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Toypop, toy-music, musique du jouet :  music made with toy instruments

If it were only that simple, then there would be no point in making this list. In my experience of engaging with this beautiful little niche crafted across different pockets of the world (often in collaboration with one another) I had begun to notice how this simple choice in aesthetic could expand beyond such parameters. As narrow as it would seem to be, I feel there is something here that is truly unique. As familiar as the sounds of a toy piano and glockenspiel are to one another, I never really tire of that metallophonic clang. The acknowledgement of nostalgia and the childlike wonder that inhabits a lot of the following songs is where I drew most inspiration for my choices, though I will admit to a sort of aleatoric application of curation.

Frank Pahl

...and his tools of trade

What I see in this genre is an experimental form of pop music that is versatile enough to stretch far enough where it would not sound out of place in the more academic couching of jazz and classical. The instruments are atonal in of themselves, lending themselves nicely to these environments, while also reflecting a sort of whimsy and baked in surrealism.

Or serialism, I dunno. The field of electroacoustics also make some cameos, given that the amplification of these instruments might deem it necessary to work in the field. A very organic ambient is created through these methods, contrasting with the out-of-control rush of compilation mainstays Twink and Dragibus. An emergent movements influencing one another from region-to-region, scene-to-scene.

From left-to-right:
Klimperei (fr), Shugo Tokumaru (jp), Madame Patate (fr), itoken (jp)

 This avant/exp nature is where I draw the line for some inclusions. As much as I like Self's all toy cover of "What a Fool Believes" or the toy-organ pop triumph of "Tally Ho!" I just don't think they fit the scene I'm covering here. Same goes for stuff that came before 80s cassette culture where I believe the movement germinated and later spread out from. The influences that go beyond toy experiments of composers such as Alvin Curran and John Cage would be either too obvious or too subjective from artist to artist to really pare down.

We can go over specification and whether or not "Toypop" itself is an appropriate name but, for now, let's enjoy some tunes.

