Toby Dammit - Top Dollar (Album Review)

 

Toby Dammit - Top Dollar

(2000)


My copy: 2000 press by Omplatton.


Toby Dammit is the alias of Larry Mullins (birth name Lawrence Crooke), who’s spent years drumming and creating music for countless artists including Iggy Pop, Swans and The Residents. Mullins also has years of experience in composing film soundtracks, a task perfectly suited to his highly expressive and imaginative style of recording. Top Dollar came in 2000 as the first solo EP by Mullins under the name Toby Dammit, and features a wide variety of odd sounds and instrumentations. 

No time is spared with “Number One Famous” as churning synth bass carries the looped drum beats through a warped carnival of sounds. Mullins makes it clear on his website that there are no samples whatsoever used on Top Dollar, rather the vocal clips were recorded and acted out live. Mullins is combining both live playing of drums with loops from a machine, resulting in a manic sounding production with intense fills pushing the track into explosive passages of psychedelic effects. It is impossible to stay still while listening to this music. Chimes, vibraphones and EQ tricks are all used to add dynamic swells to the album. 

“Jolly Coppers On Parade” starts with dense bass hits before a heavily affected drum loop breaks in, showcasing a sound more akin to electronic music albeit with a grimey, industrial aesthetic. An assortment of instruments hiss and croak like wild animals around the trance-inducing percussion - there is little in the way of melody, rather Mullins is crafting the soundtrack to some otherworldly adventure with a dense array of foreign-sounding pokes and prods. Piercing cries punctuate the most stable melody on “Malmo Nocturne (Mansson’s Theme)” with stretched and manipulated vocals. The pounding bass drum and shaker keep things feeling primitive before hand drums turn things a bit too obvious. Still, the booming timpani is imaginative enough to keep interest until the song is wrung out into another techno beat with drum loops. 

The nearly eight minute “Modus Operandi” is a highlight for feeling like a continuation of track one with a wider scope. With more patience, the pulsing drums maintain sanity as the surrounding noises are slowly stretched and built up as if the song were passing through a funhouse mirror. Hand drums appear more tastefully here before digital screams split the track into its third movement with bells and triangle accents. The song breaks itself down through EQ muting before noise bursts scatter with intensity. “Roadblocks Here And There” is a bit more calculated, now with flanged drums adding to the psychedelic aspect. Recordings of a Ferrari take over the final track as its engine revs stereoscopically from left to right, stripping the drums down to just hi-hat so that its driver can stop and piss (or wash his hands?). The theatrical recordings are evocative and creative, causing the album to feel like the soundtrack to a film that only exists in the mind of Mullins. 

For an album that doesn’t experiment with the actual structure of the music much, Top Dollar manages to drown its compositions in an endless sense of momentum: always moving forward, always adding or subtracting an aural element. This is utter ear candy. There are times where the album’s intentions waver (third and final tracks) but for a debut solo EP this is phenomenal work that is criminally overlooked. Fusing elements of several genres, Mullins has produced an intricately crafted world for which to immerse adventure-seeking listeners.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What Makes an Album Great

Image
            Great albums should leave lasting impressions, not only on those who listen as non-musicians, but also on the realm of music these albums occupy. In other words, a musical project should seek to leave some distinct mark on it's genre, to lay claim to some form of unique personality; this can often come in many forms, ranging from broad sound choices to subtle production techniques. This method for evaluating music seeks to make complacency the enemy, and forward movement the desired goal. This is not to say that all derivative albums are necessarily bad, as of course, outliers will always exist. Rather, the goal of an artist should, intrinsically, be to leave some reflection of their own condition, regardless of how relatable those emotions may or may not be. In music, this can be achieved in multiple ways, however I will focus on three aspects that I find particularly important when listening to music.      When co...
Read more

Oneohtrix Point Never - Again (Album Review)

Image
  Oneohtrix Point Never - Again (2023) My copy: 2023 limited press on orange transparent vinyl by Warp Records. Having built a strong reputation across a multitude of electronic projects, Daniel Lopatin now cashes in on his modern influence to compile what is likely his most ambitious project yet. Spanning over an hour, Again picks up where 2017’s Garden Of Delete left off, for better and for worse. Even with lush string arrangements and big-name features, Lopatin is unable to prevent Again from falling victim to some serious bloat. Anxiety immediately unravels in the orchestral “Elseware” though this introductory track quickly straightens out into a beguiling arrangement that is unlike any “typical” Oneohtrix track. The ritual “Again” then dives headfirst into Lopatin’s usual world of chittering robots and droning vocal mimicry. Things begin more explorative - descending into the depths of some synthesized hell before fading and restarting. Acoustic flourishes fester alongside...
Read more

Part Chimp - I Am Come (Album Review)

Image
  Part Chimp - I Am Come (2005) My copy: 2005 press by Rock Action Records As the millennium turned, rock music trends began to shift. In the U.S. a band called Lightning Bolt were establishing themselves as forerunners of modern noise-rock by pushing the music in increasingly weird directions. Across the pond, Mclusky were fighting the good fight with the 2002 Albini-produced Do Dallas, that wove dry, intelligent humor in between bursts of electrifying instrumental poundings. But over in London, another set of noise-crazed rockers got their start around the same time.  Part Chimp’s humor is a touch more on the nose; see album title Chart Pimp, or song title “Hitler and Jews” from the same 2002 debut. But directness is just where a band calling themselves “Part Chimp” excels. As rock began softening and going the way of the Strokes real quick, Chart Pimp offered a bastion of sludge-y rock ferocity that mostly suffered from being less able to fully capture the sheer volume ...
Read more