Tokolosh

The lineup: Liam Frost, Nathan Sudders, Christian Madden, Nicky Madden, Richard Young. A Tokolosh is an evil spirit from South African mythology that can become invisible by swallowing a pebble, and cause illness and even death. It can also bite off sleeping people's toes. Not great pets, basically. Tokolosh the band, from Manchester, do not, as far as we know, include in their lineup any malevolent sprites, but they have mischievously made it rather difficult for us to pigeonhole their sound. It's a strange brew of all or some of the following: prog, folk, soul, psych, rock and electronica. One website described it as progressive R&B, another as, variously, acoustic techno and ambient folk. Whatever, it's music created by musicians without recourse to samples, pedals or loops. Any danceability is achieved by the rhythmic propulsion of the drums and bass, and any quasi-religious atmosphere is enhanced by the choral harmonies. They've been making music as Tokolosh since 2011 and are something of a Manc supergroup, featuring as they do former members of the Whip and the Earlies. They claim, cheekily, to be influenced by everyone and everything from Michael MacDonald and Chaka Khan (their dream collaborator, apparently) to fitness guru Tony Horton and UFC Light-heavyweight champion Jonny 'Bones' Jones. At a gig recently they performed a version of The Night by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Very cheeky. The lyrics, meanwhile, are of the darkly sexual variety: "All of these songs focus on a slightly different side of adult relationships," they explain. "The desperate and slightly obsessive aspect maybe, but also how people can change inside of a relationship – for better or worse." First single Shapeshifter is thrillingly catchy while not being remotely pop – as per the standards of today's charts, anyway – a song seemingly about possession and betrayal that, oddly, you can imagine singing along with. Bloodlines is plaintive and melodic, Liam Frost's soaring vocal suggesting a choirboy purity at odds with the words, which as far as we can make out allude to the unpleasantness that people inflict on each other in the name of love. The Hollow is at once subtle and furious, a folk-inflected furnace of quietly seething emotion. "I sleep here in this shadow looming long," sings Frost. Let's hope, when he wakes up, he's got all his toes. "Laced with Liam's distinctive vocals and evocative lyricism, the band's darkly magical sound combines soul, R&B and tribal rhythms underscored by Nathan's driving bass" - Skiddle.com "Everything about them has been rather mysterious, delicate, and yet there's a huge strength and sophistication in this band. No one has any idea what's coming next, but there'll be something as spectacular, undoubtedly. The stuff of legends." -SOUNDBLAB.COM Links: http://www.wearetokolosh.com/ https://www.facebook.com/wearetokolosh?directed_target_id=0 https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/the-root-single/id658712065 Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.