Weekly Release Spotlight: Toro Y Moi
Posted on 2/28/2011
Toro Y Moi
Underneath The Pine
[Carpark]
Underneath The Pine
[Carpark]
It should be no surprise that Chazwick Bundick is good friends with Ernest Greene of Washed Out, arguably the artist which began this whole chillwave movement business last year. Bundick’s first album under the moniker of Toro Y Moi, Causers of This, elicited much of the same response as his good friend and counterpart: a blissed out, sample-heavy, venture into lo-fi recording. And by the time that debut album came to an end, you would find yourself wondering, “Where did the time just go?”
I wasn’t particularly convinced of the merit of Toro Y Moi until Bundick started recording new songs under a different name called Les Sins. An extremely groovy foray into club music, it teased what Toro’s next album would sound like, and who knows if we’ll ever have a need to hear from Les Sins again. The new effort is called Underneath the Pine, and by the looks of the album cover, we already know this is going to be a different sound. 70s style type over a vintage image which looks like a mouth eating some form of sea life, its alternately sense-stimulating and gritty, which impeccably portrays the attitude of the eleven songs which follow.
The album in my opinion is practically faultless. We begin with “Intro/Chi Chi” which sounds like a repeat of what we saw on Causers of This… at least initially. And then we are thrown into “New Beat,” the first advance single from this collection, an almost Curtis Mayfield inspired piece with funk and psychedelia engrained in the structure. It’s a beautiful hearkening back to the era which inspired so much of modern day music. Bundick’s vocals get increasingly more pronounced as the album progresses, and by the time “Got Blinded” roles around with that soaring chorus aided by keys, we can understand what he is saying without instrumentation becoming overbearing, sometimes a fault with his debut. Even more striking is how he alters a theme just slightly to make the song much different. With six-minute closer “Elise,” the three minute mark sees a chord change which would delight any set of ears.
While I love the style that Toro Y Moi explored on Underneath the Pine, I’m even more curious to see how he alters other accomplished genres. Either way, this is a young guy making waves in the music world, and I applaud those waves for not just being chilly. He’s broken through to a different realm.
Toro Y Moi plays April 3 at the 7th St. Entry.
I wasn’t particularly convinced of the merit of Toro Y Moi until Bundick started recording new songs under a different name called Les Sins. An extremely groovy foray into club music, it teased what Toro’s next album would sound like, and who knows if we’ll ever have a need to hear from Les Sins again. The new effort is called Underneath the Pine, and by the looks of the album cover, we already know this is going to be a different sound. 70s style type over a vintage image which looks like a mouth eating some form of sea life, its alternately sense-stimulating and gritty, which impeccably portrays the attitude of the eleven songs which follow.
The album in my opinion is practically faultless. We begin with “Intro/Chi Chi” which sounds like a repeat of what we saw on Causers of This… at least initially. And then we are thrown into “New Beat,” the first advance single from this collection, an almost Curtis Mayfield inspired piece with funk and psychedelia engrained in the structure. It’s a beautiful hearkening back to the era which inspired so much of modern day music. Bundick’s vocals get increasingly more pronounced as the album progresses, and by the time “Got Blinded” roles around with that soaring chorus aided by keys, we can understand what he is saying without instrumentation becoming overbearing, sometimes a fault with his debut. Even more striking is how he alters a theme just slightly to make the song much different. With six-minute closer “Elise,” the three minute mark sees a chord change which would delight any set of ears.
While I love the style that Toro Y Moi explored on Underneath the Pine, I’m even more curious to see how he alters other accomplished genres. Either way, this is a young guy making waves in the music world, and I applaud those waves for not just being chilly. He’s broken through to a different realm.
Toro Y Moi plays April 3 at the 7th St. Entry.
Stream: Toro Y Moi - "New Beat"