See also: Futura Grotesk
Back to the start with this tenth anniversary edition of Tomaga's debut LP, Futura Grotesk, alongside a first time vinyl pressing of the self-released cassette EP, Sleepy Jazz For Tired Cats EP. What to say that hasn't already been said - these are just great, straight-outta-the-gate records that envision a unique universe of sound that's far-reaching, well-versed, inventive and charged with left-turns. I think we can be guilty of taking this kind of approach for granted now, but looking back to 2013, with NTS still in its infancy and, in the UK at least, a persisting overhang of the unimaginative 'landfill indie' that cursed the previous decade, and you could make an argument for sui generis status. Of course, Tomaga have their antecedents in this country, but Stereolab and Broadcast aside, you have to wind back some, starting with the David Toop's Isolationism, then the Planet Records Bristol scene, and then through Nurse With Wound and their various United Dairies related activities. Of course, Tomaga don't especially sound like any of those bands in particular, though they do accord to a united perspective of adventure and experimentation. We talk a lot of Valentina Magaletti's precocious drumming, though Tom Rellenn's record shop background is equally significant, certainly so on these first forays into the world. There is sound and influence arriving from all over in a way that we now happily call 'post-genre' (mainly because internet culture allows for easy-access genre agnosticism), although I don't really know if that's purposefully what they were going for here. More so, these records are the sound of curiosity, and honestly, that's perhaps one of the most enduring traits in music, mainly because of what it signifies in terms of joy, discovery and possibility. And if those things end up being your legacy, then it wasn't time wasted.
