Twink, the Toy Piano Band! Twink, the Toy Piano Band!

Review of Miniatures Volume 1 from Incendiary Magazine by Richard Foster

Barmy, but hell, you know I like it. I can imagine many who won't but the guy's knocked out six LP's worth of this stuff, so it's not one of those awful, gauche one-offs we're dealing with. No, to consistently release cutesy toy piano music needs a dedication only the most hardened shock troops possess. And with titles like "Feather Inspector" and "Third Thumb" we know we're entering a weird world that's not too far off that inhabited by other fey loons, like Japan's Ichi. I'm just hoping Twink is named after the Twink in the Pink Fairies. Now that would be some cosmic slop.

I'll be blunt; you will either love this or stick your fingers down your throat. Even when things get demented as in "Mothlight Magic" or "Spinning Fish" (which is trippy in the most microcosmic way imaginable), the toy piano holds everything together. It's a sort of Academy of Moondog kindergarten sound happening right in front of your very eyes... According to Mike, who is the chap behind Twink, it's been created with some piece of space dust called "the Yellofier iPhone app." Me neither but this information certainly adds to that early learners feel.

Some bits on here are pretty great mind; "Cake Weather" exudes a weird kind of Zen courtesy of some tinny clattering, and things get more ambient / atonal near the end; the last two tracks ("Squirrel Chase" and "Whackamole") having more of a presence about them, precisely because there's no melody to deal with.

Interesting!

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