The Babylon Experiment was a major evolution from the debut Tobey’s New Toy album. Harmonically there’s a lot of range change and overall the tracks start to get more meat on them. The spectrum spreads stylistically as well, with parts of the record tasting like bubblegum and parts like dog shit.

FYI: The piano from “Reconciliation” was recorded over the phone into a laptop microphone in the business office of Brilliant Studios in San Francisco. It was the hippie waitress girl Tao met at the Mexican restaurant down the block from the studio. She had been learning piano. The rest of the track was built around that single piano line.

Samples in “Light Cannot Escape” from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Samples in “Phreak” from Full Metal Jacket.

1. Anna’s Piano (Remix)
2. Lament-Kaijhin
3. Soon It Will All Burn Down
4. Saxofix Hoax (Live)
5. Reconciliation
6. Light Cannot Escape
7. Safe In My Pocket
8. Phreak
9. The Dark War
10. Transubstantiation

The tracks from Holy are alot more ambient than other Tao tracks. There’s a haunted mystery to these selections. Melodies are left hanging in between wet sheets. Nothing is too direct, faint sadness pervades and few right angles to the drumwork make Holy distinctive.

Many tape effects and tricks were used in the making of Holy, old school 2 inch tape style. As a result of the many analog to digital conversions and crude equipment, there is a warm saturation to all of the Holy tracks that muds up easily depending on your system.

1. Adelaide Vox
2. Everything You’re Afraid Of Is Hiding In The Bushes
3. My Ghost
4. Some Far Off Place (Secret Garden Mix)
5. Some Far Off Place (Spaceman Dante vs. The Dirt Bomb Mix
6. When You Got Nowhere To Go And Your Remix Is Flat