Toothless - Kairos

‘Kairos’ – Greek for “supreme moment” - fittingly came into being during one of Bombay Bicycle Club’s biggest career moments. Penned by the band’s Ed Nash as a rough melody line, behind Glastonbury’s John Peel stage as they toured ‘Flaws’ no less, it’s a song that went back into hiding as hectic touring, and increasingly massive records, took over the agenda. After years of putting his lone aspirations on the back-burner, Nash is finally going it alone with his solo project Toothless. Don’t let the gummy namesake fool, however. Though his melodies drift and meander across the fretboards like Pavement on a generous helping of Valium, there’s an inventive bite to everything Nash puts his mind to.

The b-side to Toothless’ debut outing ‘Terra,’ Nash’s new ‘un ‘Kairos’ concerns itself largely with clinging onto old memories; trying to keep the snapshots clear and unaltered as time progresses. Looking back on favourite days, and picturing every micro-detail with simple, repeating phrases, ‘Kairos’ eventually settles a kind of peace with time’s plodding progressions. Nash sings of reaching peaks, and leaving the past un-tinkered with, and with Toothless – a project which still welcomes the odd helping hand from his Bombay Bicycle Club bandmates on production or drums – he’s not erasing anything. Moving forward instead, and concentrated on writing the present, it’s a subtle statement of Toothless’ intent.