Sheersho Zaman
Instrumental music is something that is not as popular in this country as it is elsewhere. Even amongst the rock and metal scenes, instrumental music, especially ones which do not have killer 4 minute guitar solos, are hard to find. Even if they are found, be it from here or from abroad, it’s hard to enjoy due to most of them being rather esoteric. That is, until one discovers “toe”.
Toe is a Japanese band that formed around 2000. They are often known to create songs belonging to the instrumental rock, math rock, jazz fusion and indie rock genres. The band is composed of Kashikura Takashi on drums, Mino Takaaki on guitar, Yamane Satoshi on bass guitar, and Yamazaki Hirokazu on guitar. Though the band is still relatively unknown amongst the people in Bangladesh, but they have slowly made a name for themselves over the last 16 years internationally. It’s rather difficult to make it into the international music scene as a Japanese musician due to most songs being composed in their native language. The extent of popularity amongst the international community is often bound to the songs that were selected as a soundtrack for an anime. Though these barriers don’t particularly apply to instrumental music, instrumental music itself has its own barriers of not having enough public following to begin with. The point being made here is that, it takes something special to make it while being a Japanese band, and an instrumental one at that. That’s where toe comes in.
Toe has become popular enough so as to even sell out a stadium whilst even performing in The Regent Theater, all the way over in Los Angeles. This is not by mere luck of course. Toe has something special in their music. When looking at the musicians individually, it can be concluded that neither of the members are overwhelmingly good at their respective instruments, such as to blow everyone away with their skills (save perhaps the drummer, who actually is). The beauty of toe is how they sound together. How every single member does their own thing and how it comes together to make art that is absolutely breathtaking. It is music in its purest form, the kind of music that takes you to a faraway place, off into the clouds and through the hills. It’s almost as if the music paints pictures in your heart.
Though most of toe’s songs are instrumental, they also have a lot of them with vocals. Usually they feature various different artists to give the vocals. What’s truly amazing about the band is how tight they are live. Though there are not that many people that have had the pleasure of watching them play live due to them not touring internationally as much, people can still check their live performances out through youtube (“toe at The Regent” is one of the more popular ones).
All in all, toe is a musical experience that is perhaps not for the masses. They are different in their own way and their music is filled with passion and feeling. If you are in to that sort of thing, or even if you are not, do check them out. Let them take you on a journey with their tunes.