Not Many Experts

Just don’t mention the Jing Jang Jong. Because although some members of TOY may have a shadowy past in the morally and musically questionable indie outfit, they have just about everything else going for them. They’ve got the motorik, yearning groove, the melancholy and introspection of shoegaze, and the woozy psychedelic edge. It all amounts to a sound that is completely hypnotic – a cavernous space to get lost in. For me, that’s what music’s about – anybody can pick up an instrument and create something that it is physically possible to listen to, but there’s so much more to music than just listening. Truly inspired music transcends boundaries and is something that you can completely emotionally immerse yourself in – and for hitting this particular nail on the head, TOY deserve to be taken at face value, without the stigma of the past attached.

A good place to start would be recent single “Motoring” which was released last week on Heavenly Recordings and has been given a mind-bending refiddling by the brilliant Peaking Lights (see above). You’ll also find it fortunately tough to avoid them in the coming weeks as they make appearances at The Great Escape, Liverpool Sound City, Live At Leeds, Field Day, Green Man, Bestival, as well as a support slot with The Horrors. So get out of your dilapidated, iniquitous hovel and go and see them.