Today on Musical Musings: Five of the Best, I'm joined by the erudite Armando Venditti (of the Youtube channel The Music Den) to dig into one of Canada's most distinctive and criminally under-celebrated rock bands: The Tea Party. Formed in Windsor, Ontario around 1990, the trio of Jeff Martin, Stuart Chatwood and Jeff Burrows built a sound they cheekily christened "Moroccan roll" — hard rock and blues shot through with sitars, ouds, hurdy-gurdies and Middle Eastern textures, all wrapped around Jeff Martin's brooding, Jim Morrison-esque baritone. They were huge in Canada and Australia, drew constant comparisons to The Doors and Led Zeppelin, and made records that felt like they'd been dug out of some candlelit alchemist's library. Armando's five trace nearly three decades of that journey. We start with the bluesy early single "The River" from 1993's major-label debut Splendor Solis (named, fittingly, after a famous 16th-century alchemical manuscript), then move into the band's world-music masterpiece with "Sister Awake" from The Edges of Twilight — a song so intricate it reportedly used 58 recording tracks synched across three tape machines. From there we take in a deep cut, "The Badger," the electronic reinvention of 1997's Transmission with "Emerald," and a leap all the way to 2021 for "The Beautiful." It's a smart, generous introduction to a band that always aimed higher than the radio ever asked them to. Tune in and let Armando make the case. Originally broadcast 3 August 2026

Songs in this episode:

0:03 NZ Net Radio – Musical Musings: Five of the Best - Tea Party
1:07 The Tea Party – The River
2:28 NZ Net Radio – Musical Musings: Five of the Best - Tea Party
3:32 The Tea Party – Sister Awake
4:55 NZ Net Radio – Musical Musings: Five of the Best - Tea Party
5:59 The Tea Party – The Beautiful
7:22 NZ Net Radio – Musical Musings: Five of the Best - Tea Party
8:26 The Tea Party – The Badger
9:49 NZ Net Radio – Musical Musings: Five of the Best - Tea Party
10:53 The Tea Party – Emerald
12:11 NZ Net Radio – Musical Musings: Five of the Best - Tea Party