A Darker Shade Of Tao

The first Peach Tree album off the slate for 2008, A Darker Shade Of Tao is a concept album wrestling with a variety of themes. The Tao is the Chinese philosophical concept of The Way, the harmony and intertwining of the two most fundamental forces of Nature: Yin and Yang. This album represents these two opposing yet intermingling forces in the more Western terminology of Light and Darkness; qualities that are present all around us from the simplest particle interaction to the most massive of cosmic occurences, to things we deal with in everyday human life. By naming this album “A Darker Shade”, The Peach Tree is recognising that we can never truly see both sides of the coin at any one time, thus the album leans more towards the Yin, the Dark, reflecting how the author was feeling at the time. Themes that spring from this outlook and from the exploration of the forces of Darkness and Light are questions about god, hell and heaven, and the concept of “the fight” in your mind between Dark and Light. Interwoven throughout this album are subtle references to various otherworldly phenomena such as things that occur during lucid dreaming, vampirism, the Mayan calendar (the 13 tracks follow the Day/Night pattern of the 13 heavens in the Mayan calendar and invoke the various forces/deities that rule over them), and magic; all tied back into the overall exploration of Yin and Yang, of The Tao and its myriad of nascent themes and connections. Sound too artsy fartsy? The album also delivers simple yet effective song-writing ranging from acoustic pop to techno, incorporating sweet vocals, heavy guitar riffage, quiet piano moments and even some death metal growling.