brianduffyhasabigbrain

Modified Toy Orchestra can best be described as the ‘Pre-school Kraftwerk’. The audience at the Town Hall were greeted by five smartly-dressed men in black suits and shirts, in front of a row of keyboards and video screens. The only difference to the German keyboard operatives is the selection of plastic toys that are scattered across the stage. MTO are proponents of ‘circuit bending’; using adapted electronic toys to make weird and wonderful noises into electronic pop music. This gig was the UK première of MTO’s new ‘Plastic Planet’ album. On first hearing, many of the tracks are much more accessible and ‘poppy’ than their first ‘Toygopop’ album, which suffered from being too experimental at times. The only departure this evening is a noisy interlude using two Casio keyboards that had been linked together in, what seemed to be, an homage to ‘The Human Centipede’. The band were clearly surprised and delighted at the reception the new stuff received.