Toro y Moi, Wild Belle, Dog Bite

The product of a move from South Carolina to Berkeley, CA and the subsequent extended separation from loved ones, Toro Y Moi¹s third full-length, Anything in Return, puts Chaz Bundick right in the middle of the producer/songwriter dichotomy that his first two albums established. There¹s a pervasive sense of peace with his tendency to dabble in both sides of the modern music-making spectrum, and he sounds comfortable engaging in intuitive pop production and putting forth the impression of unmediated… Show more id. The producer¹s hand is prominent‹not least in the sampled ³yeah²s and ³uh²s that give the album a hip-hop-indebted confidence‹and many of the songs feature the 4/4 beats and deftly employed effects usually associated with house music. Tracks like ³High Living² and ³Day One² show a considerably Californian influence, their languid funk redolent of a West Coast temperament, and elsewhere‹not least on lead single, ³So Many Details²‹the record plays with darker atmospheres than we¹re used to hearing from Toro Y Moi. Sounding quite assured in what some may call this songwriter¹s return to producerhood, Anything in Return is Bundick uninhibited by issues of genre, an album that feels like the artist¹s essence.

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