REVIEW - European Progressive Rock Reviews

"Just occasionally, I need to recap on what is actually progressive rock. I place progressive rock into either Symphonic prog , progressive Metal, progressive jazz, progressive instrumental, e.g. Gandalf and progressive folk. That is generally the European point of view. The other point is the American slant where bands like Saga, King Crimson etc. come into the equation. The Americans then try and get clever and tag another label on it, that being Art Rock. The high street media then jumped on the band wagon and threw bands like Radiohead and such into this pool calling them progressive. The Europeans then added stuff like Moon Garden's "Round Midnight" album and Amber Light into the Art Rock melting pot. I may as well stand up now and state that Radiohead and such are not progressive, not in the least, although they are all superb examples of modern rock. A few years back the American bands Alloy Now, Plastic Overlords and John Miner released CD's all deemed art rock, most were relatively very good.

We now turn to the Philadelphia, New Jersey based band Tea Club and what a surprise they turned out to be. I'm actually quite excited about them. This whole album has great vocals, production and arrangements and should place them in the bracket of being the next big thing given the right break.

Tea Club are boxing very clever because they've soaked up so many influences, by accident or design only they can say. In so doing they have found the secret of crossing many genres or, if you like, catching a wide audience. I've read that this band are progressive. Well, if I had to say if anything here faintly resembles progressive rock then it would have to be the track "Purple Chukz". It's down to the change of direction half way through with its chord progression that leads into the final minute or so.
The tracks on their "Myspace" site do not really tell the full story because listening to the remainder of this album it becomes instantly obvious how heavy this band really are. First and foremost they are a guitar based indie rock band, a pretty loud and complex one and dare I say, occasionally chaotic when they break into improvised sounding guitar sections. This is demonstrated perfectly on "Werewolves", "Cool Smack", "Big Al" and "The Clincher".

The beauty of Tea Club is in the overall way the vocals are layered within some of these songs. The two brothers share the vocal position and it's these vocals that give this album its broad appeal, kinda like a head on collision of early REM, Radiohead and The Beach Boys on speed, you'll especially hear these harmonies on, "Ice Clock" and "Will O' The Wisp". Another thing that points to Radiohead is the way the vocals move between the higher and lower register on "Castle Builder". This track is sort of a rendezvous of influences and is the one to listen to if you are new to their music. For me, it's this song that typifies the best of Tea Club.

There's another band they sound like but I just couldn't quite put my finger on it, then it hit me after listening several more times to "Will O' The Wisp" and "The Moon" with its chiming guitars, it had hints of The Cosmic Roughrider's, "Have You Heard The News Today". There's a big however here though, Tea Club are far darker, deeper, edgier and not so happy sounding.

It shouldn't matter where your taste lies, you should get enjoyment from this album, it's highly addictive. As you can see by the confusion of influences, it's hard to categorise them without putting your head on the chopping block, let's just say whatever direction Tea Club are heading they are damn good. Listen to them for yourselves, I think you may well like this band. If I had to pick a side to their music that I preferred the most then it would have to be the more reflective side, being "Castle Builder", "Will O' The Wisp" and "The Moon". 90%"