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Toe - For Long Tomorrow CD (album) cover

FOR LONG TOMORROW

Toe

Post Rock/Math rock


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5 stars This new release from the Japanese post-math-rock group Toe is absolutely awesome. This time there are lyrics and singing in some songs, (which they have managed to fit in very well) like after image (which is mind blowingly chill and great) and goodbye. The overall atmosphere of this album is very chilled out. It's amazing how these guys can make such complex music at the same time being soothing and chill. Toe used a lot more texture and different instruments in this release compared to the previous recordings. The result is great: the same toe ingeniousness with clean guitar emotional jamming, but including rhodes, a lot more acoustic guitar, some marimba/xylophone, voice, and other cool layers of interesting instruments and sound effects.

If you enjoy post rock and not-so-frantic math rock, you will most likely enjoy this quite a bit like i did. This is one of this year's best releases. Don't you dare miss it. 4 1/2 stars.

Report this review (#256764)
Posted Friday, December 18, 2009 | Review Permalink
BrufordFreak
COLLABORATOR
Honorary Collaborator
4 stars This is an interesting and enjoyable album that has a lot of the King Crimson Discipline sound and stylings that I love, especially songs 2, 3, 12, and 13. Though categorized Post Rock/Math Rock, it is far more that that, for in it I hear snippets that remind me of ALGERNON, IVY, KOOP, PAUL SIMON, JONI MITCHELL and many others. But most of all I hear DRUMS! AMAZING drumming!

The first song is a brief 39-second sonic introduction that bleeds directly into the brief "Shou[&*!#]su tenyo fue" (2:40) (9/10) which is, in effect, an introduction and set-up for the album's third song (and, IMO, crown jewel). Arpeggio

3. "After Image" (3:59) featuring female vocalist Harada Ikuko reminds me of an awesome upbeat song from IVY or FIONA APPLE. (10/10)

4. "Esoteric" (4:15) is the album's first song to fully fall under the familiar/more usual Post Rock/Math Rock formats--and it is an excellent one! Sitar, arpeggiated acoustic and electric guitars, and amazing drumming! This is like MASERATI at its best! (10/10)

5. "Say It Ain't So," with the vocals of Dry River String's Hoshikawa Yuzuru (3:42), sounds like it wants to be pop and maybe even rappy. It's laid back, very repetitive and uses multiple tracks for its vocals. (7/10)

6. "Two Moons" begins rather delicately, involving a synth, glockenspiel an acoustic and an electric guitar interweaving polyrhythmic melody lines. Until the bass and drums arrive at the 1:49 mark. Then we have a full-out jam! Kind of reminds me of ALGERNON. (8/10)

7. "Mosikiiton wa mou kikoenai #1" (2:32) (8/10) is a piano over tuned and electronic percussion intro/variation for the next song,

8. "Mosikiiton wa mou kikoenai #2" (2:20) in which drums, bass and acoustic guitars play a more prominent role. Together the two variations rate a pleasant KOOP-like (8/10)--lacking enough development and change to make me reach for the replay button. This one is the drummer's song!

9. "Last Night (Album Version)" (4:56). By this time into the album I am looking for a little more variety. The one-note-at-a-time Kool-and-the-Gang synth is starting to get on my nerves, the interwoven tuned-percussion and acoustic guitar leads are getting a little old, the bass and drumming are the only things still keeping it interesting. (7/10)

10. "Goodbye (Album Version) featuring Toki Asako" (7:06) establishes another IVY-like groove using acoustic guitars and rolling COCTEAU TWINS-like bass before the vocalist and drummer get engaged. Again, the drummer is stealing the show! At the four minute mark ends a peak and things settling into a bit of a mellow, more simply and controlled section-- though the drummer apparently has difficulty with this mode, as he seems to always sneak in, or bulldoze his way into . . . taking over! I think the rest of the band shows admirable restraint in the face of his "lead" though I also believe the drumming is what makes this music work on such a high level. (9/10)

