Since forming in 2000, toe have synthesized everything from pop, post-and math-rock, jazz, R&B, and electronicinto one of the most distinct sounds in rock music. Their debut LPthe book about my idle plot on a vagueanxiety(2005) left anunmistakable imprint across the splintered worlds of instrumental and experimental music,exploding the tenets of post-rock with writing and performances that channel the intensity of hardcore.toe have kept the same lineup since their inception. YamazakiHirokazu’s acoustic and Mino Takaaki’s electricguitars often juxtapose one another against the backdrop of drummer Kashikura Takashi’s unmatched sense offeel and rhythm, specializing in phrases that trick the listener with unanticipated backbeats and climactic gasps.Bassist Yamane Satoshi lends depth to the staccato, explorative melodies, gluing them to, and making sense ofTakashi’s unique style.The debut’s follow-up,For Long Tomorrow(2009), was a breakthrough that explored their pop and jazz DNA, aswell cementing comparisons to post-rock forebears and contemporaries like Tortoise.For Long Tomorrowalsoproduced one of toe’s better known songs in “グッドバイ/ Goodbye,” a re-recording of the 2006 track fromtheNew SentimentalityEP, this time featuringJapanese pop singer Asako Toki.2015’sHear Youwas defined by its loosening of the rhythmically frenzied work that predated it. Understatedinstrumentation stretched and smeared style and genre spectra, as heard in the piano-laden “オトトタイミングキミト”; the drumless rap on “Time Goes”; and the tabla, synth, and chanting in “G.O.O.D L.U.C.K.” Althoughsuch experimentation was always foreshadowed by the band’s early EPssongs, ideas we forgot(2003) andTheFuture Is Now(2012)—and later echoed byOur Latest Number(2018)—Hear Youis still subdued, a markeddeparture from the band’s prior work.NOW I SEE THE LIGHT(2024), toe’s fourth full-length album, is a bridge between the experimental restraint oftheir later work and the explosive abandon of their earlier output. From the opening tracks, toe balanceserpentine passages against meditative repetition. On “LONELINESS WILL SHINE,” “サニーボーイ・ラプソディ,” and “NOW I SEE THE LIGHT,” Hirokazu reprises his role as part-time vocalist, breaking the band yet furtherfrom the instrumental work that formerly defined them. As a whole,NOW I SEE THE LIGHTcloses the loopbetween early and late toe, giving them a clean slate for their new outlook.A leading force in Japan’s post-rock scene, toeiscelebrating their 25th year.