Article from The Eccentric City newspaper
Mr Brian Duffy’s Modified Toy Orchestra
by Harry Palmer
Deep within the circuitry of all electronic gadgets is an ever expanding world waiting to be discovered. Similar to our ancestors who stepped into the oceans daring to venture into the unknown, the exploration of sound phenomena, of a new philosophical data-stream, is currently being pioneered by Mr Duffy and his modification of toys.
The inherent potential of new sounds expressed, in part, through binary codes in toys, is revealing unexpected results and new musical arrangements. Wires are rewired differently, soldered components readapted, items removed whilst new buttons are added for example. A form of digital and analogue surgery takes place, whereby new ingredients are electro-alchemised. Unpredictably, the resultant re-functioning of Casio keyboards, Speak & Spell machines alongside an extensive range of others, step beyond the pure delight of geek-sound, but crucially reorder the mathematical relationships concerning conditioned sound and music.
What you hear are original melodies which, whilst seemingly sounding familiar and pop-like, are nonetheless performed around the world to audiences as live concerts. Having recently toured to China, the toys-as-instruments are played by a small group of musicians…
Operating as collaboration between toy modification and human interaction, what is occurring is an ongoing attempt to remove the dreadful repetition and self obsessive tendencies of many music makers and certainly those with commercial interests. The ability to distant the personal self absorption in which a melody and story concerns the same old refashioned music with a slight twist (love / hate; me-ism*), with the Modified Toy Orchestra we discover a joyful sound that no longer concentrates on self gratification. Anonymity through machinery and rare human voice and vocalised lyrics, are instead inspired by a fusion between what the machine begins to offer via re-wiring etc…, and the philosophical questions that Mr Duffy continues to explore.
As Mr Duffy explained. ‘There is a chord for happy and there is a chord for sad…You as an audience are emotionally manipulated into feeling sad for example…But there isn’t a chord for ‘optimistically looking towards the future from a point of melancholia. So where’s that chord?’.
Through curiosity, what first started as a sampling exercise to incorporate new sounds into musical composition, has since evolved into the full orchestration of new sounds through toys, bastardising the convention of western European tradition that limits a way of expression, crippling musical potential. Toys, as Mr Duffy explained, are designed for a specific purpose for a specific sound. However, through the physically investigation via tampering with toy circuitry, a new world of unheard sounds have since emerged. The question, as Mr Duffy remarks, is to challenge the understanding of his personal role, as musician and artist. Toys have now become a philosophical question whereby they are taken seriously as instruments. What started as a hobby has become a significant part of Mr Duffy’s fundamental personal quest examining his role in life. Indeed this is a pioneering project. Toys now challenge the norm and the conditions in which we ‘see’ the world around us. Ultimately, in this audio interview, Mr Duffy insists that the crucial question is ‘what are human beings for? What is our purpose?’
*Me – ism. The condition in which a person is in a constant state of self obsession that continuously focused on themselves and their apparent needs. Often as a trivial need.
-By Harry Palmer. Report 30th April 2009.
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