Toy + Charlie Boyer and the Voyeurs + Novella

Kings Cross Scala 12^th February 2013

Toy hit the Scala tonight as tour-hardened veterans of their debut album campaign. However, before they can demonstrate their current state of wonderfulness we are entertained by Novella and Charlie Boyer and the Voyeurs.

Novella are a delight. They commence with feedback and produce a pleasantly shoegazey guitar noise which is underpinned by the bassist’s McCartneyesque bass lines. The tunes are ethereal and understated, and on the last song one of the guitarists elicits howls of feedback from her Les Paul which by this stage is hanging behind her back. Everything about this band is ‘just so’. There is nothing that is overblown, wasted or ill-considered. One to watch.

Unfortunately this is more than can be said for Charlie Boyer And The Voyeurs. As the former members of Joe Lean And The Jing Jang Jong now residing in Toy could confirm, bands with ‘humorous’ names are often a bit shit, and Charlie….. (no, let’s call them CBV – I really can’t bring myself to type all of that out again), CBV do fall into that category. Charlie marches onto the stage and immediately demands “more slapback”. This results in him sounding like an overly tinny Marc Bolan. If the guitarist put as much effort into his playing as he clearly has in applying his make-up he’d give Jimmy Page a run for his money. The bass player sounds as if his strings are a thousand years old and the drummer might as well have soggy cardboard boxes for drumskins. They have a keyboard player too. He’s pretty much inaudible, but he does jump around enthusiastically. Which is nice.

They start off all motorik, a bit like a Toy mini-me, but without the necessary chops to carry it off. Mid-set their material is reminiscent of stodgy Britpop, whilst the closing song returns to the motorik approach. They attempt what in the olden days was known as a ‘freak-out’ to close, but banging away on one chord ad infinitum doesn’t really do it for anyone. There’s simply not enough going on. I can’t help wondering how they got on the bill? Maybe they’re mates with the promoter.

Occasionally you see a band who seem to instinctively know that their moment has arrived, and Toy certainly give off that vibe tonight. They open with “Colours Running Out” and immediately sound majestic. Nothing is too overdriven but the music feels as if it could take you to another galaxy. Despite the Krautrock comparisons however, this is very much English music. Tom Dougall’s vocals recall Syd Barratt and Nick Drake and are modest and understated.

This is in marked contrast to the music which swirls and swooshes and spirals but never quite gets out of control. Each song feels like an adventure to an unknown and unexplored destination. This adventurousness reflects the ambition of the album. However, they play a new song which stretches that ambition further still, with bars of differing length and time signature changes.

Perhaps in order to sweeten the pill the new song is followed by “Heart Skips A Beat”, which is the closest Toy get to pop, They close with “Kopter”, which is gradually achieving the status of their masterpiece so far. Like “Common People” by Pulp, it gradually increases in speed and intensity till it reaches its climax, which Tom Dougall marks by kicking over his amp and throwing his guitar into the drum kit. There is no encore.