BEST NEW INDIE: TOYKO - STRONGER LOVE

Hailing from the sunny confines of my hometown of Los Angeles, the musician known as Toyko presents his second offering, Stronger Love, to us here at We Are: The Guard and, of course, the rest of the world. A song that falls into the alternative and electronic genres, "Stronger Love" was created during a dark time that somehow evolved into a purposeful and positive reaction to negativity and the naysayers.

TOYKO - STRONGER LOVE

Amazingly, the whole premise of the track spawned out of a drunken night that ended in heartfelt apologies to the one who was hurt. Within the allotted four minutes, it stands as an emotional declaration that draws its charm from the copious and liberal utilization of electronically processed vocals accompanying the equally liberal usage of electronics to fuel the instrumentals.

The purposeful manipulation of the vocals succeeds in developing an atmosphere filled with necessary theatrics, with a sense of grandeur with each passing second and carefully-placed beats. As cliché as it sounds, it was as though Toyko sang this song from a mountaintop, and we heard it in the valley. The resulting voice is muffled, unclear, and loaded with reverberation, yet more is felt from the delivery than the actual words themselves. It is filled with angst and emotion. The final product is a track which invokes poignancy and encouragement at the same time. Pain, sadness, and regret. In "Stronger Love," Toyko exclaims there is light at the end of the tunnel. Certainly, it is not something that sounds pleasant only to be mired in deceptively-dark lyrics. If you want that, go pick up some tunes from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.

The name is Toyko, not Tokyo. Though, Google will assume you meant the latter. As a former resident of the biggest metropolis in Japan, be assured there is nothing Tokyo about this song.