Trouble Over Tokyo was the first solo-project of singer/producer Christopher Taylor who has subsequently acquired greater artistic success as SOHN. Having released three albums, Trouble Over Tokyo's music has been described as "Indielectro Angst-Pop" – and is most recognized for Taylor's voice, quirky Alternative/R&B production, and hand-drawn artworks. Taylor was described by UK broadsheet newspaper ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' in 2008 as "simultaneously (recalling)

Thom Yorke Thomas Edward Yorke (born 7 October 1968) is an English musician who is the vocalist and main songwriter of the rock band Radiohead. He plays guitar, bass, keyboards and other instruments, and is noted for his falsetto. ''Rolling Stone'' desc ...

at his most existentially anxious and

Justin Timberlake Justin Randall Timberlake (born January 31, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, record producer, and dancer. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Prince of Pop", ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' honored him as the b ...

at his most sexually rapacious"., and was listed by ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' 's

Neil McCormick Neil McCormick (born 31 March 1961) is a British music journalist, author and broadcaster. He has been the chief music critic for ''The Daily Telegraph'' since 1996, and presented a music interview show for Vintage TV (TV channel), Vintage TV i ...

as one of ten of "Music's overlooked gems of 2008".

History

Trouble Over Tokyo began as a four-piece

Alternative Rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band in 2004, and were a gigging band on the London indie circuit. Whilst recording their debut album, the band dissolved and Taylor went on with the name and website, changing the concept and recording predominantly electronic music in his bedroom. The result of these sessions became Trouble Over Tokyo's debut album ''1000'' – a 1000 limited edition pressing that Taylor released himself through his label Tokyotron Records. After a chance meeting at a London music venue in 2006, Taylor was invited to play a small tour in Austria – this led to a small cult following that grew quickly. Trouble Over Tokyo was then asked to support Austrian Indie outfit

Garish Garish, formed in February 1997, is an Austrian alternative rock band. After having asserted themselves in the alternative scene inside and outside Austria's borders with their first two records ''amaurose pur.'' and ''wo die nacht erzaehlt vom t ...

and their 2007 tour, and sold nearly all of the remaining copies of ''1000'' at these shows. Later that year, Schoenwetter Records, an independent record label in Vienna, released Taylor's second offering ''Pyramides'' in Austria. Alternative radio station FM4 embraced the record and made ''Pyramides'' album of the week, playing tracks from the album on rotation, and critical acclaim from the press followed. In 2008, Klein Records released ''Pyramides'' in all other territories, to excellent reviews, notably in the UK, Germany and France. Taylor then formed a live band for a one-off tour, featuring members from Velojet, Garish, and UK band The Heart Strings, which toured Austria, Switzerland and

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

. In 2010, Taylor released his third album, entitled ''The Hurricane'', featuring some of the musicians from the 2008 live band, in Vienna. It is Trouble Over Tokyo's first studio album. On 27 April 2010, it was announced by X2 games, makers of the mobile football game ''X2 Football 2010'' for the

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

iPod Touch The iPod Touch (stylized as iPod touch) is a discontinued line of iOS-based mobile devices designed and formerly marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-controlled user interface. As with other iPod models, the iPod Touch can be used as a po ...

, that an exclusive deal was struck with Trouble Over Tokyo for the game's soundtrack. In March 2012, Toph Taylor announced the end of his musical project "Trouble Over Tokyo": Despite having been working on a new album, he decided to condense this to the strongest tracks, and bring it out as a final EP entitled ''Simplify''. In August 2012, he released the two songs "Warnings" and "Oscillate" under the new name SOHN through his SoundCloud page.

Discography

Albums

References

{{Reflist British electronic music groups