Music labels, like every other term and noun, can change their meaning over time. R&B is the perfect example of this and the image conjured by the term today is vastly different from the way it was first used. Before it came to mean a group of female pop wannabees lipsynching badly in a TV studio to a digitally-fabricated track with just the merest echo of soul lingering in its midst, it meant something different, something more honest and authentic and meaningful. R&B …rock and roll rhythms married up with bluesy licks. It was as simple as that. It was as satisfying as that.
And that, in a nutshell, is precisely what Colm O’Mahony & the Hot Touches is advocating with their latest single, “Damage.” It is a song built on seductive grooves and thrilling moves that sit somewhere between rock and soul. And the band themselves can be found at the head of a sonic family tree that you can follow back through bands such as early Whitesnake, when they were still a bunch of solid British bluesmen rather than the trans-Atlantic poodle-haired posers they were to become. Back to fellow Irishman Rory Gallagher and on down the line to the likes of Chuck Berry and Little Richard.
And it is in that vein that “Damage” is done. Part rock and roll, part blues, part soul. All Killer.
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