Dumb Sites. Tape Toy

Don't let yourself get fooled by the opening sounds of Dumb Sites, nor by the last song, should you hear that first for some reason. Dumb Sites is a great alternative rock, post punk album. It brings everything and more what the reviewed singles earlier this year promised.

My introduction to the band was through the EP 'Launch The Rocket' which received a positive review on this blog in January 2025. My direct reference was to 80s synth pop/rock and even referred to Kim Wilde in my review. There's nothing left of that association. The one that remains is with fellow Amsterdam band POM and in a song like 'Fake It' with Wolf Alice and both are not a bad place to be.

Things go much further though. Tape Toy goes down the punk path with a lot of loud songs. What makes it different, as in not American punk(rock), is the totally different approach to the arrangement of a song. The music is allowed to be far richer. Sounds, effects, layered and heavily distorted guitars create a wall of sound and an arrangement that goes far beyond the one, two, three, four and go punk from the U.S.

Tape Toy is lead singer and guitarist Roos van Tuil, vocalist and guitarist Wesley Fransen, bassist Maurice van de Graaf and drummer Marc van Dongen. Let's focus on the last two. In 'Crosswords', a dreamy but loud track, Van de Graaf plays the deep end with a distorted sound on his bass, giving the song an oomph that Van Dongen matches with a drum part that propels 'Crosswords' ever forward. The light and the shade Tape Toy creates together makes 'Crosswords' not just a good song, but a great one.

I've read a review on Dumb Sites in 'Oor' and the gist was the band did not get everything out of itself. Having listened to the album multiple times by now, I can only muse what could have been better then? Besides that an album like this in general has been made before, Dumb Sites is so rich in sound and the compositions so strong, for the most part. Even after several listening sessions the turn a song takes can still surprise me and leave me in awe of what Tape Toy came up with.

I still truly like 'Kids In America' (Kim Wilde above), but Tape Toy goes so far beyond that song and has all the power that Wolf Alice has left behind itself on its last two albums. (Don't get me wrong, I like them a lot!) Dumb Sites goes further and deeper and above all louder. The album is all over the place in my ears and brain. At this point in time, I'd put it on a level of 'Letter To Self', the album that broke SPRINTS to me in 2024. The only thing missing is an instant banger like 'Literary Mind'. For the rest, Dumb Sites scores big. Just as long as you skip that last song, but hey, it may well be your favourite, who knows?

Wout de Natris - van der Borght

 

You can order Dumb Sites here:

https://excelsior-recordings.com/products/tape-toy-dumb-sites