In a similar vein to 2003's original 'Toolshed' EP, by turns sinister, pulsating, throbbing, foreboding and uplifting, Toolshed's self-titled debut LP is like nothing you've ever heard before - with knobs on.
Call it Komiche-freakout-spacerock, call it avant-freejazz-opera, call it what you want, but one thing that it most certainly is not is music to have on in the background. This is music for the fully engaged only.
Borne out a new outhouse backyard studio following the birth of his son, Graham Massey's Toolshed were formed as a houseband at Manchester's seminal club night of the same name some 6 years ago - which hosted a wide variety of acts over it's five year residency, including Autechre, Matthew Herbert, Add N (to X), Liela Arab, Kruder and Dorfmiester, Broadcast, and Squarepusher.
Not merely content with having redefined dance music with 808 State, Graham Massey steers the good ship Toolshed into uncharted music territories. Comprising various members of Homelife along with a host of other musical mavericks, Toolshed grew into a psych-jazz-techno-orchestra, culminating at one point in a 28 piece big band performance commissioned for a three day workshop alongside Nitin Sawney at The Contact Theatre - including a huge brass section culled from the Royal Northern College Of Music as well as a string quartet.
The band have since performed special one-offs as a 14-piece multi-drummer brass heavy unit as documented on several tracks on the album.
With a firm backbone of composition (largely from Massey's Cubase, but not averse to a bit of Morricone, Duke Ellington or Sun Ra), Toolshed are ready to give a much-needed jolt in the arm and ass to a formulaic music business that doesn't know whether it's coming or going. Think school orchestra let loose in the chemistry lab, under the tutelage of Professor Massey.
(Biography by Twisted Nerve)
Website: http://www.tool-shed.com
