An album of ‘protest songs’ woven from an endless source of ridiculously addictive melody, Frisbee is an upbeat-sounding record about downbeat, troubling subject matter. The journey began at RAK studios, London with Tot fine-tuning a collection of just-written songs ‘about people’. Paying respects to those who were overdue it (Yoko Ono, bebop singer Bob Dorough) and taking aim at those who thoroughly deserved it (Donald J. Trump, a vicious school teacher and ‘cars in general’). Frisbee is utterly beguiling – a relentlessly upbeat-sounding record about downbeat, subject matter. Accompaniment is by the Byatt Macrobiotic Unit Symphony, featuring Shawn Lee, B.J.Cole & Lewis Durham. Tot Taylor grew up in a Cambridgeshire village where his parents ran the only shop for ten miles: a confectioners wedged between two USAF airbases, (the source of the infant Tot’s early listening habits). The shop was regularly visited by the Glitter Band, National Hunt jockeys ‘riding out’ and Barry Sheen. Tot was signed to Chris Blackwell’s Island Records while still at school. He founded the independent label The Compact Organization and has continually moved between the fields of music and the visual arts (inc film) as well as curating museum-level art exhibitions worldwide from the iconic Riflemaker gallery in Beak Street, Soho taking over a former gunmaker’s workshop to create a multi-floor, multi-discipline space right in the heart of London. The gallery worked with Tate Modern, MoMA (the Museum of Modern Art, NY) and Frieze London exhibiting groundbreaking work by feminist artists Judy Chicago, Yoko Ono and Penny Slinger along with William Burroughs & Gavin Turk among its 300+ exhibitions. His 2017 novel The Story of John Nightly was voted one of the best of that year by the Guardian newspaper and singled out for praise in Q, Mojo and Record Collector. He founded a new record label in 2020 called TheCampus whose first releases have been by British painter Bob & Roberta Smith and Swedish artist Virna Lindt. The release of Frisbee follows Tot’s recent singles (inc those ‘about’ Donald Trump and Yoko Ono – as well as his recent ‘luxury protest anthem-in-waiting’. CD features four extra songs, some different mixes to the LP, and zone-mastering for ‘in-car’ listening. It’s as different an experience to the LP as the ‘whiteout’ cover image is to the yellowy LP sleeve. The cat has jumped. The bird has flown.
