Current mood: LATE...
Category: LATE... Music
It's hard enough writing about breakfast on a day to day, let alone being political, clever, innovative and factual in evaluating LPs of music.
Yes boss, musicians might generally hate music journalists, but succinctly and cleverly describing an LP isn't easy to do well. The difficulty is you're dealing with peoples heart, dream and soul - sometimes put down over years of hard effort and struggle and you're supposed to know what the fuck in a few days or less, during which time you're mostly drunk and/or listening to 100 other bits of music that might or might not be good, all of which are demanding that same attention....
AND you're dealing with your own failures...
So, to counter these odds of getting things wrong time and time again, I always reserve the right to take as damn long as I please when reviewing a disc. Sure, it looses me readers, subscribers, the interest of magazines, websites and often annoys the act in question, but frankly musicians are generally easily annoyed and I can't be bothered with stabbing them back because I'm a little slow..
Anyway, there can be few who've been more patient in their wait than T-Toe..
Yes boss, after hearing his myspazz tracks way back in February, I dropped him a line requesting more. He duly obliged within the month sent me a disk containing 7 tracks and since then I've been taking my time...
There's no excuse for this extreme a delay - especially because this LP is easy to get into and shows plenty of interest and promise. I guess if anything I was wondering what i could say that the music doesn't...
Well, now I know...
Basically, the thing I most like with this is the use of a Trombone in electronica.
Brass instruments are wierd. I know this because i played them for 5 years.
Yes boss, rather than spending my youth with The Beatles, Madonna or Duran Duran, I was listening to and playing Brass Band music on a tiny panasonic tape recorder. My hand was forced to a large degree by parents who disaproved of pop music and whereas I now know that's silly, I don't now feel at all deprived to have had to wait a while to get with the trendy sounds...
So, since I got into electronica sometime around 10 years ago, I've been waiting for Brass to come more into it. For some reason it's always felt like it could be a part of the very heavy driving nature of ELECTROBLAST and could add the soul that electronic sounds sometimes lack.
Basically: WHACK some distortion on top and regiment it HARD with the odd bit of crazy modulation.
Spring Heel Jack worked this sound to a degree (Bank of America being a fine example) and I heard someone play a mystery track at a Warp rave way back when that was Brass and sounded huge - so huge it got very messy by the end - I think the DJ was getting carried away...
Anyway, T-Toe has definately brought in Brass and it works. The reasonance of brass has soul. It has punch. It's a wierd sound and T-toe uses it every which way: As melody, percussion and rhythm, distorted and clean and pure.
Yes boss, I feel that the CD he sent (currently not available commercially but mostly playable from his myspazz player) showcases what can and will be done in the future...
Brasstronica is difficult to know what to do with. These tracks aren't really dance floor, they're not that easy listening. They're the sort of tracks to play loud at home and jump into when you need a dose - braindance as rephlex call it....
One other thing I love with T-Toe, is that he takes his act out and plays LIVE. Yes boss, anyone who gets a Trombone out in a nightclub is definately a friend of mine...
So, T-toe is good and I reckon this LP is worthy of a release. Furthermore, I wouldn't imagine this is anything like the peak Mr Toe, in fact it's probably closer to a starting selection..
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