Described by Mute magazine as a “national treasure” Brian is the artist leader of the acclaimed MODIFIED TOY ORCHESTRA and member of the Sinclair Spectrum Orchestra. Brian is a NESTA Fellow and impossibly clever. He first worked for Stan composing the soundtracks for two of the company’s youth theatre shows, No Walls, Just Doors and Adult Child/Dead Child before moving onto the radio piece So Bring Me Down and the coundtrack to Good and True. Brian did an exceptional job as musical director for Lurid and Insane. Most recently he worked alongside composer Giles Perrin on the music and sound design for SONIC JOURNEY
– Brian’s bio on the Stan’s Cafe Theatre Company - Associate artists and other collaborators list.
The World of R. Buckmister Fuller, a 1974 film by Robert Snyder on UBUweb.
Buckminster Fuller was an architect, engineer, geometrician, philosopher, futurist, inventor of the famous geodesic dome, and one of the most brilliant thinkers of his time. His legacy becomes ever more relevant, providing us a road map to steer our planet away from oblivion and toward a sustainable future for all humanity. This film by Oscar-winning filmmaker Robert Snyder, like his other documentaries on “the greats” (Michelangelo, Henry Miller, Willem de Kooning, Pablo Casals, among others), transports the viewer into Fuller’s mind and soul. Told entirely in his own words, the film is an intimate, personal and inspiring message from Fuller to our fragile world. 85 min
MTO live at the Rites of Spring: Ikon Music Festival
Thursday 7, Friday 8 and Saturday 9 April, 7–11pm
Ikon Eastside, 183 Fazeley Street, Digbeth, Birmingham B5 5SE
Ikon presents Rites of Spring, a special festival of live music taking place 7-9 April 2011 at Ikon Eastside, Digbeth.
Modified Toy Orchestra, Martin Creed and his band and Fyfe Dangerfield headline the three-night festival, which showcases a pick of emerging folk, pop and electronic talent from Birmingham and further afield.
The Lineup:
Thursday 7 April
Modified Toy Orchestra
epic45
Shady Bard
Poppy Tibbetts
Friends of the Stars
Friday 8 April
Martin Creed and his band
David Cunningham
Matmos (video set)
Is I Cinema
Arc Vel
Saturday 9 April
Fyfe Dangerfield
Lulu and the Lampshades
Boat to Row
Young Runaways
Timothy Parkes
Doors open 7pm
First act 7.30pm
Headline act 10pm
TICKETS
£12 (£10 students with valid NUS card) per night or £30 (£27) for all three nights.
MTO on Mark Riley
The Modified Toy Orchestra will be in session for Mark Riley’s 6Music show tonight.
Planet of Rock
The tracks on the Plastic Planet album are new recordings with the current MTO lineup. They differ from the tracks on Earth One (now branded “Special Edition Plastic Planet Hong Kong”) as you’d expect given the nature of the instruments and it’s most obvious with Planet Of Rock. Enjoy.
Qwerty video (by Modified Toy Orchestra)
Finally on the Internets! I’m sure I saw this about 18 months ago at Supersonic 09. Might even have been Supersonic 08 for that matter.
Still, no need to rush things, eh Brian?
Modified Toy Orchestra live at @Supersonicfest 2006.
Fantastic cameraphone footage of the 2006 MTO lineup (including Mike “In Mono” Johnson) at that year’s Supersonic Festival.
Modified Toy Orchestra - Great Kings Fall (via arrozconhuesitos01)
Fan video using Lego recreations of classic photos. Do you see what they did there?
modified toy orchestra on french circuit bending documentry, performance at octupus festival . paris
About me
A fan-blog for Brian Duffy, his Modified Toy Orchestra, and related endeavours.
BDHABB is also on The Twitter
This blog has no connection with Brian Duffy, Warm Circuit or anything like that. It's a homage, a monument of love. We love you Brian.
"Brian Duffy, award winning sound artist and creator of the Modified Toy Orchestra, has been at the forefront of a world wide underground movement called circuit bending which involves rescuing childrens electronic toys from car boot sales, and converting them into new strange and wonderfully sophisticated musical instruments. Taking them apart, he finds new connections hidden within each toys circuits that reveal new sounds, exposing the surplus value of redundant technology. The toys are then reassembled including switches and dials with which to control this surplus value. The results of this process can be shockingly beautiful, funny and extreme and have led to Brian being labeled a genius, a madman, and a national treasure."
