Grapthar's Daily Hive Music Feature: toe - 'A Desert of Human'

over the next few days that are somehow related to one another, so yesterday we had LITE, and today toe, both of which are Japanese bands and on the Topshelf Records label. toe was formed in 2000 in Tokyo, and consists of Mino Takaaki (guitar), Kashikura Takashi (drums), Yamazaki Hirokazu (guitar), and Yamane Satoshi (bass guitar). They began as a more 'traditional' math-rock/post-rock band, but over the years have expanded their sound, including electronic and hip-hop elements. I love all of their music, but personally, my favorite album is their 2015 release Hear You, which was sort of the pinnacle of their genre-bending. While it has math-rock elements, they simplify a lot of the writing, which I think actually results in higher quality, more interesting songs; the complicated, proggy stuff is always fun, but writing simple, beautiful/catchy music is often a far more difficult task. This song is the most 'mathy' one on the album, and is the second track (following an intro track which is essentially just an acoustic version of the main riff here), but it's a lot more straight-forward and groovy than math-rock typically is, and is a great introduction to the rest of the album. There are vocals on this album, which was something that the band hadn't really utilized much before this point, and they're used pretty effectively, sort of just as another instrument, instead of the focal point of any one song.