The Modified Toy Orchestra is an

experimental music Experimental music is a general label for any music or music genre that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilities radically opposed to, and questioning of, ...

group from

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Brian Duffy, the main member and creator of the

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

makes the group's instruments by

circuit bending Circuit bending is the creative, chance-based customization of the circuits within electronic devices such as low-voltage, battery-powered guitar effects, children's toys and digital synthesizers to create new musical or visual instruments and ...

sound making devices, such as toy

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

, and educational spelling toys.

History

The band was founded by Brian Duffy as a one-man project. He originally began by sampling sounds from toys to use in his electronic music, but after disassembling a

Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American technology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that designs and manufactures semiconductors and various integrated circuits, which it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers globall ...

Speak & Spell he realised he could modify them to produce new sounds, turning the toys themselves into instruments. He began looking in

car boot sale Car boot sales or boot fairs are a form of market in which private individuals come together to sell household and garden goods. They are popular in the United Kingdom, where they are often referred to simply as 'car boots'. Some scientific ...

s and skips for more electronic toys to modify and use in performances. Duffy describes the intent behind his music as “an interest in the surplus value and hidden potential of seemingly redundant technology.”

Members

*''Brian Duffy'' *''Darren Joyce'' *''Laurence Hunt'' *''Sean Tighe'' *''Chris Plant'' *''Graeme Rose''

Past members

*''Mike Johnston'' (His last performance with Modified Toy Orchestra was on 15 October 2007 at the

Birmingham Town Hall Birmingham Town Hall is a concert hall and venue for popular assemblies opened in 1834 and situated in Victoria Square, Birmingham, England. It is a Grade I listed building. The hall underwent a major renovation between 2002 and 2007. It no ...

. He sang a cover version of

Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, "power station") is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the ...

Pocket Calculator An electronic calculator is typically a portable electronic device used to perform calculations, ranging from basic arithmetic to complex mathematics. The first solid-state electronic calculator was created in the early 1960s. Pocket-sized d ...

as his last song with the band.

Live

In 2006, the Modified Toy Orchestra was expanded from a one-man project by Brian Duffy to a full six-piece band, to have more possibilities when playing live. New live members are: Laurence Hunt ( Pram), Darren Joyce (Dreams of Tall Buildings), Mike Johnston (

Plone Plone is a free and open source content management system (CMS) built on top of the Zope application server. Plone is positioned as an enterprise CMS and is commonly used for intranets and as part of the web presence of large organizations. Hi ...

, Mike in Mono), and visual projection artist Chris Plant
Colour Burst
. Together they have performed at the 2006

Sónar Sónar is a festival dedicated to music, creativity and technology, founded in Barcelona in 1994 by Ricard Robles, Enric Palau, and Sergi Caballero. The festival has been divided into two parts since its inception: Sónar by Day and Sónar b ...

festival in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

and

Supersonic Supersonic speed is the speed of an object that exceeds the speed of sound ( Mach 1). For objects traveling in dry air of a temperature of 20 °C (68 °F) at sea level, this speed is approximately . Speeds greater than five times ...

festival in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. Previous performances have included the Royal Institute, and supporting bands

Heaven 17 Heaven 17 are an English new wave and synth-pop band that formed in Sheffield in 1980. The band were a trio for most of their career, composed of Martyn Ware (keyboards) and Ian Craig Marsh (keyboards) (both previously of the Human League), an ...

and

Melt Banana Melt-Banana is a Japanese noise rock band that is known for playing extremely fast noise rock mixed with experimental, electronica and pop-based song structures. Since forming in 1992 the band has released ten albums and toured worldwide extens ...

. Live sets have also been transmitted on

Resonance FM Resonance 104.4 FM is a London based non-profit community radio station specialising in the arts run by the London Musicians' Collective (LMC). The station is staffed by four permanent staff members, including programme controller Ed Baxter and ...

and

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

Discography

* ''

Plastic Planet ''Plastic Planet'' is the debut studio album by GZR (known at the time as g//z/r), a heavy metal band featuring Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath. The album also features Fear Factory vocalist Burton C. Bell. Album information The song "Giving ...

'' (LP, Warm Circuit Records, 2010) * '' Pocket Calculator / TVOD'' (Limited Edition 7" vinyl, Warm Circuit Records, 2006) * '' Toygopop'' (LP, Warm Circuit Records, 2006) * '' This is the Monkey'' (7" vinyl, Warm Circuit Records, 2004)

References

External links

Bio from Warm Circuit Records

MySpace Profile

Official band website
{{Authority control English experimental musical groups Musical groups from Birmingham, West Midlands