Toro y Moi will be playing Moogfest on Saturday, October 29, at the Orange Peel.
Where does pop music come from? There have been many different models—many different ways of thinking about how the machine works. The dichotomy used to be between music that you just listened to and music that you danced to. Music that you danced to was popular and unrefined; music that you listened to moved the better parts of your soul. So where the hell to place Toro y Moi?
There was an interlude where you had the Studio Pro, Hit factories, Tin Pan Alley, Phil Spektor, Motown, and Chazwick Bundick likes to sample from the more refined end of that evolution—the bald monkey to the right on the chart. This is clearly music for dancing, but it’s definitely not raw, sexual, or violent. It’s more luscious and atmospheric. The lyrical content is everyday (“I found the job/I do it fine/not what I want/but still I try”) but with a distilled, contemplative feel—what you might call a “produced.”
It’s almost as if Chaz of Toro Y Moi wants to start at the end. When I asked if he could see himself DJing, Chaz replied, “Hopefully, I can become a DJ, once I get a following, and I have a little more practice.” When I asked why he chose to sing the iconic chorus to “Saturday Love” himself, rather than to simply sample it: “It did come to mind to have female vocalists on it, but it was just way faster to knock it out myself. And then I never really intended to do anything with it, but I just kept on polishing it more and more and it ended up on the EP. I’d never released a cover before.” When asked about a tour he took at the Moog factory, he told me “I liked the feel of the unfinished parts, and all the options they had on display. I’m not that big into boarding or anything like that, but that’s something I want to get into as well.” Clearly, he’s not yet sure what he wants to do or why—but he’s quite sure how.
His most appealing track so far (in my opinion) is “First Date.” The vibraphone tones give a hopeful feeling, tempered with a descending vamp, and an earnest, imploring, plucked guitar line—just like a first date, frankly. It’s the closest I’ve heard Chaz come to losing his cool. A close second might be “All Alone,” which is enjoying a good run on Spotify just recently, off this year’s Freaking Out EP. “Follow her tonight/to get what you’re looking for/ cause she’s all alone tonight,” he sings, and convinces me, a little.
These days, opportunities in dance music rival any opportunity an artist might have to make live music, or—dear Lord—to sell it. Chaz seems to hover over a sea of pure emotion and production, into which, I fear, he might sink at any moment. Here’s hoping that he sticks with us a little longer, first.
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