October 24, 2024

Toe and Swallow The Rat – Galatos: October 22, 2024

Toe are wha/four Japanese musicians, who formed, or at least started producing mathy post-rock around 2000, releasing since 2002. The line up of Yamazaki Hirokazu (acoustic guitar), Mino Takaaki (electric guitar), Kashikura Takashi (Drums) and Yamane Satoshi (Bass) has stayed unchanged since inception.

Toe However time has seen Toe transmute from no-holds-barred math rock, to incorporate electronica, avant-garde structuralism, minimalism and more recently, a move away from instrumentalism. Incorporating vocals, in substantive feature of their latest album, Now I See The Light released earlier this year.

Toe inhabit that space between genres, betwixt scenes, and across generations, their audience at Galatos to see Toe’s debut performance in Aotearoa, is seemingly drawn from eclectic jazz aficionados, ratiocinative metal heads, and cultural ethno-musical academics. Tonight’s show is sold out, yet many in the audience are strangers to me, yes I korero with members of Swallow The Rat, sight the singer from Memory Foam, and bump into a handful of fellow concert abusers, tonight’s masses are not the usual suspects.

Swallow The Rat

Swallow The Rat are already onstage, and are energized as they plow through a set of current waiata, with songs from 2023’s South Locust sounding cardinal. The full house of people who possibly have never seen Swallow The Rat deliver Americana Post-Punk before, rapidly warm up to the offerings, and all around me folk are swaying, being converted. It is the classic model of why sometimes, support slots (notoriously poorly paid, can pay dividends in other forms. Never one to miss a Swallow The Rat show, I am vindicated in efforts to get to the gig early.

There is a lot of piddling around onstage by Toe’s crew, it seems to take forever (do they really need to loosen the band’s wai/water bottle caps!) It feels like someone has forgotten to turn on the aircon, the heat is stifling. A little later, blessed are the venue bouncers who open the main doors and allow air to circulate (possibly someone finally turned on the aircon)

Toe

Toe Are welcomed to the stage with cheers, and the complexity of their rhythm come asunder immediately, were the music not so daedalian, Toe could be accused of being a Japanese Pop Band. On their 2024 album, Now I See The Light, their first since 2015, there is a comparatively large amount of vocals, and the first song, Loneliness Will Shine incorporates it.

Toe There is a minimalism that is a feature of the band’s sound, complimented smooth drumming, sultry bass, and at times dueling guitars. There is (early on at least) a jazz improvisation feel, tethered to prog-maths.

The ruma is full, but not overpacked, but still the line of sight is awful. I find myself wishing I was seeing the band at a more convivial venue, there’s no moshipit tonight, the audience stoic, and are consuming the spectacle produced by this technically adept band of wha/four.

There is little banter, but the band’s use of faux crowd sounds and neo electronica soundscapes are elements that create aural perturbation that avoid pregnant silence in the room. Just as vestiges of dreariness threaten, Toe reach back, with a single waiata, and retrieve their early sound: creative noise, punk avante-gardeism, maths-metal, in a way that genre busts the room, fucking with people’s tribal affiliations.

Toe

Around mid-set the singing returns as an almost pop tune, but the very rhythmic melodies save it from mediocrity. At times I get a Battles (infamous US Maths-Rock Group) vibe, particularly during the complex mid tempo pieces, but then here comes the Ginger Baker Project jazz style breakout, taking the audience on a Ratu/Tuesday night trip.

Many of Toe’s refrains tonight are gentle rhythmic narratives that scream for an AV of rolling images behind the ensembled four. Sadly, such emotional rollercoasters tonight require a vivid imagination and a drink too many (or similar), nay not tonight, the venue is all wrong.

Seeing Toe tonight was a privilege, they delivered all and more than what was expected. Here’s hoping if or when they return, perhaps the setting could be a little more congenial.

Simon Coffey

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Brenna Jo Gotje:

Toe: