TAUK, arguably the hottest instrumental prog-fusion quartet out of New York City, know how to close the summer parties right. After spending the summer hitting the festival circuit and playing some of the countries largest venues, including the opening spot at the sold out Umphrey’s McGee appearance at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, CO in July.
This Friday, September 4th, TAUK prepares for the launch of their fourth album, HEADROOM. A double disc venture composed of live performances hand chosen and stitched together seamlessly. Each disk plays like a set of live music, beginning and ending with the warmth of the crowd murmur.
It’s one thing for a band to be fluent in multiple genres. It is another thing for a band to be able to delicately thread these genres together. When it comes to TAUK’s brand of melding musical styles, the end result is quite literally unique to anything coming out by other groups.
Recorded throughout their early 2015 tour dates up and down the East Coast, as South as Florida and as North Buffalo, NY, TAUK’s explosive live performances build complex melodic textures over dirty, funky beats. Their shows have captivated audiences from coast to coast since their 2012 inception.
On their previous release, 2014’s 10-track Collisions, the band felt they had finally successfully captured the live-show energy that has helped catapult them to household jam band status so quickly. According to TAUK’s website, Collisions “spans delicate ethereal textures, highly imaginative funky jamming, labyrinthine arrangements and firey solos – often in the same song.”
For TAUK, the only logical next step was to offer up their best live performances to date.
HEADROOM features many new improvisational and fleshed out twists on their already immensely popular studio tracks. In fact, most of “Collisions” and 2013’s “Homunculus,” are given some breathing room as we are treated to one-of-a-kind live improvisational jamming. But the new record also contains a handful of previously unreleased tracks: “Rainwalk”, “Districts”, and the unique take on Nirvana’s “In Bloom” segueing into “Never Remember” constitute the new tracks on Disc 1, while Disc 2 plays host to new track “Battle Without Honor or Humanity,” and a 13+ minute rendition of “Tumbler” from Collisions.
For those totally unfamiliar with the band, HEADROOM serves as a great introductory lesson in their music and their energy as a band. For those who have had the ‘tauk,’ the disc will meet your expectations and then some. Either way, expect the album to take the listener on gradually increasing ups and downs, each more intense than the last. Definitely a great effort by a great band that is easy to listen to all the way through.
