Toe

Hailing from Tokyo, the instrumental rock quartet toe features guitarists Mino Takaaki and Yamazaki Hirokazu, drummer Kashikura Takashi, and bassist Yamane Satoshi. Frequently placed in post-rock or math rock circles, their flowing and tuneful compositions highlight percussive yet precise rhythms, intricate guitar exchanges, plus sporadic electronic touches and instruments like vibraphone or Rhodes piano. In contrast to the sweeping, filmic builds associated with Explosions in the Sky, toe favor a sharper, riff-centered approach that echoes Ghosts and Vodka or Euphone. Known for energetic stage shows, the band has performed across Japan and internationally alongside the Album Leaf, Mogwai, and Envy while appearing at events including Fuji Rock Festival. After shaping their jazz-tinged instrumental approach through early EPs and albums such as 2005's The Book About My Idle Plot on a Vague Anxiety, toe added more singing on subsequent works like 2015's Hear You and 2024's Now I See the Light.

The members came together at the close of 2000 and played their first concerts in July 2001. Their debut output arrived as a split single with American post-rock band Pele, put out on CD by Japanese imprint Dis(ign) Muzyq in 2002 and later as a 7" by Polyvinyl in the United States. Catune issued the EP Songs, Ideas We Forgot in 2003 and followed it the same year with the remix collection Re:Designed. Full-length debut The Book About My Idle Plot on a Vague Anxiety appeared on Catune in 2005. The musicians then founded Machu Picchu Industries, which put out toe's initial DVD RGBDVD in 2006 before the EP New Sentimentality arrived later that year.

Following extended touring and songwriting, toe delivered their sophomore album For Long Tomorrow in 2009 along with a split EP alongside Collections of Colonies of Bees. After a well-received Japanese run supporting the record, the band issued second live DVD Cut_DVD in 2010. The Future Is Now EP surfaced in 2012; by then the group had built a strong American audience, prompting Topshelf Records to release the EP domestically and later reissue much of the catalog, including a highly limited vinyl box set in 2013. Additional tour document 8 Days EU Tour 2012 also emerged, preceding third studio album Hear You in 2015, which carried greater vocal emphasis and hip-hop leanings than earlier toe material.

After a quiet stretch, the band compiled non-album cuts and remixes as That's Another Story in 2018 before releasing EP Our Latest Number the same year. Doku-En-Kai, captured during a 2019 set at New York City's Le Poisson Rouge, came out in both audio and video formats in 2021. Stand-alone single "Mother," a hip-hop cut with Ill-Bosstino and 5lack, appeared in 2023. Now I See the Light arrived in 2024 as a more emo-oriented album that includes contributions from cellist Seigen Tokuzawa and vocalist Kodama Nao.