Formed in 2010 in London, Toy is Tom Dougall (vocals, guitar),
Dominic O'Dair (guitars), Panda (bass, vocals), Alejandra Diez
(synths) and Charlie Salvidge (drums). Steered by an ambition to
make music with close, likeminded friends, Toy have quickly
established a sound that is as modernistic as it is faithful to
the spirit of psychedelia of decades past. Marrying sophisticated
chord progressions with a cornucopia of effects, enigmatic
lyricism and driving Motorik rhythms, Toy's songwriting is very
much a communal effort: lyrics are contributed by Dougall, Panda
and Salvidge; songs are born and evolve from each individual's
chords, basslines, synth motifs or drum patterns; and themes and
textures developed with a democratic best idea wins policy.
Initially layering up tracks accompanied by a drum machine, Toy
spent their first nine months demoing rough versions of the songs
that would appear on their first single, 'Left Myself Behind',
and self-titled debut album. Signed to Heavenly s by
Jeff Barrett after an early performance at The Shacklewell Arms,
East London, Toy soon took up a four-week residency at the same
venue, honing an uptempo and rambunctious live show augmented by
a smoke machine and lasers with the zest of a twenty-first
century Exploding Plastic Inevitable.
To help capture the otherworldliness and energy of the shows, Toy
brought the lighting rig into producer Dan Carey's studio to
accompany the of their debut, Toy (2012). Captured
largely live with all five members playing at once, each
instrument provides its own raucous, revolving melodies, from the
eerie, phased string sounds of Diez's Korg Delta, to the
precision shivering of Salvidge's drum fills. Featuring the
singles 'Motoring', 'Lose My Way', 'Make It Mine' and 'My Heart
Skips A Beat', Toy is an assured statement of intent: a
collection of rapturous noise experiments with a pop sensibility,
peppered with instrumental passages that are both calculated and
primal in their execution.
Whilst promoting the album, Toy have toured extensively,
including headline sets in the UK, Europe, Japan and Australia; a
multitude of festival appearances including the John Peel Stage
at Glastonbury 2013; and supporting slots for The Horrors, The
Vaccines and British Sea Power, amongst others. The band admit to
enjoying playing late at night to people in altered states, and
in turn the tracks are frequently altered: instrumental sections
in particular are structured freely, enabling the band to exploit
the bleed and feedback of each venue to produce endless
variations of the same songs.
This appetite for reinvention and prolificacy is mirrored in the
band's ambition to release a new record every year a wish
currently achieved with the arrival of Join The Dots, released by
Heavenly in December 2013. As with their debut, Join The Dots was
recorded mostly live with Carey at the helm, although increased
studio time has enabled the band to experiment more with Carey's
laboratory of effects and pre-amps, and embellish the tracks with
overdubs. The album is both a companion to and extension of the
electric blueprint plotted out on Toy, filled as it is with
increasingly unpredictable, illuminating sonic ideas and songs
that shift and transform with seemingly effortless intricacy.
Underpinned by Teutonic, euphonic bass and drums, Dougall and
O'Dair's Fenders blend seamlessly through abstract swathes of
distortion and delay and likewise the lyrics are intentionally
veiled, creating an aural agelessness that transcends comparisons
with other bands past or present.