It must be great being an artist like Toy Gun Cowboy. You get total free reign to sculpt your sound as best you please. That's often the reason for artists going solo. Toy Gun Cowboy (AKA Matthew Erickson) has decided, in no uncertain terms, that he is the band. "Reload", the latest offering from the Lakewood, CA experimentalist, will amuse, confuse and irritate the listener, in truly disproportionate measures.
My beef with "I Am Not a Train" is that I had to rely on the liner notes to understand what I was hearing. The fuzz-tone guitar and irritatingly distorted voices don't do anything for this writer (at least in his sober state). As for "Nothing New Under the Sun", it could well form part of a soundtrack to an adult movie. However, it could also be a perfectly standard acoustic affair. Why the vocals sound like Bowie on "Space Oddity" is beyond me. It's nothing if not confusing.
"This Is Your Captain Speaking" seems to be taking you on some sort of journey. The ice-cool rapping meets fuzzy electro noise, and, believe it or not, actually works well. However, the greatly unpleasant sound clash is again apparent on "Out of the Blue". "Death of an Atheist" and the headache-inducing "Monkey" do nothing but reinforce my previous statements.
Toy Gun Cowboy has created a truly alternative album. There is no shortage of talent in this man, but when talent is put to such misuse, it really has to be commented upon. This album is unlikely to appeal to many of you other than those with an unhealthy appetite for mind-bending narcotics and sundry other substances. For most people however, it will be a case of listen at your peril!