Toro Y Moi - 'Causers of This' (Carpark)

As much as I dislike labelling things, in the past few months during the turn of the decade, there has been a wave of artists who have created this electronica dream-pop ambient sound fusion. Many have even categorised this sound into the ‘chill wave’/‘glo-fi’ sub-genre. Musicians such as Neon Indian, Memory Tapes and Washed Out all made a name for themselves in 2009 with their filtered summertime themed synthpop. Meanwhile adding to the ever growing scene we now have South Carolina based Chazwick Bundick going by the pseudonym of Toro Y Moi.

What I like about his debut release; ‘Causers of This’ is how the album progresses from start to finish. The first two tracks ‘Blessa’ and ‘Minors’ embraces a sound that can be familiarised with modern psychedelic soundscapes like Animal Collective. The smooth production at this point is a far cry from the scattered chopped up beats that occur near the end of the record, where the two highlights for me would have to be the penultimate and closing songs. ‘Low Shoulder’ features excellent use of eighties synths and disco-pop vocals where as the title track at the end leaves me with a the nostalgic sense that I’d been listening to mid nineties French disco music. ‘Low Shoulder’ especially I can see becoming a big summer track in 2010 if Toro Y Moi’s management can be persuaded to promote it in the coming months.

Bundick’s use of texture is apparent throughout the LP, however what disappoints me about ‘Causers of this’ is the lack of creativity in the middle parts. From track four (‘Lissoms’) up to track nine (‘You Hid’), each cut could individually hold it’s own on a compilation or mix tape no doubt. But at this stage the album did somewhat leave me disinterested before drawing my attention again during the latter stages. However, as far as blending together an album goes, Bundick does a successful job in doing this, where from a general perspective makes for good listening.

So if 2009 was the start of another movement in alternative dance music I’ll be interested to see how the rest of the year shapes up as the ‘chillwave’ sound continues to develop. Will it stick with us? Or will it simply fizzle out like many other sub genres have unfortunately tried in this millennium? Only time will tell, but in the meantime, lets just enjoy some of what’s being produced at the moment. And I cant seem Toro Y Moi doing any harm here.

By Freddy Rothman