TAZ TAYLOR BAND - review added 20th September 2010
Live Album Review: Big Dumb Rock (Instrumental) (2010)
For fans of: Hard Rock... and no words
We reviewed Taz Taylor's previous album spring last year. "Straight Up" differed from Big dumb Rock in a couple of ways. First, it was released on the well regarded Escape Music label, second (and perhaps most importantly) the album contained vocals.
Yep, Taz has gone down the instrumental route this time to really show off his excellent guitar skills. Drummer Val Trainor is with him again, and keyboards are this time handled by Bruce Conners, but otherwise this is a showcase for Taz before his next full album arrives.
The sound of Big Dumb Rock is not a lot like a normal guitar instrumental release. The playing is awesome, obviously, but this is more of a standard bluesy hard rock release (minus the singing) than a standalone guitar opus. It's accessible, totally unpretentious and very pleasant to sit back and listen to... but whether that's enough I don't know. Some people want instrumental albums that blow them away with their spine-tingling complexity and utter disregard for the standard rules of catchiness. Big Dumb Rock, whilst bursting with quality, is not one of those off-the-scale LPs.
I like this album a lot, especially the chilling and thrilling opener 'Viper', and the retro-ballsy 'Chillin''... but I suspect the way it is received by fans will vary wildly. If you fancy a solid chunk of instrumental guitar, and you don't want all the unnecessary frippery, check this out. You'll probably be glad you did.
Check out... All of it.
Track List:
01. Viper
02. City Zen
03. Reprised
04. Chillin'
05. Blue Agave
06. Big Dumb Rock
07. 622
08. 11 Years
09. Dog Breath
10. Hornitos Concerto
Artist's website(s): Taz Taylor | MySpace
