The Sound Of: Toy Tonics

One of Toy Tonics’ most recent releases is a compilation called ‘Mushroom House Vol. 2’ (‘Vol. 1’ dropped in November 2020). It collects music from the ‘Mushroom House’ EPs — much of which gets a 2021 re-rub— aseriesthat’srunsince2016andpresents tracks that “go even further out from the dance music formula”. From the blissed-out funky synths of Harry Wolfman’s opener ‘Upstream’, through the swirling guitar and polyrhythmic percussion of ‘Ngunga Yeti Fofa (Joaquin Joe Claussell’s Electric Afrika Version)’ to a tripped-out deep house remix from DJ Sprinkles, Red Axes’ wonky rework of Munk’s ‘The Bolero Bunuel’ and Art Alfie’s fuzzy, minimalist closing track, it’s a kaleidoscope of Afro house, cosmic disco and widescreen, psychedelic sounds.

“On Toy Tonics we are very open, but still it’s dance music that you can play in a more normal setting. The ‘Mushroom House’ should be the place where it’s even more far out,” says Mathias. “It’s about bringing in more shades from the world, so that you as a DJ can create a real journey — ‘cause that’s our idea of DJing; if you go to our big Toy Tonics Jams, which are our parties in Berlin, and you go at 11, you don’t have a clue what you’re gonna hear at 12, but definitely no clue what you’re gonna hear at 2,” he continues, citing the likes of DJ Harvey, Ashley Beedle and Idiot Boyz as role models for the Toy Tonics DJing style.

Mathias sees this hybridity as a feature of the times. “2021 is not playing one style for four hours. You go at 12 to the club and you know what’s on at 4? It’s fucking boring, I’m sorry,” he laughs. “We are in Spotify times; everyone has a huge musical knowledge, it’s very different to 10 years ago. At home you’re listening to everybody and then at a club you listen to one thing? No, that’s old.” 

He explains how Berlin is changing too, from “techno town” to “musicians town”. Mathias, now in his forties, recalls going to bunker parties as a teenager where “you don’t know if you’ll survive that shit”. He thinks techno has become too safe, too formulaic. “Innovation is difficult when you have to satisfy the customer,” he says. “It’s great when an underground thing a few years later becomes the most popular thing, because that’s human nature, but as a creative person it’s not my thing — I want something different. 

“The whole techno, electronic and the laptop music world, it’s very lonely,” he continues. “It’s about a single person sitting at home on the laptop making beats, maybe they are two, but basically it’s the same. And then also at a rave you have the DJ alone, sometimes 20 metres over the people. It’s great, but in 2021 you talk about inclusion, we talk about these different shades of the world that should become one, and my label Toy Tonics is about that. Getting the jazz guy Joel Holmes, who was [nominated for multiple] Grammys for playing in jazz, together with Cody Currie, the young London house producer. It’s a band, they go in a room and the groove you dance to is made by five people, not by a laptop — which is good too, but I think in 2021: bring the world together.”

The strategy is working. Toy Tonics has become a buy-on-sight label: every release is pressed to vinyl, and Mathias says that sales are through the roof; some records have been repressed nearly 10 times, including some from the earliest days of the label, putting their numbers into the thousands. He talks about the resurgence of the format, but also that it’s only certain genres that sell well. He sees a desire for “authenticity” from young people who have grown up with digital formats.

For Mathias personally, “Two disco records that are not quantized, man there’s no more fun than trying to synchronise two records like that — that’s work, sweat, fucking hell I love it,” he laughs. “But the thing is, I’m not doing the vinyl because I love it, I’m doing it because people love it.”

There are more physical products too, which are beginning to bring the visual artistry of Gomma through to Toy Tonics. The label regularly drops limited-edition collaborative t-shirts, and has started a 60-page art zine that goes out three times a year, featuring work from Berlin artists and designers.

When events are allowed again, the label is set for a residency at a new 1500-2000-cap venue in Berlin, and already has events booked for Phonox and Jazz Cafe in London this summer, with invites to do more across the world once it’s safe to do so.

And of course there’s plenty of new music, like albums from Cody Currie and Kapote, and music from a Belarusian electro-funk live act. “We’ve been busy,” says Mathias of the past 12 months. “Of course it’s a sad situation for many, many people in the whole world, the music business, but we tried to turn that into something positive, build up the label, make more music and stuff... You’ve got to make lemonade out of the lemons.”

Listen to Toy Tonic's The Sound Of mix below.