Search - Jon Kennedy :: Useless Wooden Toys

Useless Wooden Toys is twenty eight year old Jon Kennedy?s third album. Instead of relying on the multitude of programs available to him he has made a new standard by his pioneering innovation in ?sound design?. He sang, played all the instruments himself, as well as made instruments to create his own samples. The actual ?sounds? that the music is made up from stretch the imagination: What does a hi-hat sound like when you play it through a wah wah? What noise does a snare make if you down tune it? What happens if you play drums in the bathroom, then cut up that sound, stretch it out, then delay it? And an African drum, what would that sound like with a lump of clay in it? In the inception of ?Useless Wooden Toys? Jon played the Contra Bass, Bongos, Acoustic Guitar, Bass Guitar, Piano, Harmonica and his beloved Drums as well as providing most of the vocals. He created instruments out of tree trunks and experimented with small lumps of clay dropped into a Djembe (an African drum). Many of the instruments are not easily recognizable as he has redesigned the sound and then pushed it to its limits.