THE ULTIMATE (TOY)BOX SET

Little Bang Theory - Elementary 2008, Acidsoxx Musicks	Toy Suite #3 (6:56) Nothing gets a party started like a 7 minute opus. I figured this would be the best track to really break in new listeners to the world of toypop, training the ear for what's to come so to speak. A good litmus, if they don't like this one (a very meticulously crafted composition consisting of a variety of toy instruments) it's hard to say if they are likely to enjoy the rest of what's to follow. Here's hoping!	doug shimmin, frank pahl, terri sarris (toys,etc.)
David Fenech - Polochon Battle 2007, In-Poly-Sons	Polochon Battle (3:49) Pretty much half the length of the opener, this track is a sly little thing. Instead of making use of traditional toy instruments as previous, it makes music out of toys. In this case, a ping-pong ball. Perhaps a bit unorthodox of a choice but I've had this one in mind since the beginning of this endeavor to show the radical contrasts and range of application one can work with in this arena. In this case the toys make a great percussive accompaniment to the sputtering synths and organs.	everything and the kitchen sink
Look de Bouk Lacrimae rerum 1985, Ayaa 2001, In-Poly-Sons	Tracte-Moi Bien (1:57) One of the secret seminal groups of the 80s RIO scene, along with the likes of Hobbs' Officer!. A distinct aspect of these two groups is their playfulness, which is how Look de Bouk finds their way here. Toytown minimal electro avantprog music, just rolls off the tongue. It also helps that one of the members went on to form In-Poly-Sons.	kwettap ieuw, diddier pietton, denis tagu, etienne himalaya
Pascal Comelade El Primitivismo 1987, DSA 2015, DiscMedi	Sweet Little Sixteen (1:26) I thought that this sweet, little, err--longer than sixteen second track would be a nice little introduction to Mr. Comelade's musical galaxy. Much sparse than what is usual, but a lot can be gleaned from this simple instrumental: A rock'n'roll classic rendered unto a toy instrument. Pascal is no stranger to covers, and this is no comparison to his more audacious ones (especially the ones that feature a plastic straw as an instrument).	you'll be seeing him a lot
Pascals Abiento 2003, DSA	Mayday (3:02) From the man himself, to his followers. Well, I mean, I guess they are his followers. Check the name. And listen to the music, soak it in. This is a wonderful example of this obscure genres somehow global reach, a Japanese ensemble named and styled after the genre's foremost composer. Great, great stuff. This track sets a different tone, more towards the ambient and pastoral languidity.
Tanoshii Ongaku Panorama Camera 1985, Kurichan Record 2017, Super Fuji Discs	サイクル・サイクリング (1:03) One of the more elusive groups on this list, and I mean that with conviction. I don't believe there are any pictures of the group proper, which only adds to the mystique in my opinion. Otherworldly music, not too far from a picky picnic with Uncle Calvin. In the end I find that this particular group's brand of whimsey fits in here more than those ones.
Twink Supercute! 2004, Mulatta	Glowstick Garden (3:19) This project was a tough one to think on. While undeniable in their activites in the field such as appearing in compilations, etc. I couldn't feel that I could gel their music into the mold I wanted to. I faced the same conundrum later on with (spoiler!) Dragibus who were exactly in the same spot in my mind. These essential groups to the toypop scene have such a different aesthetic approach to the genre that I have to respect it. This track is no exception, a kaleidoscope of fun trick noisemakers.	Mike Langlie and his trusty toy piano
Beresford, Homler, Sanderson Berlin Toy Bazaar 2012, Linear Obssessional	Marmolodics Wink of Toast Mitten In [6:39] Now here's an oddball choice. I might have found this by looking up 'toy' on discogs or somewhere but it fits the glove completely. Well, sort of. A very abstract sense of toy-music, less focused on the nostalgics and more on the textures. I would say there is a fine line between this and the works and collaborations of Martin Klapper, where the latter just wouldn't fit on this already sort of uneven list. I feel this electroacoustic improv holds a lot of surprising similarities, and sometimes you need to put a few tracks together to see the full picture.	Beresford, Homler, and Sanderson (no pic of them together?)
F.S. Blumm meets Luca Fadda 2007, Ahornfelder	Achim and Giovi (1:51) Carrying over a bit of the electroacoustic stylings of the previous tracks and again also in the jazz idiom, this shorter track is a bit more playful. I especially like how the very beginning of the track just juts in and shifts the mood a bit.	just chillin
Yuko Ikoma Esquisse 2007, Wind Bell	Moderato (2:12) Music boxes, maybe the first twinge of inspiration for a good amount of the artists in the scene. One might think, at least. Many people's first direct engagements with music happen with this magical little crank box, and in this context it is simply enchanting. Just for a little while. With ambiance, for good measure.	Concertina, I think
Miroque Siro Coccon 2007, 360° Records	Nuuskamuikkunen (1:44) Another genre that comes up when trying to place a toypop release I seem to see a bunch is folktronica. I find it interesting (although I'm reaching a bit cause this isn't tagged as that) because there does seem to be a folktronic scene of sorts in Japan that really seems to go for the more meditative and introspective aspects of the sound. This blend seems to find its way to toypop due to the artists in the scene having a willingness to branch out and use a wide variety of instruments to feature in their ambient tunes. In the case of Miroque, she labels her music a bunch of different terms, most appropriately in this case "Milanorka", which is inspired by the animation where a certain character within the song's title is owed.	cassiopia?
John Morton Outlier: New Music for Music Boxes 2001, Innova	White Tara (4:43) It might be a bit surprising, but this is the disc that first sprung to my mind to start a list about toy-music. I saw it at the library and it got me thinking about how far the label could go. Listening back, I'm still sort of amused that an austere, contemporary classical (kinda) release wouldn't be too out of place sandwiched between Klimperei tracks. Like Moderato, it takes advantage of the music box to achieve a beautiful little ditty, accompanied by a piano.	read!
itoken ブックストア 2004, 360° Records	Home & Garden Cleaning The Living Room Backyard Design Bathroom Planner Paint Your House [13:47] Oh yes, the homemade suite. I stitched together a bunch of tracks from the middle of this album and uploaded it to everyone's favorite online video service. Like the Bazaar before, it was too difficult for me to choose one track and have it flow right so I decided to just cede to what I had done before. I like the result, in fact this is probably my favorite album featured here.	a bit self-explanatory
