Almost nothing good comes of the internet anymore. For most of us, it’s just a means for burrowing ever deeper into an algorithmic innerverse of life-draining pointlessness. And that’s the most innocent of possible results. But then there are cases like digital-fusion act Toadchurch.
“This is the least new observation ever but it’s hard not to feel disheartened about the world and the future,” says Orlando’s Ande Christenson, the 21-year-old artist behind Toadchurch. “Not only because there’s bloodshed everywhere all the time but because I use a computer and a phone every day even though the internet is designed to make you, as an individual, upset constantly.”
So instead of clicking his way into ruin, this clever and very online child of the internet wields it as a tool for creativity in music, video and comedy. His new album, Summer of Guns, is a defining work in his young career. Originally intended strictly as a creative exercise and not a product, this sophomore album is Toadchurch’s entry in a one-week album jam held in May by sketch-comedy group Bogo, of which Christenson is a member. This batch of music wasn’t even going to be released. That was until he stepped back and saw the result.
The duality of Toadchurch’s instinctively sparkling sensibilities and his new, darker outlook is both the heart and the guts of Summer of Guns. And it’s a synergy of pure alchemy. This especially plunderphonic outing weaves much of its foreboding mood from the cultural ether, capturing some of our worst social inclinations with some of our brightest musical ones and stitching them into a dynamic, sample-rich montage.
Despite the grim American truth throughout, this album still pops and drops with crispness and kick. Instead of dragging the affair, the heavier tenor here is a whetstone that gives everything more edge and bite. The beats kick with the hard funk of hip-hop and the atmosphere pumps with street heat. The net effect is a sharp-cut block of tracks that hit with more grit than typical digital-fusion fare. “I wanted Summer of Guns to feel haunting and sinister but still sticky and danceable,” says Christenson.
An internet-age pastiche blending the party frequency of All Good Funk Alliance and the sample science of Handsome Boy Modeling School, Summer of Guns is a tricked-out digifu vision that’s a much bolder whole than the sum of its obscure parts. The album now streams everywhere and is available for free download on Bandcamp.
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This article appears in July 22-28, 2026.