11. "You Go" (3:35) begins like one of DAVID BYRNE's Brazilian-influenced or PAUL SIMON's South African-inflluenced songs of years ago. The drummer is held a bit farther back in the mix on this one?and shows more than his usual restraint, though even in quiet restrained mode he continues to shine and attract the attention of the listener. (8/10)

12. "Our Next Movement" (4:48) begins with a very blatant folk drum style--large African hand drums and other hand percussives. Saxes play around in the background--as if I'm reminded of JONI MITCHELL's "Dreamland" from Don Juan's Reckless Daughter. The random sax play, bass play, and replacement of hand drums by drum kit reign this jazzier tune in a bit. Horns come together in a bank format as guitars pick in their arpeggiated KING CRIMSON way. I like the looseness of this one. (8/10)

13. "Long Tomorrow" (5:18) displays the same controlled "Discipline"-like weave of electric guitars, drums, and bass as the album began with. I like the bass being a bit more forward in this one. Static-screeching synth enters around mid-point. Finishes in a much more PostRock/Math Rock way. I can't explain why I like this time of "controlled chaos" so much-- that KC "Discipline" weave--but I do. (9/10)

Though this album often threatens to slide into background music, it is definitely one of the best Math/Post Rock albums I've ever heard?one that I will play again and again. I look forward to the growth and maturation of this great little combo.

4 stars: An excellent addition to any prog lover's music collection.

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Posted Tuesday, January 15, 2013 | Review Permalink
Warthur
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars So many musicians in the math rock area can tend to get stuck into a groove, chugging away at their 1980s King Crimson guitar lines to the point of monotony and neglecting to add enough variation to their overall approach to keep things interested. toe here cannot be accused of that, offering up a far gentler and more nuanced take on math rock. If I wanted to draw a stark contrast between post-rock and math rock, I would say that math rock is very interested in the individual ingredients of a performance, with an emphasis on technically proficient play, whilst post- rock seems to be more interested in the big picture, where the whole shape of a composition across its running time is given more significance; toe manage to capture both of those qualities, avoiding the pitfall of technical showboating that has claimed so many in this field.
Report this review (#1645876)
Posted Saturday, November 19, 2016 | Review Permalink
Mellotron Storm
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars This album really is like a breath of fresh air. A four piece Math-Rock band out of Japan with 2 guitarists, a bassist and drummer. Lots of guests though including keyboards on 8 of the 13 tracks, 2 sax players and a clarinet all on one song plus three different vocalists. Released in 2009 it's really cool how they achieve a catchy sound with all that complexity. These guys can play and as Drew says in his review the drummer is outstanding!

I'm surprised they opened with the two tracks they did though. Not the best start with that 40 second experimental song to begin with followed by "Vanishing Point And Whistle" with the clapping that comes and goes although the guitars and drumming are great. "After Image" is where I start to get really impressed. Those female vocal melodies to start as picked guitar and drums join in, bass too. I like this a lot. Punchy and mathy.

"Esoteric" has faint guitar sounds to start then a second guitar joins in then it kicks into gear just before a minute. K.C. like here with those guitar lines. It's heavier before 3 1/2 minutes to the end. "Say It Ain't So" has intricate guitar as drums, keys and male vocals join in. A catchy and poppy sound but mathy. Piano as well here. A calm before 2 1/2 minutes with piano and faint sounds as quiet vocals return. It kicks back in before 3 minutes. Kind of a cool track. Different. "Two Moons" has some beautiful guitar melodies to start and more. Drums just before 2 minutes as it starts to build.

The next two tracks are parts one and two called "I Can't Hear Mosquitone Anymore" totalling less than 5 minutes combined. Sounds like vibes here along with piano and the second part is more of the same but a different shade. Vocal melodies around 1 1/2 minutes are brief. "Night" is one of my favourites. Some nice drum work to start then it settles in. Love how this sounds. Vibes and synths in this one as well. "Goodbye" has pleasant picked guitar for about 1 1/2 minutes then it kicks in some. Female vocal melodies 2 minutes in. Excellent sound to this one. Some interesting drum work 4 1/2 minutes in. Catchy stuff.

