Toy - Toy (CD, Double vinyl LP)

After a bunch of sold out singles and mucho hype the debut Toy album has landed on our shores courtesy of Heavenly who I’m sure are hoping it sells a bucketload. I guess that goes without saying. What record label releases a record they don’t want to sell? Actually I’m sure there have been some over the years. The bits I’ve heard before by these guys have been krauty motorik raincoat indie and as I’m ploughing through the album that’s still what I’m getting.

The sound is a simple clean one with the music relying on creating grooves and rhythms for the tunes to play over. The music chugs along with little variations here and there keeping your interest piqued throughout the duration of the album. The vocals are kind of dreary but I think that’s in keeping with the sound. The more interesting tracks are tracks like ‘Drifting Deeper’ which is an experimental jam which rocks along nicely, has some nice spacey flange effects and about halfway through the song the drums change completely making it sound a bit like two songs stuck together (reminds me a little of ‘No. 13 Baby’ by Pixies but without vocals).

They’re definitely an interesting band as throughout the album they approach songs from different levels and they’ve created a reasonably unique sound (albeit quite derivative of bands like The Sound, House Of Love and even Echoboy). I’m enjoying the bass tremendously and the entire production on the album is tight and crisp and perfectly suited to the mood. I’m weirdly enjoying this much more than I expected to!