American Chaz Bundick, American singer, musician and producer behind Toro Y Moi, has already shown in just over a decade that he is not a one-style man. Erected at his beginnings as a prince of the ephemeral movement “chillwave” (lazy style of electronic music abusing filters), this chameleon has since his first album in 2009 explored in his own way both R&B and pop, soft rock and house music, not to mention his hip-hop collaborations ( Travis Scott, Odd Future) and electro (Chromeo, Flume, Flying Lotus).
On his seventh album, the jubilant mahal, Chaz takes us on a new experimental sound epic on air cushions. Because mahal is a solar and voluptuous disc, resolutely cut to laze in the warmth of summer.
In a playful mood, Chaz is more eclectic than ever. He embraces lush psychedelia here without complex (Way Too Hot), neo-soul, languid blues (Mississippi), gleaming disco-funk (Millennium), sensual saxophone (Goes By So Fast) and bursts of post-rock (Foreplay), often combined in unexpected ways within the same piece. We even spotted a few echoes of Supertramp-style keyboards on the finale. Days in Love ! But these surprising mixtures are made with such fluidity that it is sometimes difficult to know where the songs with their catchy melodies begin and end.
Songs lovingly constructed by Chaz as a studio goldsmith but which are undoubtedly also the fruit of fruitful improvisations. Because, in reaction to the isolation due to the pandemic, this solitary multi-instrumentalist with a delicious voice brings a crowd of collaborators on board for the first time. He notably invites Ruban Nielson from Unknown Mortal Orchestra, whose guitar awakens cottony climates – with Hendrixian echoes from the opening title The Medium – but also Salami Rose Jose Louis, whose childish song illuminates Magazineand the promising Sofie Royer, also at the microphone on Clarity.
Little known for his texts, which are too elliptical, Chaz seems this time to outline a real point while maintaining his detached tone. We perceive an eco-friendly comment on Magazine, where it is question in the turn of a sentence “of inevitable extinction“, while the adorable Mr Postmanarticulated around a hopping bass, implicitly points to the dematerialization of exchanges.
On In The Loop, Chaz is a covert critic of social media and our need to stay informed. And it gets even more personal with Last Yearin which we understand that the pandemic period led him to go to the shrink for “learn to love yourself“We, in any case, we passionately love this bushy album steeped in sweet madness, undoubtedly his most successful to date.
“Mahal” by Toro Y Moi (Dead Oceans/Modulor)
Toro Y Moi will be in concert on October 4, 2022 in Paris (Trabendo)
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