The Rorschach Garden:
"The Toy Factory"

Track list:

01. Life is a Combat
02. Joyful Life
03. Metropolis
04. Catch Your Fall
05. Different
06. The Toy Factory
07. Isolation
08. The Inner Screen
09. Society
10. Cascades
11. Tragedy
12. Holiday Site
13. Click Click
14. L'homme Deconnecté

Total Play Time: 50:17

What took me, or anyone else into fun electro style music, so long to notice The Rorschach Garden? Maybe it's only me who didn't realize the joy that a Rorschach Garden release could bring to my day. If there is anyone else out there like me, don't delay in checking out the sound of The Toy Factory like I did.

Life is a Combat starts things off quite well. A short build-up introduction leads into a steady beat, with a swelling background sound wrapped around spoken lyrics. The true joy is when the chorus is reached and Darrin Huss's voice is heard. If there were ever a perfect mix of one musician's sound to another vocalist, this song would be a great example to reference.

From here on out the sound seems like it could easily be summed up as old-school electro style, maybe with some synthpop underlying. Many times I find myself connecting the sound to the work done by Oil 10, but with lyrics. I don't think that alone does the songs justice though, as there are some quirky, funny, introspective and uplifting moments to be found in the sound and lyrics.

One particular point of joy for me with any music release, is when I find that I can listen to the whole album as one complete entity; versus a few stand-out tracks which I gravitate towards. This album almost falls into that category perfectly, with the exception of one guilty pleasure I have with the track The Inner Screen. The song has a fast pace to it, but maybe not so much in the BPM's but in it's positive energy of the lyrics and the little sounds that bounce about throughout the song. Phillip Muench's vocals are a smooth contrast to the bubbly nature of the song also, and enhance the subject matter involving the embracement of our inner imagination versus looking to an exterior source such as television for entertainment.

Modern electronic music, with the good aspects of older electronic music meshed together is where The Rorschach Garden takes their sound. Danceable, yes. Fun and understandable lyrics/vocals, yes. Light-hearted music with these features are great when one needs some extra oomph added to their work day, or a day that seems dreary and bound to be simply 'typical'. I hope that The Rorschach Garden keep coming back in the coming years to provide us with more moments of audio bliss such as The Toy Factory.

Reviewed by Bry'n
03.21.08