Carpark Records ■ CAK77
Released January 16, 2013
Produced by Chaz Bundick
Engineered by Patrick Brown, Second Engineer Jorge Hernandez
Mixed by Patrick Brown and Chaz Bundick
Mastered by Joe Lambert
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| Side Three: | Side Four: |
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As it was the one I heard (a reasoning that also inspired the purchase of records like Tobacco's Maniac Meat and Youth Lagoon's The Year of Hibernation), it was the first one I purchased. Causers of This followed in April, and then it was the synchronicity of a work trip to Atlanta that led me to see Toro y Moi in concert in October last year. I picked up the rest of his albums, as well as a few odd singles and the 3x7" box set of bedroom recordings that was released as well. Still, Anything in Return is the one I return to most often.
At that show, Chaz was the closest thing I've seen to a superstar. Classixx opened for him (new to me, and worth checking out, as their Hanging Gardens could easily slip into an expanded top list for last year), but when he came out, it was unlike anything I'm used to in small venues or even large ones. There's a roar for bands, and everyone is often focused on vocalists, but the fact that Chaz does his albums "Prince-style" (in the impossible-to-read-in-the-LP notes, it mentions he performed the entire album alone) seemed to shift the tone, somehow. The crowd was larger, it was a different kind of music, a different kind of venue, but there was still something to it.
It's a bit strange, to be honest--not undeserved, but almost out of keeping with his music. He was first identified with the aptly-named "chillwave", one of those terms that seemed a flash-in-the-pan, but defiantly remains in use as many such things do, thanks to sheer bull-headedness. Unlike his earlier work, though, Anything is a lot more energetic. That said, the energy is of a subdued and extremely cool variety, in most slang senses of the world, and often even a bit of the metaphorical incarnation of the most "literal" use of the word.
"Harm in Change" starts things on a rattle of percussion that leaves the bass away from the record for a good bit, until the song completely splits open over Chaz's increasingly passionate vocals, rising in pitch and tightening, as if drawing in the disparate parts of the backing track to break it all open, even if the bass is still minimal. The second single from the album (though it did not actually receive a 7", it did get a video) pushes a fuzzy bass beat to the forefront, or it would, anyway, if not for the chopped vocal sample that swirls around Chaz's laidback vocal. The video almost manages to encapsulate the curiosity of Toro y Moi as a musical project: Chaz dances randomly, awkwardly, but almost stationary, throughout a forest. It's restrained for the most part, controlled, and all about an infectious beat that maybe you don't quite want to openly show your appreciation of.
"So Many Details" is the one track that did get a 7", introduced with a faltering beat, and a thumping bass versus hi-hat beat. It is like a wonderful collision of the marching band-bass boom of hip-hop beats, the cold, alien piercing sounds of a lot of electronic music, and little hints of the synthesizer-oriented niches that ride the wave of nostalgia to their appreciation. In that sense, it sets the stage most completely for the album as a whole:
"Rose Quartz" continues this feeling, with punctuated bass swinging its weight behind every other sound, feeling ridiculously sensual in its way. "Touch" is one of the interlude-like moments on the album, but developed enough (it's a good 2:30) to still feel complete. It's nearly instrumental, and sets the stage for the yet-more laidback "Cola", which hangs itself on the hook of reverberated monotone synthesizer wobbles.
The end of side two ends up perfectly setting up the stronger, harder beat of "Studies", which is softened just enough by the falsetto vocals that it turns what could be a dark rolling bassline into a dancey movement. Guitar noodling layers the whole thing over to slide it into an easy place like half-lidded eyes, though a pinched, nasal sort of string rears up in little snarls at the middle and end to keep those eyes from closing completely. "High Living", on the other end, has a ridiculous langorous cruising sort of movement to it, and doesn't feel any particular need to force you awake, as it is just musically carefree: it's tight and bound to its beat, but the beat is so natural that that almost doesn't matter. "Grown Up Calls" is something of an R&B interlude from the 90s, a scatter of sounds until shaker and bass glue it all together to turn it to a full-on groove.
I don't think I can question the fact that "Cake" is my favourite track on the record: warm, sustained synth chords, a wiggling curlicue of a keyboard lick over them, and the kind of beat that pushes your head down and forward to follow it. Chaz's verses are exceedingly great at seeming to define the beat rather than follow it. The ebb and flow of the backing track as it goes through the sparse verses and then the thrum of the chorus is just fantastic. I've been openly guilty of miserable physical expression of my appreciation of this one in a work environment, no less. It just hits all the right kind of notes--alas, not one of the times where I picked the single (and I had 3 chances to be right!), but that's all right.
