Toy – In concert from Paris – Recorded December 10, 2013 – RFI – Le Mouv –
Toy in concert – recorded in Paris on December 10, 2013.
Along with Temples from last night, Toy represents the latest incarnation of Psychedelia. One which has taken cues from a number of places, with a decidedly harder edge than Temples. Toy leans in a more experimental direction, freely admitting a heavy influence from the German Prog scene of the early 70s, most notably Can, who have proven to be a major influence over a wide range of musical genres because they never spent too much time fixed to the same place for very long.
But like Temples, Toy are a refreshing departure from Psychedelic Nostalgia – proving once again that the form is still very much untapped and a constant source of inspiration and direction which lends itself very well to exploration and free-form experimenting.
One of the appealing aspects of Toy are Tom Dougall’s vocals which are more recited than sung and sung just slightly enough out of focus to give the impression of being buried under an avalanche of sound. It’s a technique that has been used to good effect with 90s bands like Ride where the words are just slightly nondescript but the lyrics, when you finally hear them, are profound. It’s all part of perhaps an intention to make the listener do repeat plays. Maybe, but the overall impression is one of cool detachment – throwaway profundities. One of the things that has made Psychedelia so appealing, and such a rich vein of untapped ideas.
One of the problems I’ve encountered with Toy is their relative lack of live performances, captured for posterity. Their latest album, Songs Of Consumption was issued in 2019 and it appears there have been no tours set up to help promote it (they left Heavenly Records in 2018). Even though a special EP was issued in 2020 I’m not seeing a tour, concerts or club dates being scheduled at any point.
Until that happens, here is at least a representation of Toy as they appeared in 2013 during a concert in Paris on December 10 of that year.
Enjoy.
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