There are very few bands that can pull off dissonant vocals.  TONER pulls them off.  This fuzzed-out, LA style lofi pop lp is a gem reminiscent of Day Wave or Wavves.

Silk Road is TONER’s sophomore effort and is full of overdriven chorus pedals, dissonant vocals and washed out, warbly drum kits, moving away from the group’s bedroom recordings of Killing Pace, which was more reminiscent of Isn’t Anything era My Bloody Valentine. Silk Road was engineered and produced by David Kelling of Culture Abuse.  Which gets more apparent as the album progresses. 

’95 Slow kicks off the album with warm fuzzy hooks and a distinctly detuned vocal track.  The entire track feels like it was recorded to cassette, then dropped into a bathtub, left for a few hours and then handed to you, soaking wet. This goes on for the next couple tracks, Smoov, and Heaven’s Blade almost blend into one song on first listen, creating a hazed out dreamy daze, broken by a standout track Dark Ecstasy.  This is where the album starts to really shine and David Kelling’s influence starts to certainly show up. 

The initial part of this album is good, first three tracks.  And I find it interesting that the band kinda front loaded tracks that had similar sounds to their previous album.  It’s almost like the first three tracks could be a ep of sorts.  But it works.  After Heaven’s Blade this kind of warm washy thing dies down and, each track has a distinct sound, for the most part, and TONER’s “blown out full-band” sound starts to come together. 

Still Warm and Cherry Plaza both sound amazing with a hint of Ty Segall, just a little bit.  I’ve always enjoyed when bands can take tones from certain eras and make them their own.  TONER does this quite well with Always on Time, which takes that 80s college rock sound and adds a bit of fuzz to it.     

Silk Road comes in at about 20 minutes, which I think is too short and am looking forward to hearing more.  Overall, Silk Road is worth a buy. In fact, I recommend getting it on tape. It’s like a weighted blanket of fuzzy warm tone.   

7.3

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https://soundcloud.com/ostrich-v-emu/toner-dark-ecstasy