PREMIERE | New Memphis Colorways, "Used To Have Rhythm"
Immerses in the colors of nature with Paul Taylor of New Memphis Colorways; press photo courtesy of the artist.
Creativity is an intricate, innerweb of inspirations and collaborations. Our favorite contemporaries and classical vanguards share common and unique threads that span histories and epochs across generations, evolutions of style and all other associated formal connections. The heroes of yesterday, today and tomorrow are part of a larger of catalogue of choruses, stories, storytellers, ateliers, auteurs and countless upstarts. They pave the roads that bring us together, that bring us a better understanding of the world, understanding who we are, the roads traveled and the interstates that bend and wind up ahead.
Through these lines of histories is Door County, Wisconsin by way of Memphis legend Paul Taylor who has been a longtime staple of the local scenes. Presenting the latest pop project New Memphis Colorways, Taylor shares the moody and misty rhythm tripping track "Used To Have Rhythm". Taken off the upcoming Let the Mystery Be EP for The Owl Jackson Jr Record Company, Paul provides the world with a succinct cycle of songs that explores the materialism of time and the immaterial avenues of the unknown.
Let the Mystery Be runs the gamut from big smoky synth stepping progressions programmed by 808s to observations on various levels of internal and external awareness. "OIAIO" bops with bold yet subdued tension that feels cinematic like a hip-hop soundtracked soap opera, setting forth into the glittering guitar glossy gratitude of "You Probably Saved My Life". Hope and inspiration bounce on by with the uplifting "It's a New Day, Baby" that leads to the closing title track "Let the Mystery Be" that is worthy of being included in the great, great American heartland songbook canon.
On the premiere of “Used To Have Rhythm” from New Memphis Colorways, Paul Taylor raises a toast to the underdog, the passing of time and the great expanses of all things that exist beyond the scope of comprehension. Blending strings, big boss synths, percolating percussion and earnest lyrics; Taylor laments the things that we lose as we get older and the mysteries of the universe that elude us on our journey. "Rhythm" pulses with a punctuated pensiveness that ponders the curious constructs of time and the invested hope in the success of the world's scrappy yet valiant heroes in the face of unbelievable obstacles. The composition operates with an uneasy calm, praying to the universe for a prevailing savior figure, holding on to what remains as the clocks and gears of time march forward toward the eras that exist beyond our view. Paul pens a song about our feeble attempts to understand the infinite, the aches, agony and anguish that arrives with the inevitable gravity of aging and entertaining the possibility of a dark horse contender that could emerge to usher in a new era of enlightenment like a deus ex machina theatre trope at the end of a Greek play.
Twilight reflections with Paul Taylor; press photo courtesy of the artist.
Paul Taylor of New Memphis Colorways provided the following meditations on the Let the Mystery Be EP and more:
The music on my new EP was very strongly inspired by the fact that when I first moved from Memphis TN to Door County WI, we were living in an off-season cabin right on the water. During that first winter—endless surreal sunsets over the frozen Green Bay and giant monolithic ice shoves made for a mind blowing scenario — a somewhat psychedelic open expanse that made me feel like I was living in the movie Tron. This daily visage blew my southern mind — and the sense of wide open space really freed up my brain to create in a new direction.
Meditations by New Memphis Colorways’ Paul Taylor; press photo courtesy of the artist.
On “Used To Have Rhythm” the lyrics weren’t too belabored at the time (true for all of my originals on this EP) a rapid fire Bowie-esque random association approach — and I’m only just now starting to (possibly) understand the subtext of what crept out from my subconscious:
The fight against one’s body breaking down over a lifetime.
Searching for higher answers and being blown away by the magnitude of the ultimate all encompassing consciousness.
Keeping faith in the underdog!
New Memphis Colorways’ Let the Mystery Be will be available September 22 via The Owl Jackson Jr Record Company.
