Whereas numerous indie acts seem to be venturing into electro-dance realms, Toro y Moi (the project led by N.C. native musician Chaz Bundick) has strayed from digital affectations in favor of live instrumentation on fresh fourth album What For?. You’ll still hear discofied divergences and intermittent effects, but Bundick has recharged his funk ‘n’ groove chops and infused his recent material with hallucinogenic doses of lush psychedelia, evoking that vibrant ‘70s retro vibe without being incessantly derivative.
“I don’t want to completely alienate people but I do want to challenge myself and do something different,” Bundick explained. Considering his creative output and the two-night brace of sold-out shows his band was in the midst of playing in Brooklyn when we talked last week, he must be doing something right. “It’s a balance of finding new ground and keeping old audiences.”
Toro y Moi started in chillwave, sample-strewn realms with well-regarded 2010 debut LP Causers of This, but 2011 sophomore follow-up Underneath the Pine ventured away from the laptop-fueled jams of its predecessor to a more textured mix drawing on elements of space funk, Krautrock, disco and French dance-pop à la Stereolab. He returned to sleek digital realms and dabbled in ‘80s-inspired R&B, freestyle and quiet storm influences in the Freaking Out EP that followed later that year and primed fans for 2013’s melancholic and introspective Anything in Return, built on sparkling layers of synthesizers and infused with the sounds of late-night house, electro-funk and pop-soul.
Bundick’s capacity for writing lush arrangements and yielding a warm analog quality in the results came to vibrant fruition in this year’s What For?, which finds Bundick broadening his sonic palette even further and fully embracing his ‘70s influences. “There’s something about the recordings of that era, from the microphones they were using to the mindset that the musicians were in back then. It was a time before technology got too crazy and people got a little too reliant on electronics to make things easier. I feel like there’s something about it worth grasping on to.”
What For? is vintage-soaked while still feeling fresh, a blend of bright, shimmering and spacious prog-psychedelia hinting at Pink Floyd and ELO, jazz-funk fusion, Bee Gees-style disco, psychedelic soul and heady funkadelia with whiffs of spaghetti-western drama and retro-smooth TV theme song scoring. His bandmates and a few guest musicians (including Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Ruban Nielson) helped flesh out the mix with live drumming, stereo-panned guitar passages, buzzing and slinking synthesizers, funked-out keys, and thick, fuzzy low end or more rubber-band elastic bass grooves.
Non-musical influences get his juices flowing just as much as musical ones — art, design and film, primarily. It’s avant garde cinema — films that make him think differently — that inspires him most. “I’m always trying to come up with new ideas,” said Bundick. “I’m constantly trying to find different influences, looking for different textures and sounds and color palettes.” Among those are anything by Alejandro Jodorowsky (especially 1973 Mexican-American surreal fantasy The Holy Mountain), British sci-fi thriller Ex Machina, and movies like Inside Out and The Lego Movie that have some sort of meta message. “There’s subtle references to helping children expand their minds. I like those kinds of films.”
He also draws on real-life experiences, too. “The Flight” was inspired by a bush plane ride he and his wife took over Denali National Park while they were vacationing in Alaska. He was deeply fearful of flying at the time, and the craft’s diminutive size freaked him out even more, especially in view of history. “It’s just a known fact — musicians tend to go down.” The hour-long excursion was $400 per person, which gave Bundick the perfect out — too expensive. “I was like, ‘I’ll only go if we get in for free.’ I didn’t want to pay $400 to get scared shitless.”
Unfortunately for Bundick, the couple ran into a Toro y Moi fan in a local coffee shop who just so happened to live and work at an airstrip that gave rides over the park. “And he was like, ‘If you guys want to go, I can hook you up for free.’”
The winding, swirling and soaring instrumentals of the song’s refrain seem to reflect the awe-inspiring beauty of being so high up, Bundick’s high-toned, sweetly tuneful vocals taking on a resigned quality in verses referencing the flight (“I’d only go if we got in for free/Drowning for rows? I hope you’re right by me/You shut your eyes while I look at the sky/Then you ask how long was the flight”). Ultimately, he said, it proved to be a positive experience, if a nerve-wracking one. “It was one of those things, where, my fear of flying just … escaped. I was able to just get over it. So now, whenever I ride on a commercial flight, it feels like nothing.”
Bundick’s band has remained mostly unchanged since 2011, made up of players he’s known for years and all from his Columbia, S.C. hometown — guitarist Jordan Blackmon, bassist Patrick Jeffords, drummer Andy Woodward and keyboardist/backing vocalist Anthony Ferraro, the last welcomed to the fold in 2013. “We’ve got a band of brothers thing going on,” he said. “No one’s a hired gun. It’s really nice.” He explained the live show is an entirely collaborative affair; everyone gives equal input to make the studio recordings a dynamic reality on stage. “It’s awesome being with your friends on the road too, because it makes everything feel better, you know? It also makes everything not feel like work.”
Toro Y Moi plays with Astronauts, Etc. this Fri., Oct. 9, at State Theatre, St. Petersburg; doors at 8 p.m. Tickets are $18 in advance, $20 dos.
