Description
Dr Taos
CD review by Tony Smith
TN2400-86 – $22
TN174 Dec 25
This is an hour of music which would be well suited to an outdoor stage.
It encompasses a large range of sounds and emotions.
Dr Taos advertises, tongue in cheek perhaps like a travelling purveyor of snake oils and other concoctions, ‘the elixir of life – musical pills to cure your ills! Wizard rock with a twist of lime’.
Dr Taos plays guitar and sings.
The rest of the band play instruments in a style suggesting comfort in both jazz and rock idioms.
Eric Baker plays bass.
Mitchell Sloan plays drums, strings and horns.
The ever versatile Susie Bishop plays violin.
Chris Mortensen is on trumpet, Neil Rawle on keyboards and Serge Stanley on saxophone.
The tracks include ‘Merry Go Round Thieves’, ‘Coming Home (Fall from Grace)’, ‘Pick You Up’, which has a positive spirit, ‘Forever of Tomorrow’, ‘Love Strikes’ and ‘See You Baby’.
Others are ‘Reason’, interlaced with fine fiddling that creates almost a bluegrass feeling, ‘Shine’, brass effective here, ‘Change’ and ‘Riding’, in which Taos demonstrates how long he can hold a note and the sax features.
All tracks were written by O’Shea (Adrian?).
‘World Keep On Turning’ and ‘See You Baby’ are the kind of rhythmic music that has blokes reaching for the air guitar.
Some tracks are suggestive of the breakthrough into longer guitar tracks associated with acid rock and psychedelia.
For most of the music I listen to, drums can seem intrusive.
In this album however, there is no doubt that the drums are essential to the beat.
There is nothing out of place or OTT here.
While Dr Taos positions itself in alternative folk, most of the tracks are more alt than folk in style.
‘Haunted Man’ is a slower, basically acoustic track that is close to folk style and one that will invite singing along.
‘Wicked Sister (Snakeskin Heart)’ is bluesy stuff about someone who has you under her spell.
Great guitar riffs feature here.
‘Fight for Your Rights’ (a slight echo of Bob Marley’s ‘Stand Up’) tells the story of a boy who suffered much in life but who fought his way free, got educated and migrated.
This track features some neat fiddle as well.
‘He came from the wrong side of town/ watched his father beat his mother down
went to bed with a knife beneath his pillow/ and lived a childhood full of sorrow
You gotta fight, fight for your rights
You gotta fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight for your rights’.
Dr Taos has extremely good voice control.
At the end of the lines more often than not he uses a lengthening of the last syllables – ah, ah, ah, ah – to create what might in other contexts be called vibrato.
It is a fine technique for creating an emotional effect, usually of suffering.
While Dr Taos might seem to be of a genre that would appeal more to the JJJ audience than the older demographic at most folk festivals, the times are changing.
After we oldies have shuffled off to quiet nooks late in the night, younger revellers come out and enjoy a different sort of music with less complicated lyrics and strong dance beats.
Some bands mark the halfway point in that evolution between folk and rock and so ease the transition.
Dr Taos is waiting at the louder, more upbeat end with music that displays all of the quality discerning sit down listeners expect.
Dr Taos is not easy to categorise but then categories are limiting.
This eponymous album belongs in a class of its own.
“I have to say that the new album “Dr TAOS” is brilliant. This album is a must get!” The Songsmith album review.
Fusing Celtic folk with British blues rock, matured in sunburnt Australian country oak barrels, Dr TAOS produces his own inimitable style of alternative folk rock blends and has just released his eponymous new album to great acclaim.
Having toured the USA and Australia catch him live before he heads to tour Europe later this year.
“Sounding great! Nice timeless tracks instantly warm and familiar. Evoking elements of colonial Australia, oak barrel ageing and fruity top notes, this is sweet home comings folk rock with a clear essence in the final product.” Dr TAOS new album review – Collage, The Espy Melbourne.
The album Dr TAOS was recorded and mixed at Suburbia Studios, Sydney with Simon Tonx at the helm and Dr TAOS in the co-pilot seat and mastered at Viking Lounge Mastering by Paul Stefanidis. Alongside Dr TAOS on guitar and vocals are Eric Baker on bass, Mitchell Sloan on drums, percussion, synthesiser horns and strings along with special guests Susie Bishop on violin, Chris Mortensen on trumpet, Neil Rawle on keyboards and Serge Stanley on saxophone.
Feedback on the album on Dr TAOS’ website has been extremely positive so far with radio in the States offering airplay and venues around Europe locking in shows.
