Toyz – Silicon Heart
It’s easy to spot the novice rock bands that are going places. They usually seem to have a plan. Their strategy rarely aligns with that of their peers. For example, the majority of alt-rock groups will assemble their repertoire by the indications “let’s play fast and then see” or “let’s play soft and then see“.
Toyz sound like one of the rare groups who, at least for the time being, have their artistic future pretty well mapped out, taking hints from their favorite collections, which must surely include records to which only a minority of their peers might have paid attention.
The sound of Silicon Heart seems rooted in the studio-rock of the 1970s when the likes of Todd Rundgren and Lindsey Buckingham began crafting complex, towering soft-rock monuments using the studio as a veritable instrument.
A slow soulful backing moves the song along, but it’s the tender use of vocal melodies that makes Silicon Heart an enchanting listen. Toyz are marching to their own beat and have a great knack for choosing their influences.
Murder Tag – Eternal
Horror entertainment is as old as time itself. From the moment man could communicate, some of the very first stories people told each other were meant to scare them silly and to frighten them right.
Terror has a real practical use for people, and this is why some of them get hooked on the feeling, just like others spend their lives in search of transcendental bliss. Terror lets you know the worst of what can happen. Frankly, living your life in dread might just be of better use than ignoring it.
Murder Tag draw on the myriad of groups that have used horror as their True north, but cleverly avoid falling into cliche. There are traces of goth-rock here and even the sludgy tones of early Soundgarden. However, it’s the melodies and the storytelling that really do the heavy lifting for Murder Tag. Halloween playlist material that could also flirt with the pop charts.
