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Underground > Radio & Music >

Tripping on Twink

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

14:17 / 12.12.06

I've just spent the last half-hour wandering through fields of Twink.

This was actually introduced to me by a friend years ago, but I conveniently forgot the artist name and occasionally wondered about that crazy album with the cartoon bunny on the cover.

Thanks to Electrix's link to the Elephant Orchestra in the Convo section, I re-stumbled upon Twink, and I'm very happy I did.

Not the Pink Fairies drummer, by the way.

Essentially, he's a modern electronic composer on the pop end of the spectrum, but relying almost exclusively on toy pianos and other kid-album staples to shape the music's sound. It's a gimmick, aye, but there's songwriting chops underneath the surface interest that the instrumentation provides.

The whole thing brings to mind (maybe obviously) Raymond Scott, with his reliance on whimsical instrumentation, and some of the crazed energy of good ol' Spike Jones. That in turn leads me to some freewheeling lines being drawn to Soul Coughing, and I can almost hear Mike Doughty mutter-singing over top of some of these tracks.

It's Twink's latest album, The Broken Record, that I'm looking forward to most -- it's up on eMusic, so I'll be snagging it in about three days -- a mash-up album of children's music, and the samples provided on the Twink site (per link above) are pretty impressive. "Pussy Cat" is excellent. I was thinking this would be a listen-once and toss some links up on a blog as interesting diversions, but I think there's serious listening potential here.

There are probably other toy-instrument bands out there, but I'm not familiar with them. Anyone else listen to Twink? Any predecessors that merit a great music hunt?

Hydra vs Leviathan

11:11 / 13.12.06

This is probably going way, way off-topic, but i can't resist the coincidence... i saw this thread just after reading this on the first page of the "Lyrics O' Your Life 2006" thread in Conversation:

I love little pussy her coat is so warm,
And if I don’t hurt her she’ll do me no harm.
I’ll sit by the fire and give her some food.
And pussy will love me because I am good.

--"I Love Little Pussy," Little Marcy

and, well, i haven't actually heard it, but, well, i know (roughly) what (i'm not sure, frankly, if i should say "who") Little Marcy is: basically, a hideous thing from the Bible Belt of America, consisting of a talking/singing puppet, voiced presumably by some unwitting small child, which "made" records of traditional and made-up Christian children's songs, probably to raise money for some religious organisation. "Wholesome family entertainment" that's a perfect candidate for the "Gleeshusheesh" (or whatever it's called) thread...

so, i'm imagining, if that lyric being sung sounds how i expect it to sound (creepily, almost-unbelievably innocent-yet-sinister), it being sampled over some really twisted, dark (think, like, Squarepusher meets Alec Empire meets KMFDM or something) electronica...

if Twink sounds remotely like something like that would sound, then i'm all over it. It probably doesn't, tho...

On a totally different tip, i believe the melodica, which the hugely influential Augustus Pablo pioneered the use of in reggae, and used to make some of the most eerie and spiritually transcendent instrumental music ever (IMO), was originally a children's toy instrument, and was laughed at as a gimmick when first used. If so, that's pretty amazing, and i'd love to have been one of the kids who got given one when they were just a kiddie novelty...

17:44 / 13.12.06

I've loved toy piano every since I ran into Margaret Leng Tang, who makes beautiful music. She was on NPR, I think, and then showed up on a 6ths album, and then Stephin Merritt got his own toy piano and stuck it in Magnetic Fields albums and the world became even brighter.

I got one at an auction ($45! A steal!). Well, OK, actually my *mother* got one, gave to her beloved *grandchildren* and I stole it.

It's a marvelous thing. The kids love it.

I played it on this song (by me & my friend Hairy) and this song (by the Postmarks).

Twink amazes me, though. I love the gallery on that website (although I'm not sure those "hurdy-gurdy" toys are really hurdy gurdies.

Hydra vs Leviathan

10:40 / 14.12.06

Leng

that blasphemous sound of eldritch piping that drifts across the cold and desolate plateau where dwells the high priest with no name? ; )

13:49 / 14.12.06

She plays Philip Glass. On the toy piano.

And she recorded the Moonlight Sonata. And dedicated it to Schroeder.

She rules, eldritch plateau or no eldritch plateau.

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

14:00 / 14.12.06

I have a Cage-by-Leng album at home -- the name escapes me -- but it didn't even occur to me as I was writing up the Twink thing, because they work in such different spheres.