The Fat Angel Sings

Splitting their time between Tom Dougall and bassist Maxim Barron’s place in New Cross and Dominic O’Dair’s flat in Walthamstow, where they set up a makeshift studio and laid down the early album demos, Clear Shot began to take shape in the first half of 2015.

Taking inspiration from an esoteric blend – Radiophonic Workshop, Comus, the scores of Bernard Herrmann, John Barry and Ennio Morricone Fairport, COUM, Acid House, Incredible String Band, The Langley Schools Project, The Wicker Man soundtrack and even the direction behind Electric Eden, Rob Young’s book about the development of folk music in the U.K. – by the time they entered Eve Studios in Stockport in October 2015 with producer David Wrench, the band were clear about the direction the album should take.
The result is their most coherent and confident album to date; lushly cinematic, shot through with their most expressive melodies thus far and coated with a ‘sheen’ courtesy of Chris Coady (Beach House, Smith Westerns, Yeah Yeah Yeahs), who mixed the album in LA with some of the reverbs and vocal processors used on Purple Rain, across the 10-tracks strands of ideas appear, sink and re-emerge in an almost modal jazz manner. Clear Shot sees TOY working both in bigger colours and more minutely crafted detail, achieving an altogether higher level of artistry than before.

Another Dimension is the 2nd single taken from TOY’s third album ‘Clear Shot’ released October 2016 on Heavenly Recordings.TOY have shared their new hazy, psychedelic Bunny Kinney-directed video for ‘Another Dimension’ – the second single taken from their third album ‘Clear Shot’ which was released in October on Heavenly Recordings.

When it first entered the musical canon in the 1960s, psychedelic music was the sound of the counter-culture and of wild musical experimentation, often driven by hallucinogens. It was the sound of San Francisco Bay and bands like The Grateful Dead. As it moved from the underground to the mainstream, psychedelic music began to shift what it meant to write the perfect pop song, especially when The Beatles permeated the wider public conscious with their ode to LSD .

TOY , the British band is savvy enough to know just how far a pop song can be pushed, pulled and stretched. Snatches of everyone from Can to Stereolab to MGMT can be heard in Clear Shot’s chugging-yet-supple anthems to ecstasy. ‘Dream Orchestrator’ is the catchiest of the lot; propelled by a throbbing beat and effervescent synths, it’s by far the danciest track on the album, not to mention the most forward-gazing.

The chorus alone could be bottled and sold as an antidepressant, fueled as it is by easygoing hooks, squalls of breathless noise and upward-spiraling rapture. Rather than relying too heavily on the work of psychedelia’s past masters, frontman Tom Dougall and crew have put a futuristic spin on hallucinatory pop — that is, if the future were something to be viewed with romance and wonder instead of today’s all-too-pervasive doom”. Vinyl edition due November 11th

TOY have shared the new video to ‘I’m Still Believing’, the first single from their forthcoming new album Clear Shot, due for release in October on Heavenly Recordings.

The video’s director, London-based filmmaker Bunny Kinney, envisioned a porject aesthetic resembling an old stumbled-upon VHS tape that had been recorded over numerous times, complete with snippets strange programs and advertisements left behind from previous owners that flicker and fade in and out of the footage of the band performing.

The track itself captures the essence of the band’s penchant for multifaceted arrangements; chiming guitars skirted by elevating synth are soon opened into more pop-tinged territory, during bright choruses framing frontman Tom Dougall’s introspective narrative.

Capped with a signature, elongated break pairing the striking and intricate guitars of Dougall and Dominic O’Dair and the ever-captivating bass of Maxim Barron – the song is a statement from a group still evolving, three records in and able to pull from a wealth of musicianship and experience.

‘I’m Still Believing’ is the first single from TOY’s third studio album ‘Clear Shot’ released October 28th 2016 on Heavenly Recordings. TOY’s second album, 2013’s ‘Join The Dots’, was a fantastic, murky abyss. Judging by the title of their third album – and first single ‘Fast Silver’ – the London-based five-piece are sounding brighter.

TOY have shared new track ‘Clouds That Cover the Sun’, the latest offering from the forthcoming new album Clear Shot, due for release on Heavenly Recordings.

One of the new album’s most ‘hypnotic and alluring numbers’, the single stands as something of a rhythmic departure from the group’s previous two, showing Toy still have room for innovation and a fresh approach to their growing stature of songwriting.

The album was recorded with producer David Wrench towards the end of 2015 at Eve Studio.

Splitting their time between Tom Dougall and bassist Maxim Barron’s place in New Cross and Dominic O’Dair’s flat in Walthamstow, where they set up a makeshift studio and laid down the early album demos, Clear Shot began to take shape in the first half of 2015.

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TOY’s upcoming third album Clear Shot. They previously worked with Natasha Khan of Bat For Lashes on her EP Sexwitch. “Clouds That Cover The Sun” has a psychedelic tinge as well as a dreaminess that comes in part from producer Chris Coady, who produced the last two Beach House albums.