Toro y Moi
Causers of This
Toro y Moi (aka Chaz Bundick, who began making bedroom recordings under that name in 2001) was slated to release his first two albums in 2010, and Causers of This is the first of them. Causers of This sounds like a dance-pop mixtape plunged underwater -- it's all smeary synthesizers, chopped-up dance beats, and washes of reverb. In other words, it's a sound similar to that of Neon Indian or Washed Out (which makes sense, seeing how Washed Out's Ernest Greene and Bundick were friends well before this album came out). Causers of This' main appeal is in its subtlety, and there's real pleasure to be found in all the little sonic tweaks and doodads Bundick has tucked into each track (a ghostly mesh of sampled vocals on "Fax Shadow"; a delicate drumbeat echoing, as if suspended midair, on "Minors").