Release Date: September 13, 2011
Ladies, roll up your legwarmers, and fellas, zip up your Members Only jackets. Toro Y Moi’s latest EP, Freaking Out, is taking you back. Chaz Bundick’s latest musical outing is a melting pot of sound that will have the listener in a tug-of-war with the past and the future. Should you jump into the back of the Trans-Am Firebird or the passenger seat of Doc’s DeLorean? The EP’s combination of retro vibes, synth-pop and funky beats make it so you don’t have to choose.
Opening track “All Alone” amply sets the stage, hitting you with something that has just the right amount of layering and catchiness to get your adrenaline pumping faster than Arnold Schwarzenegger in Running Man. Exuding weightlessness, the song mimics the feeling of walking up to an airplane door moments before skydiving. From there, Bundick dives into the title track so smoothly that the transition is almost unnoticeable.
Bundick’s latest musical outing is a melting pot of sound that will have the listener in a tug-of-war with both the past and the future.
Like any decent mix, Freaking Out begins with warm-ups and ends with cool-downs. However, these cool-downs in the form of the last two tracks, “Saturday Love” and “I Can Get Love,” hardly can be called such because your imagination will continue to dance away as Bundick slowly adjusts the tempo. Both songs permit a more psychedelic pull with glossy bass synth and eccentric piano. “Saturday Love,” a cover of the 1985 R&B smash by Cherrelle and Alexander O’Neal, might just be the golden child of the album. Its pop hook will have you grooving almost immediately.
Case in point, Freaking Out doesn’t merely take you back to the 1980s. It takes you back to earlier Toro Y Moi releases while managing to create a fresher, more lucid sound altogether. The lush atmosphere established in Underneath the Pine (2011) is quite different from the upbeat and electric mood radiating throughout. For the most part, the warm instrumentals from Bundick’s sophomore effort have been dropped. This outing marks a return to the programmed soundscapes grounding Causers of This (2010).
While Freaking Out might not be an extremely versatile album, it’s the perfect choice for a fun night of dancing. Despite constant comparisons to Neon Indian, Memory Tapes and Washed Out, this EP further cements Bundick as an artist who refuses to strictly follow the example of his peers. Rather, Bundick continues to prove himself an endlessly creative artist.
Toro Y Moi – Freaking Out EP Tracklist:
- “All Alone”
- “Freaking Out”
- “Sweet”
- “Saturday Love”
- “I Can Get Love”
