TOMAN

Post Rock/Math rock • Belgium

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Biography
Buy music
Forum discussions
Videos (Youtube)
Discography
Reviews
Official website

Toman biography

Founded In Lo-Reninge, West-Vlaanderen, Flanders, Belgium in 2001.

TOM�N (or TOMAN), named after a Persian currency, is a Belgian (west-Flemish) Post-Rock band, originally operating as a quartet consisting of multi-instrumentalists Lode and Wouter VLAEMINCK, Bram PAUWELS (guitar & vocals) and Jens VANYSAKER (bass & vocals). After putting together an early demo called 'It's Important for the Experiment That You Continue', the band received airplay on Studio Brussels (Duyster and Radar) as well as Radio 1 (operated by the Flemish public broadcaster Vlaamse Radio), and the Dutch magazine Oor included TOM�N in their Top 20 Underground Bands of 2004. Radio 1's "Cucamonga" show had described the band as "Belgium's best-kept musical secret", and that same year TOM�N undertook their first tour abroad, in Spain.

The following year, the band recorded their critically-acclaimed debut album 'Catching a Grizzly Bear, Lesson One' at a studio located in a local farmhouse in their rural hometown of Reninge, and the album was released via Zealrecords on April 18th, 2005. The band toured extensively to promote the album, supporting bands like KARATE, DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE and THE ALBUM LEAF, and they were also invited to record live sessions for various radio stations in both Belgium and Holland. The album was described by their record label as "a trip through dreamy guitarscapes with some sparse but well-used vocals".

A second album called 'Perhaps We Should Have Smoked The Salmon First' followed in 2006. It was recorded in February 2006 at De Studio in Asse, just outside of Brussels, Belgium by Dirk MIERS, who also played trumpet on the album, and was mixed by lead singer Wouter VLAEMINCK at his home. Most of the songs that were included had already been tried out live before being recorded, and the album was released in September 2006 by Zealrecords in Belgium, with the Chicago-based indie record label Graveface being sufficiently impressed by it to release it in the USA at the end of October. However, just two months after the album's release in Belgium, the band's bass player Jens VANYSAKER quit - with a European tour with the Belgian alternative/indie rock band MADENSUYU already planned for the following spring.

Luckily, Wouter VLAEMINCK met the keyboard player Sens GUNS while he was studying music production at the School of Arts (aka The Conservatory) in Ghent, and asked him if he would like to come and play the Rhodes piano part in a ...
Founded In Lo-Reninge, West-Vlaanderen, Flanders, Belgium in 2001.

TOM�N (or TOMAN), named after a Persian currency, is a Belgian (west-Flemish) Post-Rock band, originally operating as a quartet consisting of multi-instrumentalists Lode and Wouter VLAEMINCK, Bram PAUWELS (guitar & vocals) and Jens VANYSAKER (bass & vocals). After putting together an early demo called 'It's Important for the Experiment That You Continue', the band received airplay on Studio Brussels (Duyster and Radar) as well as Radio 1 (operated by the Flemish public broadcaster Vlaamse Radio), and the Dutch magazine Oor included TOM�N in their Top 20 Underground Bands of 2004. Radio 1's "Cucamonga" show had described the band as "Belgium's best-kept musical secret", and that same year TOM�N undertook their first tour abroad, in Spain.

The following year, the band recorded their critically-acclaimed debut album 'Catching a Grizzly Bear, Lesson One' at a studio located in a local farmhouse in their rural hometown of Reninge, and the album was released via Zealrecords on April 18th, 2005. The band toured extensively to promote the album, supporting bands like KARATE, DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE and THE ALBUM LEAF, and they were also invited to record live sessions for various radio stations in both Belgium and Holland. The album was described by their record label as "a trip through dreamy guitarscapes with some sparse but well-used vocals".

A second album called 'Perhaps We Should Have Smoked The Salmon First' followed in 2006. It was recorded in February 2006 at De Studio in Asse, just outside of Brussels, Belgium by Dirk MIERS, who also played trumpet on the album, and was mixed by lead singer Wouter VLAEMINCK at his home. Most of the songs that were included had already been tried out live before being recorded, and the album was released in September 2006 by Zealrecords in Belgium, with the Chicago-based indie record label Graveface being sufficiently impressed by it to release it in the USA at the end of October. However, just two months after the album's release in Belgium, the band's bass player Jens VANYSAKER quit - with a European tour with the Belgian alternative/indie rock band MADENSUYU already planned for the following spring.

