Weekend Round-up #23/5 - Arcade Fire, Toro y Moi, Menomena, The Drums

The first taster of Chaz Bundick aka Toro y Moi's new sound drops July 20 (US) and July 19 (UK) via Carpark records, in the form of the Leave Everywhere 7". He's taken an organic and courageous turn and chosen to alter his classically overdubbed lo-fi electro sound for something categorically similar, however this time using entirely standard instruments. Lo-fi electro turns lo-fi guitar pop, with results sure to create a divide in the minds of most fans. New single is out July 20th, his second album drops sometime later this year. He's out on tour this year with Caribou, Phoenix and YACHT as well as having booked festival dates across the US and Europe this Summer. As far as I'm concerned, he's a Bestival definite.

Toro y Moi - Leave Everywhere (MP3) (due July 20) (Causers of This - Amazon)

The idea of Menomena's return is one that fills me with excitement on paper, however on listening to the actual new material (so far limited to one capitalised preview track - FIVE LITTLE ROOMS), i can't say i'm quite so enthralled. The new track, in my view, attempts to play Menomena's Portland quirkiness and lyrical unpredictability to its advantage, with controversial results. The music is not quite so interesting as they've shown in the past (Friend and Foe was stunning), and I can't help but feel the disjointed lyrics are somewhat 'forced'. See for yourself below, but don't expect to be blown away. It appears the new album is shaping up to be better visually than it is musically.

Menomena - FIVE LITTLE ROOMS (MP3) (Friend and Foe - Amazon)

California surf-pop duo The Drums are all set to act as face for the surf-revival movement in the UK this Summer - having already footed the bill of the UK NME Tour in March and built hype off the back of their Summertime EP. The full-length follow-up to that breakthrough record is going to be self-titled and will drop June 15, 2010. There's a few tracks floating around the blogs and 'Forever and Ever Amen' (not to be confused with the Randy Travis song of the same name) is one of them - providing us with Beach Boys-esque surfer-dance of the highest quality, with an added hint of melancholy and come-down for good measure.

The Drums - Forever and Ever Amen (MP3) (from The Drums, due June 15, 2010 - Amazon)

The Arcade Fire also revealed two new previews of two new tracks from their new album via a nice little widget from their website. You can sample the previews by clicking the play button, but if you feel like applying some manual labour to hear the new songs, you can spin the record yourself. Suburbs is a lovely little She & Him piano pop song, contrasted by the manic punk overtones of Month of May. Go on, give it a spin below.

Album Review: Toro y Moi - Causers Of This (Feb 23, 2010)

Toro Y Moi
Causers Of This (US - February 23, 2010)
Carpark Records (US)
Chillwave/Lo-fi/Psychedelic

As much as I complain about Pitchfork's huge influence on the eclectic music scene and its often unfair distribution of hype and hatred - it has definitely brought over the years a lot of artists that I don't think i'd have otherwise heard about to my attention. Almost exclusively through its own articles it appears to have brought about a small scale revolution in terms of psychedelic pop, which starting off arguably with MGMT and others in the last half-decade has reached its pinnacle with the imminent successes of bands like Small Black, Washed Out and Neon Indian, and that's just the electronic side of things. Toro y Moi is yet another name on the list, and his debut, one of two albums he is seeing released in 2010, Causers Of This, came out last month on Carpark Records.

Recorded on what sounds like Animal Collective's old four track, album opener Blessa begins by combining 70s surf harmonies with trippy Panda Bear-esque synth reoccurences, before developing into a slow ambient dance track, a vague order of transition which shows itself up as common throughout. With beatmatching synths and the occasional flicker of a heavily manipulated electric guitar string, the music resonates like the soundwaves of early electronic experimentation - drawing together several decades of influences, both organic and electronic, into a vaguely danceable, passive and trippy pop album. The late and great Michael Jackson's influence (as it does also curiously on Yeasayer's latest) shines through as strong as ever on some of the vocals, which in falsetto format captivate otherwise dreamy and at times aimless snippets of music into something more vaguely resembling pop music - eventually resulting in songs which remain in essence dreamy enough to associate themselves with the psych-pop/shoegaze/dreamwave movement, but definitely not direct or hard-hitting enough to claim Yeasayer's potential pop album of the year status.

Toro y Moi is at his best when his songs are harsher and more expressive - the tracks from the album with the most clearcut melodies tend to be the ones which last in your head. Talamak and Causers of This are two of the best examples of this. Talamak starts with simple jarring keyboard lines and a rhythmic squeak which is joined by falsetto vocals in just the second bar, and title track Causers Of This is even more to the point. With distinctively 80s electro-funk bassline and hurried singing, quickly backed up by a delayed set of keyboard inspired 'ooohs' and 'aaahs', the song develops into a tangled mesh of samples and unconventional percussive elements brought to an abrupt stop after the 3 minute mark - just before from the final stretch of Causers of This emerges a hidden track - and probably the most funky balaeric dance track Toro Y Moi has written yet.

Maybe none of the tracks for me quite lived up to My Touch's Bend Your Body (the main source of my enthusiasm for this artist in the months around Christmas) but Chaz Bundick, from his lowly Carolina music-scene origins, has brought us a prolific collection of tracks which knock the average up extremely close to that stunning single. Following in the footsteps of Joy Division, Aphex Twin, Michael Jackson (check his Human Nature cover here) and many others as genre defining musicians - Toro y Moi has accomplished a lot musically and is sure to re-emphasise his mark later this year, with his imminent second full length release.

Toro y Moi - Causers of This (MP3)
Toro y Moi - Talamak (MP3)

Causers of This on CD / Vinyl / MP3 via Amazon.com

One To Watch in 2010 - Toro y Moi

Toro y Moi is a name that is increasingly being dropped around the music press, and not a lot is really known about it other than that it has taken 9 years to wield a full-length release. Toro y Moi is one man by name of Chaz Bundick - a 23 year old failed punk musician from Columbia who's innovative and extremely fuzzy take on electronica has been turning heads from coast to coast. He's had well-deserved features in NME and Pitchfork as well as from our friends over at indieshuffle, and will be releasing 2 albums next year. The first of these is called Causers of This, and comes out on Carpark records, February 23rd.

If his huge amounts of previous material are anything to go on, Causers is sure to be Laptop-crafted indie pop heavy on the synthesizers and light just about everything else. Toro y Moi makes lo-fi fuzz pop perfectly representative of 2009's latest craze, dreamwave. Jarring walls of synthesizers coat glitchy, dubbed down percussion in warming chord sequences - joined without fail by Bundick's softly sung vocals. The whole feel of Toro y Moi is very ethereal and shoegazey but at the same time clearcut pop music you can dance to. If my word wasn't enough, he's even covered Michael Jackson.

He will slot comfortably into your record collection next to contemporaries such as Small Black (introducing..), Washed Out, Gold Panda (original post) and Neon Indian - artists from all around the world who, intended or not, are coming out with markedly similar musical results.

Toro y Moi - Human Nature (Michael Jackson Cover) (MP3)
Toro y Moi - Talamak (MP3) (from 2010's Causers of This)
Toro y Moi - Bend Your Body (MP3)

Causers of This Tracklist:
01. Blessa
02. Minors
03. Imprint After
04. Lissoms
05. Fax Shadow
06. Thanks Vision
07. Freak Love
08. Talamak
09. You Hid
10. Low Shoulders
11. Causers Of This

Blessa 7" on Amazon
Pre-order the Causers of This LP via INSOUND.