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The Tea Party
About The Tea Party and Rhys Fulber
The Tea Party are a canadian band too, and they've have made a number of collaborations with Rhys Fulber since 1996. The following review is based on their 1996 EP release "Alhambra" but will also give a little view on other TP material too.
The Sister Awake Remix on Alhambra was the first collaboration they did, a year later Rhys also remixed the opener and single "Temptation" of TTP's Transmission album. Reviews for both tracks below. The Temptation remix also appeared on the 2CD tour Edition of TTPs 1999/2000 album TRIPtych, recommended one.
Jeff Martin, singer guitarist and mastermind of TTP then returned the contribution favor to Rhys around 2001 and played acoustic and electric guitars to the Conjure One debut - Center of the Sun, Redemption and Pandora and lead vocals + lyrics on the track "Premonition" (Full Version, not the reprise) which basically the same as "Manic Star" but using Jeffs vocals instead of the female vox on MS (this song goes as a bonustrack and so is not available on every version of the C1 album).
There were rumours of further collaborations but nothing has become true so far.
The Tea Party Discography
1. The Tea Party (1991)
2. Splendor Solis (1993)
3. The Edges Of Twilight (1995) (featuring Sister Awake)
4. Alhambra (1996) (EP, CD-ROM, featuring Sister Awake Rhys Fulber RMX)
5. Transmission (1997) (featuring Temptation)
6. TRIPtych (1999)
6. TRIPtych Tour Edition (2CD, 2000) (featuring Temptation Rhys Fulber RMX)
7. Interzone Mantras (2002)
8. Tangents (Best Of, 2003)
9. Seven Circles (2004)
The Tea Party> Alhambra
Tracklist:
01. The Grand Bazaar
02. Inanna (akkustik version) 3.20
03. Silence (akkustik version) 3.57
04. Turn The Lamp Down Low 4.58
05. Time 6.58
06. Sister Awake Remix 4.37
++ Multimedia Track
total 73.53 (incl. Multimedia)
Alhambra Review
00. CD-ROM Multimedia Part
A sticker on the hull says "includes 47 minutes worth of Multimedia". I havent really had the time to check out the whole multimedia part in every detail, but it's very large indeed, has 63! video clips and snippets and 26 audios. Among the videos are the "Sister Awake" video (for the songs original, not the Fulber remix though) and a video for "Shadows on the Mountainside", both studio songs come from the 1995 full length "The Edges Of Twillight". The other parts of the Multimedia Part are videos of TTP introducing all their instruments and such things, it's a loong ride but a very interesting one.
The big problem is that this CD-ROM was released in 1996, and due to some idiocy (Microsoft suddenly changed all their Windows95 multimedia drivers the day this CD came out) it takes a skilled user or a few tricks to access this CD-ROM part at all. If you're tryin to do so, I recommend to use the software "ISO-Buster" that is able to 1) access the CD-ROM content, copy the files to your computers HD and there you go. Difficult, but worth the try.
Now for the music on the EP. Firstoff, this is basically an add-on to TTPs 1995 album "The Edges Of Twilight", as all tracks but no.5 are alternate versions of songs previously released on TEOT. BUT I recommend this EP over the album, and the dedicated TP fan might do the same. Cause a) I'm a fan of CD-ROM parts as they are what they are, and even if you've seen all the content you still have some mystery left that you might never discovered, and thats always cool with a band. and b) This EP with its 6 tracks is imo superior or as good as the TEOT album, even if its their best album anyway. The songs have obviously grown in a year, the body of work is less and has prolly seen more dedication per recording, and c) this EP has a very good Rhys Fulber remix :)
01. The Grand Bazaar
45 seconds of sitar on the intro. Sitar, yup, not the standard instrument. Then a bongo-driven world beat with cymbals. Very uncommon and exclusive, eastern vibes sound picture, including Jeffs voice. Exdcellent hooklines all the way. An advanced version of the album track "The Bazaar" but without drums and - this is another major point that makes the EP so fascinating - the stereo arrangement is so damn over the top, you MUST listen to this stuff on a good pair of headphones. I have rarely heard such an amazing stereo work, every single sound appears on a slightly different place.
02. Inanna (acoustic) 3.20
03. Silence (acoustic) 3.57
04. Turn the lamp down (acoustic) 4.58
These 3 tracks basically deserve the same review as track 1, same procedures, same progressions from the TEOT album versions, same excellent recording and stereo picture.
05. Time 6.58
A new song, featuring an artist by the name Roy Harper. You've prolly heard of the name before, me too, but I cant place it atm, all I know that he's been a popular musician that TTP were fans of, and so this is how this happened. Roy does the vocals on this track and I believe he's been involved with the songwriting too, as this is an inch more conventional than the original TTP tracks, not really as eastern sounding and all. In this way less amazing... drums start at 2.45 after a vocal guitar etc intro. The song lasts for 7 minutes and has an epic structure of course. Basically yet another highlight, but out of place on this EP, not as fascinating.
06. Sister Awake (Rhys Fulber Remix) 4.37
Imagine The Tea Party universe of weird instruments and obscure songwriting being redone by a pretty inspired Rhys. High source material, and Rhys doing one of his mid-nineties remix works. The original track is being brought into a more formulaic songstructure, an inch straighter, more centralized in the mix, more equalized in the levels. Less disturbing, yet less amazing than the original take, in the end I find it more listenable. I think the moment when the beat starts in the original song is so great, you dont find such a moment in the remix, but the Rhys trick is that you just dont await such a moment cause it's already pretty great from the beginning. That just the Leeb effect. You might not think its the ultimate genius in ideas, but its soo comfortable, thats why I listen to it, you just dont really need anything else. Not as amazing in puncto stereo as the original too, but I believe that when I say that this one was mastered by some guy by the name Greg Reely you dont need to be worried. Background vocals on the remix (not on the original) by Susann Richter. Hehe, who is this? I dont know. Never heard of her again, never before, maybe a friend of Rhys at that time? No idea, but she's doing well.
++ Temptation (Rhys Fulber Remix) 5.50
NOT AVAILABLE ON THE ALHAMBRA EP, but I put the review for this track here too, I suppose it makes sense. Temptation was the first single and big hit of the "Transmission" album from 1997, this remix was released on the Temptation single (rare) and later on the TRIPtych Tour Edition Bonus CD in 2000, yet another nice release. Looking at this second Fulber remix, its basically the same approach as on the Sister Awake remix, but a different source song: while SA was a midtempo groover, Temptation is an uptempo heavy rocker - the classical album opener basically. Rhys also straightens up this one's song structure, but this time he makes it a lot longer, almost double length. 1.40 minutes of sitar intro. I gotta say that the drumloop sample isnt very smooth, this really takes the quality down a bit. It really sounds like a generic loop. Meow. But still a nice job for the rest of it, not as groovy as it could get but another Tea Party vs Fulber thing, appreciated. And still pretty energetic.
Reviewed by Henrik aka 21st Century Jesus
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Last updated 2005-05-02 00:25:02 by: unknown user.
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