If you thought Splendor Solis was exotic, wait until you hear the Asian and African musings of The Tea Party's Jeff Martin, Jeff Burrows and Stuart Chatwood on this startling new release. With guitarist Martin expanding his arsenal to include santoor, sarod, sitar and tampura string instruments, and percussionist Burrows utilizing the djembe and dumbek drums of North Africa and Pakistan, Edges Of Twilight seduces you with its trance-like rhythmic patterns, explorative guitar passages and Martin's ethereal vocals. With songs like "Fire In The Head", "The Bazaar" and "Sister Awake", The Tea Party meld traditional acoustic and electric rock with the same exotic textures as Plant And Page's recent No Quarter release -- only they play the instruments themselves (31 in all). It's a challenging piece of work that demands attention, and some of the tracks, "Correspondences" and "Drawing Down The Moon" in particular, are hypnotic to the point of being sleep-inducing. Yet the fiery fervour of "Fire In The Head", "The Bazaar" and "Sister Awake" are exhilarating enough to keep you spellbound by the sheer scope of this ambitous effort, handled superbly by producer Ed Stasium(Living Colour, The Ramones).

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by Adem Tepedelen

Like Led Zeppelin some 25 years ago, the Tea Party draw from a wealth of influences and cultures to create a sound uniquely their own, exotic and earthy, with neo-progressive flourishes and Middle Eastern-sounding melodies. On The Edges of Twilight they start off with a hefty punch of finely crafted, hypnotic hard rock, and then ease the listener into a world where piano ballads, the blues, and hypnotic, sitar-laden meditations seem to fit together perfectly.

From gorgeous acoustic instrumentals to jarring teeth-rattlers, the Tea Party prove unusually adept at everything they try. Sure, they are essentially an FM rock band, having more in common with Alice in Chains and Queensryche than they may care to admit, but they have far more talent and depth than many of their rather one-dimensional contemporaries. It's this versatility and wealth of quality material that separate them from the pack.