The Original New Timbral Orchestra

Way back in the 1970s I heard rumour of a band called Tonto’s Expanding Headband who played far out electronic music.  I suspect it was mentioned by a chap called Kenneth Lowe from Grangemouth with whom I got friendly on a couple of family holidays and who was at least as much of a music geek as I was, if not more (if you Google yourself and find this, Kenny, I’d be happy to hear from you!)

Then one summer – probably in 1976 but maybe ’75 I found their second album (pictured), bought it and discovered that TONTO was actually the instrument which started life as a Moog series III but grew into something wondrous.  Later still I found a copy of their first album and later still found that TONTO was extensively used on Stevie Wonder albums and also crops up on a Weather Report album.

Over the years my relationship to the music has changed with various tracks drifting in and out of favour but they have had a constant place on my turntable for three and a half decades.  The music is not at all like the “krautrock” of the same time period – it is much warmer in tone and somewhat more idiosyncratic.  It is not heavily sequencer driven as the classic Tangerine Dream or Klaus Schultze of the early seventies and is certainly a long way away from Walter/Wendy Carlos Nor is it close to the rockier sounds of Seventh Wave or any of the Prog-Rock guys.  It is TONTO sui generis.

The music isn’t to everyone’s taste, I guess, although if you have any interest at all in electronic music you will find a point of entry somewhere.  And I defy anyone not to chill out with one track – originally called The Boatman but these days called Ferryboat.  I say these days because one of the original creators of TONTO – Malcolm Cecil – remastered the originals and put them out on cd a couple of years ago, some tracks being renamed.  I only found out a couple of weeks ago and ordered it immediately.  I’m listening to it now!

In some respects, because I have been listening with headphones, I have been rediscovering the music and what a delight it has been.  The weirdness remains weird and the music remains musical.