Flotation Toy Warning - The Machine That Made Us (2017)

Flotation Toy Warning is a band from London, UK, formed in 2001. Their sound has been described as a cross between space rock and chamber pop, with musical similarities to bands such as Mercury Rev, The Flaming Lips, Grandaddy, Sparklehorse, The Unicorns, and Air. The band is made up of frontman and lead vocalist Paul Carter, guitar and bass guitar players Ben Clay and Nainesh Shah, drummer Steve Swindon, and keyboardist Vicky West.

“At once fascinating and bizarre, Flotation Toy Warning combine traditional folk instruments, murky breakbeats and a hyper-appealing pick-and-mix vocal style in their captivating sonic stew.” Rock Sound

Thanks to some choice words of encouragement from a handsome French admirer, they finally came in from the cold in early 2016. After many years spent daydreaming whilst accumulating an impressive collection of unusually shaped novelty shoehorns, a sudden and overwhelming sense of urgency pushed Paul Carter to lock himself away in an abandoned church in North Wales. Here he frantically scribbled words to accompany musical ideas – some new and others that had been finely balanced on a shelf in an outhouse at the bottom of Ben Clay’s garden for several winters. This return from musical hibernation encouraged his fellow bandmates to wake up too. A realisation that ’some time later’ had become ’well, right now actually’ inspired all of Flotation Toy Warning to dust themselves down and finish the job. So it came to be that ’The Machine That Made Us’ was completed in early 2017. Parts of it were happy. Parts of it were sad. But everything that was difficult had come to an end. Much to the relief of a certain Gallic gentleman with a well chiselled jawline…

Drums — Steve Swindon
Guitar, Bass — Ben Clay
Guitar, Bass, Vocals — Nainesh Shah
Keyboards, Sampler, Vocals — Vicky West
Lead Vocals, Sampler, Programming — Paul Carter

Track List:
01. Controlling The Sea (3:28)
02. Due To Adverse Weather Conditions, All Of My Heroes Have Surrendered (6:39)
03. Everything That Is Difficult Will Come To An End (7:50)
04. A Season Underground (5:00)
05. I Quite Like It When He Sings (7:30)
06. King Of Foxgloves (5:48)
07. When the Boat Comes Inside Your House (5:21)
08. Driving Under The Influence Of Loneliness (2:23)
09. To Live For Longer Slides (4:51)
10. The Moongoose Analogue (12:37)