Toro Y Moi

Toro Y Moi - Low Shoulder / Tamalak (buy)

Another pioneering artist in chillwave, Toro Y Moi aka. Chaz Bundwick uses layers of synthesizers to create an atmosphere of electronic sounds. Although not necessarily using an easily apparent groove, the music has danceable qualities. His breathy, soft vocals are as characteristic of the genre as the pitch-shifted background wash. "Tamalak"'s staccato sample is reminiscent of Bibio, an artist that is unexplainably left out of the club, when the very techniques he experimented with in 2006's Hand Cranked are used to define the genre. From Mark Richardson's March 2006 write-up:

It sounds worn, weathered, woozy, warped, warbling, and warm. Wilkinson [Bibio] clearly loves folk and a certain strand of idyllic electronic music equally, and has found an efficient place for the two to meet.

Chillwave has taken on a strong seasonal association, much in the same way that beard-folk artists Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes have. The latter have laid claim to winter, and yet while lyrically obscure, chillwave tends to convey precisely a singular emotion that is felt most often when it's sunny and 70.

Causers of This was out January 4th on Carpark Records.