It’s all about Y2K, Punkfunk and Indie Disco
Toy Tonics record brings a collection of tracks originally released on the German GOMMA RECORDS label between 2001 and 2010. Gomma was one of the key labels of the Y2K indie dance wave along with labels like James Murphy’s DFA and Trevor Jackson’s OUTPUT Records. And as the 90ies revival that dominated the last years in fashion and electronic music reached its peak (Techno and Electronica is pure 90s revival music) the Toy Tonics gang thought it’s a good moment to re-mind some of these early 2000’s tracks that connected a more raw, indie disco and punky funk vibe. It was another energy in those party days. Gomma was happening in Berlin off-location clubs like SCALA and RIO, London’s TRASH or 333 partys and Paris ‚Kill The DJ‘ and Paris Paris clubs.
Those Y2K clubs and the Gomma label brought together 80ies inspired Indie rock artists like NickMcCarthy of Franz Ferdinand (who’s was producing records on Gomma before getting world-famous) and Electro punk princess Peaches (who did a whole Disco album on Gomma records and is featured on this compilation with a cover of „Maniac“ from the Flashdance movie soundtrack). Italian disco legends like Baldelli or Robotnick were poppping up in those times after years of silence (before getting hype again later) as well as Gomma’s own discoveries like WhoMadeWho (their first 2 albums where quite punk funky and produced by Gomma’s head honcho Mathias Modica), Italian disco punkster Rodion, Parisian nasty funk dude Golden Bug, London’s mysterious prince of new wave prince Midnight Mike (who started in Gomma and later ended up on Ed Banger records) and Gomma’s main act Munk. And yes there is even DJ Severino who did an proto house remix for the label in the early Horse Meat Disco days.
That raw and nasty Gomma sound that mixed up many genres and made its own sexy, in your face music melange that was very in demand in those days from 2000 – 2010 and inspired many artists. Not just music people like James Murphy, who did music with Gomma before starting his own LCD Soundsystem or bands like Chromeo, New Young Pony Club or Soulwax who started later with a similar vibe, but also art, graphic and fashion people took inspiration from the Gomma world: Gomma’s edgy album cover designs, their poster fanzine, their colourful t-shirt designs and the whole style that the bands, DJs and people at their worldwide parties were rocking became a MUST all over the world. In the early 2000’s it was just art students from London’s Central St. Martins or Berlin’s UDK school that played that sound on their parties, later magazine like VICE or i – D invited Munk and the Gomma acts to their parties and later it was fashion brands like Prada, Margiela, Karl Lagerfeld and Hedi Slimane who used Gomma artists to make music at their fashion shows or events.
Gomma then in 2015 fnally closed. When a lot of new labels popped up copying the Gomma attitude and styles (till these days).
Gomma’s head honcho and main inventor Mathias Modica stopped the whole thing, changed the name and started something new: Toy Tonics records. Yes!
Toy Toy Tonics came out of Gomma and that’s why now it’s time to remember the old inspirational days.
(Gomma’s other very important part was the graphic designer Mirko Borsche who created the whole Gomma look with Modica and Jonas Imbery the other Gomma member. Mirko Borsche since than made an exceptional career doing designs for fashion labels like Supreme and Balenciaga and being the creative director of magazines like ZEIT, Spike or Kaleidopskope.)
Mathias Modica aka Munk aka Kapote himself now is busy with Toy Tonics, which basically is bigger than Gomma ever was: Spreading a very own sound of organic house and disco funk. With party happenings all over Europe every weekend and a very young audience.
