Today has been (another) good day for soldering my fingers although it was, for a change, a turntable that caused me to wonder why there was a smell of burning flesh in the air. Things being what they were turning out to be, some music was needed to distract me from my pain and, on the cassette deck, was this unassumingly packaged – black cassette in a clear case - little gem released on the Glasgow label CUSP Records.
How to describe the music of Order of the Toad? I had seen them perform live by chance once right back when we could all walk the street and they were, quite clearly, a band designed to pique the interest of tired ears. Their songs, if not actually bleak, are heading off on a journey along downbeat streets yet said journey is full of musical colour with from the sixties soundtrack like cues and antique dancefloor moves being combined with a near mystical ability to weave changing tempos and offbeat lyrics into a cohesive oneness. As a wise man once said, cats always know which way is up and you can guarantee that cats would like this band. They are that cool.
The cassette is available from Bandcamp.