By Keith Walsh
There’s no escaping the news of unrest in the world. In addition to causing grief, the current strife is a fountain of inspiration for artists. Producer and singer/songwriter Julian Shah-Tayler wrote the opening track, “All Good Soldiers,” to his EP The Torment Suite during the BLM protests of the past spring, which took a sinister turn.

Born in Leeds, bred in London and now living in Los Angeles, Shah-Tayler wrote the tune in response to the recent tumult, I asked him whom the titular soldiers are. “Specifically those rising against tyrants,” says Shah-Tayler. “It was (written) right after the BLM ‘riots’ during which they were infiltrated by wrongdoing disingenuous far right wingers.”

In the tune he sings, over a simmering bass and guitar groove “All good soldiers know the shadows they are lighting/to win the war the sacrifice they’re making/I believe our love will win in the end/without love we are lost.” I take this a skeptical idealism, as the background vocals echo “we are lost” in a haunting manner.  It’s this ambiguity that flavors the song, and indeed the entire EP. The mixture of romantic love and heroism, which has a history across the millennia, is at play here, as Shah-Tayler explains of the song: “It also has a side analog about people falling in and out of love. Into despair…”

There’s a Bowie cover here (a subdued electronic version of ‘Loving The Alien’), and while covering Bowie is part of Shah-Tayler’s history, his identity as an artist is built on crafting exceptional tunes in the studio, playing guitars, synths and delivering vocals in a variety of genres and styles. I asked him how it came to be that the The Torment Suite is heavy on guitars. “I’m equally drawn to rocking out as making weird sounds,” he  explains. The project is light on synths, for sure, and also features collaborations with David J of Bauhaus/Love And Rockets, MGT (Mark Gemini Thwaite of The Mission and Peter Murphy), as well as Ava Gore and Raphael Colantonio, the duo known as WeirdWolves.

“Eyes Of Orion” features vocals by Gore and Colantonio.  The song has a European rock flavor, with a catchy digital string riff and a cool tremolo guitar that I imagine as a Fender. The lyrics fit the somewhat dark theme of the other songs on The Torment Suite. “A heart in doubt, the smile of shame/The art of faith exposed the pain/Your wings will burn as for Icarus/So, watch your distance to the sun.”

I suggested to Colantonio that the song seems to be about the loss of power in a relationship and an effort to make peace again. He added “It’s also about karma, how things you do to others, someone will do to you and probably stronger.” The theme of struggle and the losses it can incur runs throughout the tune and indeed the entire The Torment Suite. The presence of the love that is essential to struggles of all kinds, and is the inspiration of artists, is the foundation this EP is built upon.

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