"You Go" has intricate guitar and beats. Some brief vocals 2 1/2 minutes in. A bright catchy tune. "Our Next Movement" is another highlight for me. This one has the guest horns on it and they arrive quickly with beats and intricate guitar lines. Some amazing drum work here as well and it dominates until 3 1/2 minutes in when they stop and a horn returns. Not for long though as it all kicks back in. Nice. "Long Tomorrow" ends it with picked guitar only to start. It kicks in before a minute with a full sound. Catchy and complex.

A solid 4 stars and I wish I had picked up some of their other studio albums back in the day.

Report this review (#2025779)
Posted Saturday, September 15, 2018 | Review Permalink
Kempokid
COLLABORATOR
Prog Metal Team
4 stars Toe's debut impressed me with its lovely mix of math rock's complexity with the twinkly guitars that can be found in Midwest emo, ultimately making an album that managed to be both frenetic, yet soothing. With this in mind, I went into For Long Tomorrow with high expectations, wondering what the band would do to further refine their sound. What I found was an album that felt like a step forward and a step back at the same time, creating an album that had more variety, largely thanks to the guest vocals utilised throughout, yet the album also feels as if it lacks that perfect contrast between 2 opposing feels that drew me into their debut so much, leaving the quality more or less the same to me.

Just like with their first album, Toe kick this one off with a track that begins sounding very glitchy and unusual before slowly revealing its sense of structure, before kicking into track 2, which is full of extremely tight instrumentation paired nicely with excellent drumming. This track is relatively short, but definitely sets up the album very nicely, being overall more mellow without being completely toothless, which is fairly representative of the album as a whole. After Image is one of my personal favourite moments here as a whole, the soft vocal melodies being nothing short of beautiful, made even better once the guitar begins following this same melody to create a burst of dense, yet lush greatness. This sense of variety is maintained by the energy present in track 4, the drumming being absolutely pinpoint while simultaneously being absolutely breakneck, which is made even more prominent once the electric guitars briefly kick in to increase the tempo significantly, making for a very dynamic and engaging track. Say It Ain't So takes the sound to an interesting place, sacrificing most of the complexity in favour of a simple, catchy riff backed by equally lovely vocals to create a more conventional song, which genuinely works quite well, given how its tone and atmosphere isn't a far cry from other tracks on the album.

Many of the other tracks tend to be somewhat more standard in the context of the band, with varying degrees of success, the 2 part track being one of my personal favourites based on the progression that can be seen between the 2, the latter being more chaotic in its composition, with the drumming suddenly becoming extremely high hat, providing a suitable change while still staying firmly within the confines of the album. My one big issue with this album stems from its final three tracks, at which point I feel that the band ran out of steam, with none of them having anywhere near the same inspiration for me as the rest, which genuinely weakens the overall experience significantly, knowing that it all just fizzles out at the end. These aren't necessarily bad by any means, simply lacking in anything to make them truly great, inoffensive across the board.

Overall, I feel relatively similar about this album as I do about Toe's first, that it's a lovely, mellow math rock album that begins to wear thin by the end. The relative lack of intensity this has compared to the debut is also a bit of a disappointment, but is balanced out nicely by the variety this album possesses, especially with the vocals on certain tracks really keeping things fresh. I honestly wouldn't recommend one of these albums to listen to first over the other, as both definitely have their strengths and weaknesses, but are overall great, making both options valid ones.

Best tracks: After Image, Track 4, Track 7 and 8

Weakest tracks: You Go, Our Next Movement, Long Tomorrow

Verdict: Wonderful twinkly math rock that is able to contain the complex heart of the genre while seamlessly blending it with lovely melody, overall a high quality album, despite is falling short by the end.

Report this review (#2312965)
Posted Thursday, February 6, 2020 | Review Permalink

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