11 track instrumental album by Tom Caruana
One day Tom Caruana was born. But that’s quite enough about that. Let’s move on to the interesting part of the tale: the music. Ever since the grand old age of 10, Tom has found solace in messing about with musical instruments.
Spurred on by his father’s penchant for salvaging equipment from a number of low-cost sources - AKA skips and rubbish dumps – Caruana Jr. managed to create a fairly substantial number of albums from this DIY collection of reclaimed apparatus. Albums that admittedly no one has ever heard, but albums nonetheless. By Tom's own admission, these albums perhaps haven’t stood the rest of time, but they do provide something of an insight into the early stages of the sound he has since cultivated as his own.
Fast forward a few years and Tom found himself in the company of various rappers on the London and Brighton circuits, and so began the collaborations. He had already started making beats using samples and so the progression into making fully-fledged hip hop records was a natural one. An EP for London-based collective and label, Breakin Bread, emerged in 2004, closely followed by The Menagerie’s debut LP in 2005, alongside Dr Syntax and Professor Elemental, and releases with the Boiler Room Collective.
It wasn’t long before Tom started experimenting with the mash-up methods that have gained him notoriety over the years that followed. Finding the perfect approach to a technique many fail to make work, helped Tom to create classic mash-up projects, featuring the music of Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles and more recently with German experimental rock band, Can, on his Inner Space album. Tom also found success with the live hip hop band, Son of Sam, which he formed with a number of talented souls, including brothers, John and Joe Sam. Their 2017 album, Cinder Hill, saw them collaborating with a number of legendary US hip hop artists, including Masta Ace, Guilty Simpson, J Live and Large Professor.
More recently Tom has returned to his roots somewhat, by once again messing about with musical instruments, albeit at a slightly more skilled level. He is also flexing his teaching muscles by imparting his musical knowledge to a new generation of potential musicians and artists. Which brings us to the present and the imminent arrival of his latest album, Adaptatrap.
Tom Caruana - drums, bass, guitar, keys, percussion, production & mixes
Richard Halligan - sax & flute
Amy Turk - harp
Dominic Sewell - violin
Martha Caruana - additional percussion on Rhododendron
Joe Sam - bass on Dennis The Space Hopper
John Sam - bass on 34 Bond Street
Bruce Reid - bass on 34 Bond Street
Josh French - additional guitar on Down Beat
Walter Coelho - mastering
Shadric Toop - artwork & layout
