dive bar around here around 99. Good show. It was depressing that only a handful of people showed up, most of which didnt even know who The Tea Party were.

[Justin Clark]

By the way, anybody who's not totally in love with Dougan's vocals should be aware of the second CD that's all instrumental. That's the disc that gets the most play from me, but his vocals are a perfect fit on I'm Not Driving Anymore, Nothing At All, Speed Me Towards Death, and One And The Same.

A new album from that man is years overdue now. Need to find out what the hold up is.

[whiskey tango foxtrot]

Nice picks Martin. I was always a bit dismissive of Tea Party but I'll give them another shot. Not familiar with Dougan.

[Chavez]

Originally Posted by Judas Booth

Fuck yes on The Tea Party. Martin, you got me into them what..

Martin does that to people.

[The NZ Natural]

Saw The Tea Party in Auckland on the TripTYCH tour, so it musta been around 98/99. And yes, they really were absolutely perfect live - stunningly so.

Edges is a great album, no doubt, but in all honesty I'd be hard-pressed to name a clear favourite, as they all have a slightly different approach/sound/theme that resonates well (for example, I'm not a huge fan of electronic rock stylings, but it's pretty fucking hard to go past "Temptation" and "Babylon").

Will definitely have to check Dougan out now.

[Belmont]

That Dougan album is simply awesome.

The instrumentals work best for me, as Dougan's vocals are an acquired taste, but I can't recommend "Furious Angels" enough.

[Dragon Ma]

So far I'm digging The Tea Party. I swear it sounds like Jeff lifted the melody on the bridge of 'Fire in the Head' from Rainbow's Stargazer, it sounds so uncanny, I wouldn't at all be surprised. The rest of the album is pretty good, I might need to give it a few listens though. Tracks like Correspondence nail the epic feel they're obviously striving for. I think my favorite track is 'Shadows on the mountain'.

I'd like Rob Dougan better if he employed actual singers, at best he sounds like the dance equivalent of Chris Rea. He is a talented musican though, no argument there, he creates some quite wonderful musical soundscapes.

[Martin Savage]

Originally Posted by Dragon Ma

So far I'm digging The Tea Party. I swear it sounds like Jeff lifted the melody on the bridge of 'Fire in the Head' from Rainbow's Stargazer, it sounds so uncanny, I wouldn't at all be surprised. The rest of the album is pretty good, I might need to give it a few listens though. Tracks like Correspondence nail the epic feel they're obviously striving for. I think my favorite track is 'Shadows on the mountain'.

I'd like Rob Dougan better if he employed actual singers, at best he sounds like the dance equivalent of Chris Rea. He is a talented musican though, no argument there, he creates some quite wonderful musical soundscapes.

Glad you like it. Oddly enough, never made teh link between Stargazer and Fire in the Head.


And as for Dougan, Justin pointed out that there's a second CD that comes with it that's all the songs on the album, done entirely instrumental. And like him, it's the CD I listen the most to.

[Judas Booth]

Originally Posted by Dragon Ma

So far I'm digging The Tea Party. I swear it sounds like Jeff lifted the melody on the bridge of 'Fire in the Head' from Rainbow's Stargazer, it sounds so uncanny, I wouldn't at all be surprised.

HAH! You're right! That's a hell of a catch, Dragon Ma.

[Judas Booth]

I wanted to add this: If you like this album by the Tea Party, check out their EP for 'Alhambra'. It's a good companion piece featuring acoustic versions of many songs off of 'the Edges of Twilight'.

Good stuff.

[DarthLowbudget@]

Cool choices. Never heard of The Tea Party before, but it's pretty cool. Rob Dougan is someone I remember from both the Matrix movies and from one of my friend's brief obsessions with him and his music videos. I haven't listened to anything by him in a while, but it's a lot better than I remember it being. Might have to go track down both of these albums. I'm also feeling a desire to watch the Matrix movies again.

I didn't really have a lot of free time to listen this month and develop in depth thoughts, but I think I like them both. Just wanted to pop in and say that, in so many words.

[Gen. Bulldog 54]

I actually bought the Rob Dougan CD at Newbury Comics at Harvard on a trip to Boston. I love the CD but preferred the instrumental disc over the main, the guy has a grating voice but his melodies are awesome. My favorite was the opening of "I'm Not Driving Anymore" when it starts off on a sort of jazz groove before busting out into the out percussion-fest you heard in the "Reloaded" trailer. I get the idea behind the transition from a dark smooth sound to a hard beat, but with the strings and melody the way they were I kind of wished it stuck in that dark smooth sound. Anyways, like I said awesome CD for a unique sound, while his vocals are lacking his melodies are second to none on this record.

[Spike Marshall]

Furious Angels is an amazing album, and I actually think Dougan's voice helps to elevate and give texture to a lot of the songs, but it's been overused (especially in the UK) as TV and film music. But the strength of the song writing keeps everything together and almost ever song has one amazing little element to it.