Tøyen
Did You Bring Me On National Television To Tell Me This Too?
Racing Junior

2003 seems to be the year of Tøyen. This area of Oslo, which is mainly populated by Asian immigrants, has all of a sudden become 'hip'. Not as in hop, but after the certain success of the movie Buddy (which is located to Tøyen), Tøyen is on, well, not on everybody's, but many a set of lips.

Then there is Tøyen: a duo with two buddies (eh, couldn't resist...), Tollef and Torstein, performing weird, wild and often wonderful pop-electronica by the use of Sony Playstation. A hard act to follow, right. Anyway the two game-boys present their second album. Rita Augestad Knudsen (of Electones), who was singing one of the EP Phone Home songs, has joined in on two of the tracks this time, and Jon Platou Selvig (Salvatore, Moon Orhestra) has been involved in the recording of the album.

Their first album was called Did You Bring Me On National Television To Tell Me This? (released in the US, by Blackbean & Placenta, 2001), and their new album is of course entitled Did You Bring Me On National Television To Tell Me This Too?.

I was introduced to their escapades for the first time via last year's EP EP Phone, and judging by the record titles it's much about humor and having a good time. Tøyen's sound is pretty exotic sounding, drifting off to Eastern parts of the world. They seem to draw inspiration from listening to/seing (I presume) Eastern (India and so), Bollywood films, and stuff like that. Presenting an amusing mix of East meets West. A collision, or coallition of 'modern' Western and 'traditional' Eastern cultures. Or, what such a mixture could be sounding like. Because, as I said, this is a humorous journey, with twists and turns inbetween "worlds" of this world.

Last time they had the entertaining "India Pinidia". This time they present "Paksistan", which is a far more 'serious' song. Tøyen has got plenty of charm, even though things tend to get a bit too over the top, slightly too corny. Best songs are: the catchy opener "1 of a kind", the slightly Kraftwerk-poppy "(The) Face", "Oason", "The Girl" (also found on EP Phone Home, but then in a different mix), and final track "Schleswig-Holstein-Haus". Eastern bunnies!

Copyright © 2003 Sonny P. Laystation