Toro Y Moi:Underneath The Pine

8.7/10 dropps
Carpark; 2011

Last year, South Carolina’s Chazwick Bundick captured our attention with his funky psychedelic alias Toro Y Moi. His debut album, Causers Of This, was an exciting and effortless electronic journey into the rising genre of chill wave, demonstrating its strong use of sampling, frequent ambiance, and synth, and every now and then a hint of good old soul.

Well, a year later, Bundick is back with the same type of recipe but completely different ingredients. On Underneath The Pine, you won’t find a single electronic sample or mashup mix, or even computer-generated effects which predominately made up Causers. You also won’t find yourself skipping over any of the album. It’s still chill, it’s got a hell of a lot more of that soul, and now a band of real live instruments to orchestrate the tunes.

Although the process behind the record is something new for Toro Y Moi, even without its effects and digital influence, it’s still very distinguishable and easy to determine that it all came from Bundick. The album is 11 tracks in length and is without any major flaws. It’s the musical journey of an artist who doesn’t necessarily want to set genre labels to a piece of work that truly embodies his individuality. In a recent interview Chaz said, “I has to re-train myself. With electronic programs, you’re recording and writing at the same time; you make a beat, you record it, it’s there. With this album I didn’t want computers to take over my style.”

The album kicks off with a dreamy intro, leading into the disco-ripe “New Beat” with its catchy bass lines and awesome keyboard solo. “How I Know” sounds like a homage to a vintage horror movie soundtrack with its almost eerie organ sections. “Good Hold” also gets into that horror movie eerie state with it’s down-tempo, laid back approach. Then there’s the album closer “Elise” which sounds a bit offbeat, yet its echoes and the reverb on the vocals are nothing short of fantastic. There’s easily some moments reminiscent of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” some Animal Collective/Panda Bear, and at times James Brown among the album’s throwback (yet still fuzzy) genre-crossing melodies. Most importantly, the shining star of Underneath The Pine is Bundick’s vocals. He has managed to create an impeccable sound channeling listeners into an extremely enjoyable record.

With Toro Y Moi’s sophomore LP a lot of fans might expect one of the pioneering faces of the chill wave movement to have stepped a bit further into the digital age of tomorrow.Instead the 23-year-old took a step back in time, threw his own spin on 70s and 80s grooves, and came out with an absolute gem, capturing that spaced-out, let’s dance, bundle of greatness that we fell in love with from the get go.

-Jay Wolman