Pascal Comelade Traffic d'abstraction DSA, 1993	Promenade des schizophrènes (6:20) This was a late replacement, but not too far from home: it was originally going to be the opening track Arthur Cravan Was A Flor Fina. When I listened back to the tune, a great one to be sure but it doesn't really have much to do with the rest of the list. So, I went with the little epic of mini-pianos and singing saws.	....
Madame Patate Petits mues 2018, Self-Released	Gothic PikuNiku (1:41) I bought this album, so you know I had to squeeze it in here. A dandy little slice of ambient toypop, with the best use of a cricket sounding thing since '81.	(with klimperei)
Klimperei Sucres d'Orge 1989, Underground Productions	Ça pétille les yeux (3:43) The picture is a cassette, but the source is CD. Funny how that happens, but I felt compelled to add some K7 culuture into this. It is what I'm associated with after all, and that is where a good amount of this scene found fertile ground, at least in Europe. Another thing I noticed when making this box set is that I usually chose either opening tracks or the ones following them. I thought very loose and weakly about this and came to the conclusion that these are usually the more mellow parts of their respective albums and also tend to be less transitional and thus reliant on the music surrounding them in the listing. Or I was too lazy to give it a damn relisten before choosing what to put on here. I think either case may be valid, personally.	looks familiar
Scavenger Quartet We Who Live On Land 2005, Acidsoxx Musicks	Marvelous Argonaut (3:52) I wrestled with this one for a second, despite the obvious connections with Mr. Pahl as part of the four-piece. Narrowing down which track with an adjective describing a sea creature was hard enough, finding the relevance to the genre proper was something else. It came down to the first two tracks (go figure) and I might still feel the second track has more toy to it, but at the end of it all it's deciding between two great instrumentals. Love this album, one enchanting wordless shanty after another. A mechanical sailor's clipper, I'd say.	a power quartet
Dragibus Papriko 1999, In-Poly-Sons	By'n By (1:49) This one caused a bit of a delay in the project when it was reaching its finishing stage (along with another track later on). As I forewarned about in the Twink entry, Dragibus was a bit of an issue in terms of inclusion. They have a prominent presence in the scene, but I could never find a track which could hit the spot for my tastes. That is, until I bumped into this one on Youtube. So much so, I went through the trouble of ordering the CD so I could get a good quality copy. A really, really pleasant piece of their hyperactive world.	all a group needs
Pierre Bastien Mecanoid 2001, Rephlex	Avid Diva (4:25) The folk music of the robots. Or jazz. Bastien's mechanisms are always a joy to listen to and to watch. It's less that he plays toy instruments, rather his toys play his instruments. Also it took me transferring this file to realize that it's a palindrome.	the man behind the machines
Frank Pahl Back of Beyond 2003, Novel Cell Poem	Good Old Days (3:01) This one is pastoral as hell. Pahl really has an individual knack, bringing an unusual flavor to the font, meshing classical americanisms to craft a unique aesthetic that can be found in all of his works. Even the stuff that has very minimal toy accompaniment, like Only a Mother. Yeah, I might need to buy this disc too just so I can blow up that album cover and hang it on my ceiling or something.	Pahl with his other tools of trade
Pierre Bastien & Lukas Simonis Mots d'Heures 2002, In-Poly-Sons	Myades Sounds Turkish (3:20) This one never stops, til it reaches the end. Not too dissimilar to the previous Bastien track but different enough to showcase another side to his mechanical universe. Less subdued, more active. His toys of choice syncopating a rhythm against Simonis' preparations.	bastien, at work               simonis, with stuff on his face
ammakasie noka MOIRA'S ROOM 2003, Novel Cell Poem	Three Moiras (1:46) In all honesty, this project sort of gives me the creeps. Not sinking-in-my-seat-covering-in-my-eyes-in-horror kind of scary, but a sort of childhood eeriness. Kind of like when I played the Gregory Horror Show game on PS2, it seems to reside in those sort of dark cel-shaded halls where who knows what prowls about. But it has a place here, certainly.
Klimperei Tout seul sur la plage en hiver 1990, Ayaa 2001, In-Poly-Sons	Globatures (1:42) Also the disc where I got the other Klimperei track from, but this one is original to it. Maybe. Anyway, another pretty little ditty from Mr. Deleted himself, an interesting topic itself would Christophe's Del days. Having listened to a healthy amount of both projects (including pinches of Los Paranos [a reference to the band featured in Pynchon's TCoL49]) an intersection is evident at some points, at least in terms of arrangement. But they all have their own distinct identities and are all worth looking out for, so why not just go to their nice and comprehensive archive and Bandcamp pages and see for yourself?	is there an image that captures the movement better?
Comelade, Bastien, Berrocal, Liebezeit The Oblique Sessions 1997, DSA	Ant' Waltz (1:26) A real meeting of the minds here. The aforementioned in Bastien and Comelade paired with the rhythmic brilliance of Jaki and the glorious insanity of Berrocal. In this instance we have Pascal on the regular ol' piano while Pierre plays second fiddle (handsaw?) to Jac's toy piano. Berrocal is no stranger to musique avec jouets in his very prolific career, but here in rare form a more melodic context rather than a textural improvisation. much love, rip jaki	these guys mean business
Mami Chan Band Live! 2001, Fresh Air	Oiseu (2:45) This was the other album that I had ordered just so I could put it on here. I think it's a great way to put a bit of a bow on the project before the finale, a multi-national production crafting together a beautiful piece of unnerve fronted by the gone far too soon Mami Chan and backed up by Stock, Hausen, and Walkman's Andrew Sharpley along with Emiko Ota among others.	❤️
Frank Pahl & Klimperei Music For Desserts 2001, In-Poly-Sons	Almond Rock Cakes Papillons [6:44] Here it is: the last foray. Two more pieces of pie before bedtime, a culmination of all that has come before. Originally I was just going to put the Almond track here, but in the end I decided to throw in the following tune as a sort of epilogue. Also helps offset the intensity (for toypop) of the song and help bring things to a close. That's what I call a happy ending.	apparently they've never met in person, so this'll have to do
	ENJOY

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