“I’ve got to keep this straight now / Never seen myself this way / The man she needs in her life / I’ve got to keep this right,” Bear sings over spunky key flourishes and pounding toms, which sound like they could have been ripped straight from Thomas Dolby’s “She Blinded Me With Science.” If you were tasked with the challenge of soundtracking a Miami Vice tribute montage with a Toro y Moi song, you’d probably end up choosing this one.īilled as a heartbreak album, Causers of This is simultaneously lovesick and forlorn. From the blocky, colorful rectangles on the cover to the metallic electronic music within, there’s a cohesive kitschiness to the five-track release that makes it one of the most fun outings Bear has ever put out. The follow up to Underneath the Pine, 2011’s Freaking Out EP didn’t shy away from a spirited, corny ’80s aesthetic. So ahead of his forthcoming album Mahal, out this Friday (April 29), we’re looking back at the 10 best Toro y Moi songs so far, from funky deep cuts to beloved singles. He’s left such a major footprint on the contemporary creative world that the city of Berkeley, California, officially declared June 27 Chaz Bundick Day. Bear’s multidisciplinary visual work has appeared in galleries around the globe. When he’s not busy on the road and in the recording studio, he also runs the art and graphic design company Company Studio. However, no matter the aesthetic world one of his records calls home, a commanding and singular sense of nostalgia surely seeps from it.Īlthough Bear started out as an underground darling, he’s gone on to transcend his initial cult status. Meanwhile, 2015’s online-exclusive Samantha took the form of a DatPiff-era hip-hop mixtape.
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2019’s Outer Peace dabbled in neon-drenched dance music, while 2015’s What For? explored groovy rock a la Mac Demarco or Craft Spells. This essence seems to define each of Toro y Moi’s releases, which all inhabit their own distinct universes.
Playing into the tropes of ’70s AM radio pop and disco, it was tied together by analog warmth and cinematic kitsch-a big departure from the bleary beat-making that Bear pioneered on his earliest work. The buzz that record generated was enough to get Toro y Moi touring, allowing Bear to quickly make a name for himself as a contemporary indie-rock mainstay.īear’s sophomore album, Underneath the Pine, presented somewhat of a sonic pivot for the project. His 2010 debut, Causers of This, landed in the gray area between Animal Collective and J Dilla.
But there was always something about his output that felt less disposable and fad-like than the work of some of his peers. Bear’s hazy sound fit nicely alongside those of artists like Washed Out, Neon Indian and Small Black.
Toro y Moi came up at the forefront of the chillwave movement. Whether he’s laying down gridlocked dance tracks as Les Sins or playing trebly guitar riffs through a vintage tube amp, Bear’s palpably radiant spirit makes his work some of the most captivating alternative pop to emerge in the 12 years since the project launched. However, while each of Bear’s releases tend to embrace their own eclectic flavor, they’re all united by an exuberant energy that transcends genre. The Oakland-based recording project of Chaz Bear (formerly Chaz Bundick) has touched on everything from left-field psychedelia to guitar-driven dream pop and ’80s-tinged house music. Over the course of seven albums, a handful of EPs, and some standalone singles, it’s become apparent that Toro y Moi just can’t be pinned down.
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