Voices From Downtroddendom Fanzine #4 - September 2005
'Toys From Balsa' - the debut solo album from Glyn Bailey is crammed with all manner of maverick singer-songwriter shenanigans and ponderous, uneasy love-songs. A veteran of 90s bands like The Urbane Gorillas and Harvey's Wall of Sound, Glyn only returned to music in 2004 after an increasingly frustrating dalliance with politics. Unashamedly retro in his approach, there are occasional splashes of Bowie in the vocals and the odd prog interlude in the music, but, above-all Glyn's music is redolent of a gruffer-voiced Ian McNabb (Cult pop hero of The Icicle Works fame). Bonus track 'Friends (John & Yoko in bed)' even features a collaboration with The Woog Riots (lo-fi double-act with whom Glyn toured Germany). The album may well be unfashionable in today's musical climate, but fans of witty, knowing pop won't go far wrong.