(Get Rhythm, Vol 2, #15 - December 2005)

TOOLSHED - TOOLSHED

WWW.TWISTEDNERVE.CO.UK

In order to review an album properly the reviewer ideally has to give the music time and space for opinions to form. If at first it doesn't gel, listen, listen again. Toolshed has been listened to in the partial daze of sleep whilst in bed where it scared the life out of me. In the bath I found I had to submerge my head to escape it's sinister, foreboding heart. Travelling around, mixed with the extraneous noises of people and traffic didn't help either, the throb and pulse of the music only served to increase anxiety and shorten my fuse. Time and time again, coming at the album in every way possible, the joy of listening to Toolshed has been completely lost on me.

So what's Toolshed all about? Here are some facts. Toolshed is steered by Graham '808 State' Massey through the barely charted musical waters of psych-jazz-techno-orchestra. Collaborating with mavericks like Homelife, Nitin Sawney and Matthew Herbert. Toolshed are intent on injecting the formulaic music business a much-needed jolt in the arm.

The band have performed special one-off shows with jazz violinist Graham Clark lending a discordant bow alongside many others in a 14 piece brass heavy unit which stamps its presence on many tracks across the album.

Toolshed is described as `nothing you've heard before' which is very true and very difficult to put into context. It's experimental and not dance, it's composition and not free form. Call it freakout-spacerock, call it avant-jazz-opera, call it what you like but one thing it most certainly is not, is music to play in the background.

Matt Young