Toe GuitarIt’s probably been said before, somewhere by somebody, but the idea popped into my head spontaneously, so I’ma go with it: the best way I can think of to describe Tokyo’s toe (not to be confused with Utica’s moe., also at the Fest this year) is indie-rock instrumental jazz. Of course, there’s no section called indie-rock instrumental jazz at your local Tsutaya; they use the tag “post-rock” for such purposes. But I like my idea better.

The conceit of post-rock is to take the instruments of rock (guitar, bass, and drums) and create something much more rhythmically and harmonically complex than rock. Often there is a generous or even bulk helping of electronic glips and blops in the mix. toe’s got a smidgen of this on their latest album, For Long Tomorrow, released at the end of 2009, but what makes me think of 1960’s jazz is the attention they pay to capturing the acoustic ambiance and clean, natural and unfettered tones of all the instruments. This crisp guitar tone is where the indie rock comes in, too; guitarists Mino Takaaki and Yamazaki Hirokazu play the main themes of the compositions, picking and jangling along like Pavement being thrown onstage at Newport.

The real jazz touch though is the total abandon with which drummer Kashikura Takashi plays. Though he is not the band leader, he is, to extend the jazz metaphor, the principle soloist. They’ve been compared to the American groups Pele and The Album Leaf, but Takashi lifts them beyond those great purveyors of mood and into a more rarefied domain.Toe Drum

(I know I harp on drums and drumming in half the posts I write, but seriously, it’s not just me this time: 75% of the reviewers at Rate Your Music go on and on about the drumming too.)

toe first appeared at Fuji in ‘07, with a mid-afternoon set at the White Stage. This clip showcases singer Toki Asako, a daughter (literally) of Japanese jazz and the former singer of pop/rock/Shibuya-kei band Cymbals. This is a one-time appearance with toe for her; most of their songs don’t have vocals, and the original EP version of this song has one of the fellas singing. She is on the version on the new album, recorded long after this appearance, so maybe she’ll come out again this year. (The dude wasn’t bad, but Toki’s got a little something special if you ask me—her singing on this clip grabs me in one of the more wistful spots of my heart. Also, toe have appeared on at least one of her songs.)

Aside from these prominent vocals and a few more sounds (electronic and otherwise) at the margins, the band have thankfully not started to deviate much from their winning formula. Dip into their catalogue at any point and you’re bound to come away feeling dreamy, amazed, or both, depending on what lifts your luggage.

-Kern

Photos respectively by yoshitaka and keco, courtesy of Smashing Mag