A lot of hum and crackle about hypnagogic pop has passed through the ether in the last 18 months, much of it concerned with Toro Y Moi. Coined for a small raft of mainly American musicians that recast half-remembered pop from their youths, the hypnagogic aura is misty, midway between awake and asleep, and draws from soul like Curtis Mayfield or even Hall and Oates, as well as shiny Eighties cocaine-blasted pop. In America, chillwave covers it too. A lo-fi refit of Don Henley's “Boys of Summer” filtered through sacks of sand and then underpinned with some funk would fit the bill.
In other eras, this would have been dubbed psychedelia or shoe-gazing. But we’re here now, and the hypnagogic poster boy is LA’s Ariel Pink. The potential for pigeonholing might be off-putting, and it’d be a pity if the über-hypnagogic but immediate and accessible Underneath the Pine didn’t reach a wide audience.
Toro Y Moi is Chaz Bundrick from Columbia, South Carolina. Underneath the Pine, his third album, has its emphasis on melody and dreamy vocals. Shoe-gazing and harmony pop are in the mix too. A fan of Daft Punk and Animal Collective, Bundrick isn’t just looking to the past for inspiration. Last year’s Causers of This used electronic instrumentation, but Underneath the Pine – referencing both the organic canopy of the forest and the enclosure of a coffin – is entirely built from live, non-programmed instruments. The opening cut “Intro/Chi Chi” has the rotating, distorted guitar and wordless, sighing female vocal of My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless. Next up, the bloopy, funk-pop of “New Beat” sets the album’s other tone. Bundrick’s vocals are buried, listless and almost colourless. Half way through, the song breaks down into some freeform Billy Cobham-isms. But still, the melody nags. “Go With You” is wispy pop, while “Before I’m Done” will be delicious for any fan of Surf’s Up. Adventurous pop is enough of a description.
Find Watch the video for "Still Sound", from Toro Y Moi’s Underneath The Pine
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