TOY have shared ‘Mechanism’, the latest cut from their new album Happy In The Hollow, which is released on Friday, January 25th 2019. Their fourth album, and their first for new label Tough Love Records, it’s unquestionably their most direct and propulsive album to date.
Recorded between the band’s own home tape studios and mixed at Dan Carey’s Studio B in South London, the new album was entirely produced and mixed by the band. The vinyl pressing of the album is available in several different variants – the first, only available via the Tough Love webstore, includes a bonus 12″ featuring remixes by Sonic Boom and Cosey Fanni Tutti and is limited to 300 copies. The second is in conjunction with the Dinked indie store collective, and features alternative artwork and a ‘secret 7″‘. Finally, a third version will be available exclusively from Rough Trade, and features an alternative ‘secret 7″‘.
Watch the video to ‘Mechanism’ – BELOW:
Happy In The Hollow is entirely uncompromising: an atmospheric capturing of a state of mind that touches on Post Punk, electronic dissonance, acid folk and Krautrock. Familiar qualities like metronomic rhythms, warping guitars, undulating synths and Tom’s gentle, reedy vocals are all in there, but so is a greater emphasis on melody, a wider scope, and a combining of the reassuring and the sinister that is as unnerving as it is captivating.’
The sound has without doubt expanded — and grown more confident — in part because
this is the first album for which Toy has become a self-sufficient five-person unit doing everything for themselves.
“Each song was a blank canvas,” says Maxim. “Producers inevitably develop their own patterns over
time, right down to certain drum sounds. We were starting from scratch and it felt very creative as a
result. It’s an album we feel deeply connected to”.
Finally, having recently played a packed-out show at the Shacklewell Arms in London, where they premiered a number of the new album tracks, the band have announced a run of headline shows in the new year. The full list of dates is as follows:
January:
25th London, Rough Trade East instore
26th Bristol, Rough Trade instore
30th Nottingham, Rough Trade instore
February:
13th Belfast, Empire Music Hall
14th Dublin, The Workmans Club
15th Manchester, YES
16th Glasgow, King Tuts
17th Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
19th Brighton, Patterns
20th London, Village Underground
21st La Route du Rock, St. Rennes, FR
22nd Witlof Bar @ Botanique, Brussels, BE
24th Upstairs @ Paradiso, Amsterdam, NL
25th Bumann, Cologne, DE
26th Prinzenbar, Hamburg, DE
27th Cassiopeia, Berlin, DE
28th Beatpol, Dresden, DE
March:
1st Swamp, Freiburg, DE
2nd Petit Bain, Paris, FR
6th Ohibo, Milan, IT
7th Largo, Rome, IT
8th Covo Club, Bologna, IT
12th Kafe Antzokia Club, Bilbao, ES
13th Siroco, Madrid, ES
14th Las Armas, Zaragoza, ES
15th Sidecar, Barcelona, ES
Since 2010, Toy have earned a reputation as a band of integrity, virtuosity and taste, with Tom, Maxim, Dominic, Charlie and (joining in 2015) Max creating a sound that is embedded in the underground tradition, yet distinctly their own. Since their inception, they have released the acclaimed albums Toy (2012), Join The Dots (2013) and Clear Shot (2016), and toured everywhere from Serbia to China.
TOY are: Tom Dougall (vocals / guitar), Dominic O’Dair (guitars), Maxim Barron (bass / vocals), Max Oscarnold (synths / modulations) & Charlie Salvidge (drums / vocals).
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