The Tea Party are a band that throughout their career, have continually managed to reinvent their sound, while retaining the core components of blending a rock mentality with world music.

Transmission sits squarely in the middle of their career, and is probably the most different album they’ve ever done.  Much darker in sound and theme than anything they’ve done before or since, Transmission is their classic eastern rock sound, as filtered through the gothic industrial style of Nine Inch Nails.

While in the 5 years following the release of NIN’s “The Downward Spiral” there were almost countless copycats with bands like Filter, Stabbing Westward, and Gravity Kills, The Tea Party’s offering to the genre stands out from the rest due to its impeccable vocals, and middle eastern influences, as evident on the intro to the opening track “Temptation”.

While the album starts off fairly straight-forward with “Temptation”, which is as made-for-radio as industrial gets, the highlights of this album for me are the incredible slow-build of “Psychopomp”, which really shows off Jeff Martin’s amazingly powerful and soulful voice; the eastern rock vibe of “Gyroscope”, and the experimental beats of “Transmission”.  The piano interlude at the end of “Babylon” also deserves a mention.

Shortly after this album they released a DVD with many of the songs being performed on a music tv program, and while this would have been perfect video footage of a great band at their peak, the sound mix is unfortunately quite terrible, and much of the guitar punch is lost in the mix.

I recommend this to anyone who doesn’t mind embracing their dark side on occasion :)

http://www.myspace.com/theteaparty

http://www.myspace.com/mammaltheband

Mammal are a very political, funky, heavy-rock band from Melbourne.  Sounds like Rage against the machine?  It’s not.  While frontman Ezekiel Ox raps many of the lyrics over an incredibly tight 3 piece band, there is little resemblance to Rage in their overall sound.  Zeke’s one of the most interesting front-men I’ve seen in a rock band in a long time, and comes across totally genuine.

Mammal have made their name as a hard working live band doing constant touring on the back of numerous EP’s and Live Albums, but ‘The Majority’ is their first full studio album.  Showing their range, from the heavy crunch of the single “The Majority”, to the 70’s funk vibes of “Mr Devil”, Mammal show they are a band that can deliver on all fronts.

“We ain’t no hit machine. We’re just here to please your souls” - Mammal, The Aural Underground

If you get the chance to see them live (they are touring at the moment, and about to record another live album), a live show is really the only way to 100% appreciate what Mammal is all about.

http://www.myspace.com/twelvefootninja

Twelve Foot Ninja are everything I love about music.  Equal parts heavy, catchy, melodic, and a little bit weird.

New Dawn is their first 6 track EP, and it plays like some of the best bits of Mike Patton’s extensive musical catalogue.  The only unfortunate thing about TFN (not tax file number), is the Patton comparisons that are inevitable when your singer sounds almost identical.  But I’ve manged to ignore that, and encourage you to do the same and enjoy it for what it is.  Damn good music.

The EP seamlessly flows from reggae/dub, to meshuggah style math-metal, to ‘yacht rock’, funk, and eastern influenced rock, reminiscent of the fantastic “Tea Party”.  Its easily worth the money, and its my prediction that if these guys keep it up, they have the potential to be huge in the alternative music scene.

I had the pleasure and luck to be front and centre at their first ever headlining gig in Melbourne earlier this year and these songs sound absolutely mind-blowing live.  If you get a chance to check them out live, don’t miss it.

http://www.myspace.com/cogrockmusic

Cog are another Australian progressive rock band, but unlike Karnivool, they are a bit less heavy, a bit more experimental with their instrumentation and song structures, and a hell of a lot more political!  Cog are a band that require a lot of thought and reflection to get the most out of. 

Sharing space is their latest album, and is probably their softest work to date (1 previous album and 2 EP’s).  This has caused a bit of scorn from long time fans feeling that they’re going away from their roots, but I think its the start of them finding their own truely unique sound, and distancing themselves from the “sounds like Tool” label they’d been given with their previous efforts.

The amazing thing about these guys is that they’re a 3 piece.  Much like Muse, they manage to create a sound much much larger than what you’re used to hearing from 3 piece bands.  With their complex rhythms, I can’t even begin to comprehend how much effort Flynn the vocalist, must put into singing and playing guitar, as often the rhythms will weave together in unbelievably intricate ways.

While all 3 members are amazing, a Cog review can’t be written without praising the amazing drum work of Lucius Borich.  The beats are never boring, and lay a fantastic foundation for most of the songs to flow around.

Its a pleasure to listen to, and I look forward to seeing what these guys come up with next.