Luckily, Wouter VLAEMINCK met the keyboard player Sens GUNS while he was studying music production at the School of Arts (aka The Conservatory) in Ghent, and asked him if he would like to come and play the Rhodes piano part in a live performance by TOM�N of an arrangement of 'Twee Meisjes' by Raymond van het GROENEWOUD that the group had made. As a result, Sens GUNS joined TOM�N shortly after he had guested for them in February 2007, just in time for the tour with MADENSUYU. This allowed Lode and Wouter VLAEMINCK to now share bass duties, and the tour saw the band perform in Germany, Holland, France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and also Luxembourg.

In March 2008 Alexander VANYSAKER joined TOM�N on guitar and keyboards to make the band into a five-piece, and they released their third album 'Where Wolves Wear Wolf Wear' in July 2009, the album having again being recorded & mixed by Wouter VLAEMINCK at his home studios in Lo-Reninge and Ghent, Belgium between summer 2008 and winter 2008/9. The band's stated influences include US indie and post-rock bands THE AMERICAN ANALOG SET and EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY, and the Canadian instrumental band DO MAKE SAY THINK.

======= Compiled from different sources by David (yam yam), March 2025 =======read more

Buy TOMAN Music

DOUG LARSON IMPORTS — Buy prog rock music and rarities (5% off over $125, 10% off over $300, 135$+ Free shipping)
AMAZON — Search « TOMAN » CDs & Vinyls

TOMAN forum topics / tours, shows & news

TOMAN latest forum topics

No topics found for : "toman"

Create a topic now

TOMAN tours, shows & news

No topics found for : "toman"

Post an entries now

TOMAN Videos (YouTube and more)

Showing only random 3 | Search and add more videos to TOMAN

TOMAN discography

Ordered by release date | Showing ratings (top albums) | Help Progarchives.com to complete the discography and add albums

TOMAN top albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

2.00 | 1 ratings

Catching a Grizzly Bear, Lesson One
2005

3.00 | 1 ratings

Perhaps We Should Have Smoked the Salmon First
2006

0.00 | 0 ratings

Where Wolves Wear Wolf Wear
2008

TOMAN Live Albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

TOMAN Videos (DVD, Blu-ray, VHS etc)

TOMAN Boxset & Compilations (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

TOMAN Official Singles, EPs, Fan Club & Promo (CD, EP/LP, MC, Digital Media Download)

TOMAN Reviews

Showing last 10 reviews only

Perhaps We Should Have Smoked the Salmon First by TOMAN album cover

Studio Album, 2006
3.00 | 1 ratings
BUY

Perhaps We Should Have Smoked the Salmon First
Toman Post Rock/Math rock

Review by Sean Trane
Special Collaborator Prog Folk

— First review of this album —

It looks like Tom�n is very concerned for the bear's diet, the salmon's condition and the Canadian wildlife in general. Might I suggest our favourite Flemish group to dare moving out to the Great White North so they can sate their Canadian nature syndrome? Indeed I don't really care whether the salmon is smoked and it wouldn't make a difference to the grizzly bear of their previous album, he'd eat it without noticing the difference..Anyway, Toman are giving us a course on smokeable salmons & trouts on their cardboard sleeve album. Whether their pre-occupations and artwork envies are in line with their music is a pertinent question, though.

That's the beauty of post rock, you can have it say the dumbest and most seemingly useless thing into, it takes on a different dimension, but the fish or bear theme don't seem to be a primordial inspiration through their song titles but the summer theme (fishing season) certainly is. 8 tracks, ranging from xxx to yyy, filled with relatively quiet post rock, again in the GYBE! mode, at times sung, Tom�n's post rock doesn't differ much from the better known groups. You won't find much to differentiate Tom�n from the dozens of band offering such music, though.

BTW: Toman boys I don't smoke salmon, only good grass. easier to roll.

Catching a Grizzly Bear, Lesson One by TOMAN album cover

Studio Album, 2005
2.00 | 1 ratings
BUY

Catching a Grizzly Bear, Lesson One
Toman Post Rock/Math rock

Review by Sean Trane
Special Collaborator Prog Folk

— First review of this album —

First album from the Flemish group Tom�n, Catching A Grizzly Bear boasts a very sleek and attractive artwork, including some kind of petrodinnar AND the first lesson on how to achieve the album's title. Whether they already knew the answer would lead to their follow-up albums is unknown, but it definitely seems that the Ghentenaars (that's what the people og Ghent call themselves) should actually try to tour western Canada to saturate their curiosities. In either case, Tom�n develops the usual post-rock but seem intent on singing some songs, which is not that good an idea since the singer's pronunciation and accent are very much perfectible. As is I'm afraid the overall sound of the album. In the now-vast choice of pos rock records, which seem pretty well all exchangeable, given the genre-wide aural spectrum, I guess Tom�n's debut album holds very little arguments to find a spot in your helves, mainly because it's very much amateurish, except maybe in the artwork dept.

Thanks to ProgLucky for the artist addition. and to NotAProghead for the last updates