Colm O’Mahony & the Hot Touches – Damage (Mile 16 Records)

Colm O’Mahony & the Hot Touches – Damage (Mile 16 Records)

May 4, 2024

Music labels, like any other term and noun, can change their meaning over time. R&B is a perfect example of this and the image the term conjures up today is vastly different from the way it was first used. Before it meant a group of female pop wannabees in a TV studio lip-syncing poorly to a digitally crafted song with just the barest echo of soul in the middle, it meant something different, something more honest, more authentic, and more meaningful. R&B…rock ‘n’ roll rhythms combined with bluesy licks. It was that simple. It was that satisfying.

And that, in a nutshell, is exactly that Colm O’Mahony and the Hot Touches advocates with their latest single ‘Damage’. It’s a song built on seductive grooves and exciting movements that sit somewhere between rock and soul. And the band itself can be found at the head of a sonic family tree that you can trace through bands like Early white snake, back when they were a solid bunch of British bluesmen, rather than the transatlantic poodle-haired posers they would become. Back to my fellow Irishman Rory Gallagher and further down the line to people like Chuck Berry And Little Richard.

And it is in that spirit that “damage” is done. Part rock ‘n’ roll, part blues, part soul. All murderer.

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