Anything in return...
At some point in the future, music historians will simultaneously refer to 2009 as year that chillwave blew up and 2010 as the year that it broke. In the space of a year we were graced with great acts like Washed Out, Neon Indian and Toro Y Moi. Riding in on their coattails, however, were several other derivative groups or one-man bedroom projects; each one more ornamented in slacker aesthetics than the last and each with a bigger fetish for nostalgia and fuzzy VHS. .
As lauded as much of its output was, chillwave was just a fuzz laden drop in an ocean of genres that were hastily emerging and constantly reconfiguring themselves. No one could ride out its crest forever and when buzzwords ‘hypnagogic pop’ and ‘glo-fi’ started getting tossed around as descriptors, it was a sure fire sign that the current had stilled to the point of pretension and mediocrity.
For Chaz Bundick, principal songwriter of Toro Y Moi, it was clearly an evolve or die situation; his debut album, ‘Causers of This’, was such a singular example of chillwave done well that he ran the risk of becoming the captain of a sinking ship, rather than the vanguard of a burgeoning new genre.
Both his sophomore release, 'Underneath The Pine', and newest LP, 'Anything In Return' can be seen as clear attempts to step out of chillwave’s shadow and carve out a niche all of his own. On 'Underneath The Pine' this was largely achieved by incorporating live guitars, analogue synths and drums to create a larger, more ‘live’ sound. On 'Anything in Return' we see Chaz building upon his dance, funk and hip hop influences and playing around with pop music palette a bit more.
Taken as a whole, Toro Y Moi’s recorded output so far is a pretty solid example of a songwriter willing to explore a medium rather than languish within the confines of one particular sound. Whether this kind of eclecticism benefits him in a live context is up for debate.
Its after a fairly uninspiring DJ set courtesy of Bullion that band-leader Chaz Bundick takes to the stage, he’s joined by a drummer, bassist and keyboardist/guitarist whilst he himself handles synths and vocals. Given that all of his material is written and recorded alone, I expected that there would be at least a minor discrepancy between how certain songs sounded on record and how they came across when spread out across four live band members. For the most the band mesh together really well, the bassist especially is adept at translating the synthetic low ends into warm and resounding grooves and Chaz never disappoints as both a frontman and a synth player.
Cohesive as the rest of the band are, its the live drummer that ruins the magic. When he’s not coming in off beat or failing to maintain any sense of rhythm, he’s beating on the skins like he’s John Bonham at Budukan. It’s disappointing because with a band like this, half of the enjoyment comes from the subtlety and timing of the rhythm section, this sounds nothing like the J Dilla-esque beats on the first album or the housier blips and clicks on the newest LP. At the best of times it’s a passable appropriation of that, but at it its worst it just drowns out the rest of the instruments with its heavy handedness. Whatever we’re calling it now, music like this has always been about multiple layers of sound dwelling together in the same place and if you can’t see the wood for the trees it just falls on its ass.
That’s not to say that the whole performance is a dud show, or even a particularly disappointing one. Bundick’s deft songwriting still shines through, the synth hooks, samples and the choruses are still there and the crowd still goes wild when songs like ‘Talamak’ or newest single ‘So Many Details’ make their customary appearances within the set. There really is something incredible about how well the guitarist/synth player and bass player re-appropriate these songs for the live setting.
I think that the main problem here is one of setlist curation, it’s hard to believe that someone could go on so many tours with the same live drummer and not have a good idea of which songs he’s capable on. His to-the-floor style of playing works on the rockier songs off of ‘Underneath the Pine, but he’s an absolute lemon on literally anything not off that album.
On top of that, there's a mid-set slump made up of slow burners and more meditative songs that seem to last forever. I know live shows aren’t supposed to be a greatest hits album, but as much as I love some of these slower songs get kind of tiring when I’m standing by myself watching couples smooch and hug.
Overall its a pretty great show, but it’s clear that Toro Y Moi needs to put as much thought into himself and his band as performers as he has as a songwriter. It just seems like the right songs haven't been chosen for this gig and that things would have gone over better if they had selected a setlist of that played to the group's strengths as a whole.
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