"Day One" shambles along like something off Tricky's Maxinquaye, but with just a little bit less of the deliberate ramshackle-ness: it's clear Chaz was aiming for something smooth. And so it smooths out, even around that clatter of percussion, bonding it with softer, smoother synthesized sounds and some of his more mid-range and comfortable vocals.
While "Cake" didn't make it, "Never Matter" did--it got its own video of random people videotaped dancing to it on headphones, and you really can't blame them. It's a dance-y beat, sprays of synthesizer and the plain-old irresistible hook of "Push it along..." that carries with it a wilder key riff than most of the album. And when those slow, sustained chords ring out by themselves and climb up slowly after the back-and-forth juggle bridge only to fall back on that hook--yeeow! Good stuff. Makes you wanna dance even if you can't (Hello! We have something in common!).
"How's It Wrong" closes the album, and still gives me those amusing mental points of Donald Fagen soundscape. It's not unreasonable--electronics-heavy, smooth, but the rhythms and Chaz's vocal style shake away such cobwebs pretty quickly. The beat is too heavy for Fagen's stuff, and the groove far too sensual and dance-y. The track itself doesn't scream out "album-closer", but the dissolution into warbling wateriness and distant bleepiness, cold but friendly, spins it all off into space quite nicely.
Oddly, 2013 made it harder for me to pick the higher end of the list, rather than the lower end. My top two were undeniable, but as it got up the list, it got harder to say--I finally settled on this record because it's one thing to make an ass of myself home alone, and entirely another to do so (in this fashion, at least) in front of coworkers. That the show made me feel like I'd somehow managed to magically catch a rising star on the way up, too--get in now, while you still have a chance to figure his stuff out for yourself, before you're inundated and can't divorce it from endless appearances! Only a few of my friends recognize the name, but all nod approvingly when it happens--join them, and start here.
On a silly sidenote: the CD version (which I also own) has a version of the cover in black and white, which bears the wonderful invitation "Color me!", but the vinyl sadly lacks this, despite containing the same version of the image. Indeed, it is the flip of the first inner sleeve, and was facing outward when I found the record (amusingly, in October, back at Lunchbox, a week from the show I'd go to, and completely oblivious to that fact at the time). Ah, well. Guess it's better not to risk folks trying to colour with the LP still in the inner sleeve!
"Harm in Change" starts things on a rattle of percussion that leaves the bass away from the record for a good bit, until the song completely splits open over Chaz's increasingly passionate vocals, rising in pitch and tightening, as if drawing in the disparate parts of the backing track to break it all open, even if the bass is still minimal. The second single from the album (though it did not actually receive a 7", it did get a video) pushes a fuzzy bass beat to the forefront, or it would, anyway, if not for the chopped vocal sample that swirls around Chaz's laidback vocal. The video almost manages to encapsulate the curiosity of Toro y Moi as a musical project: Chaz dances randomly, awkwardly, but almost stationary, throughout a forest. It's restrained for the most part, controlled, and all about an infectious beat that maybe you don't quite want to openly show your appreciation of.
"So Many Details" is the one track that did get a 7", introduced with a faltering beat, and a thumping bass versus hi-hat beat. It is like a wonderful collision of the marching band-bass boom of hip-hop beats, the cold, alien piercing sounds of a lot of electronic music, and little hints of the synthesizer-oriented niches that ride the wave of nostalgia to their appreciation. In that sense, it sets the stage most completely for the album as a whole:
"Rose Quartz" continues this feeling, with punctuated bass swinging its weight behind every other sound, feeling ridiculously sensual in its way. "Touch" is one of the interlude-like moments on the album, but developed enough (it's a good 2:30) to still feel complete. It's nearly instrumental, and sets the stage for the yet-more laidback "Cola", which hangs itself on the hook of reverberated monotone synthesizer wobbles.
The end of side two ends up perfectly setting up the stronger, harder beat of "Studies", which is softened just enough by the falsetto vocals that it turns what could be a dark rolling bassline into a dancey movement. Guitar noodling layers the whole thing over to slide it into an easy place like half-lidded eyes, though a pinched, nasal sort of string rears up in little snarls at the middle and end to keep those eyes from closing completely. "High Living", on the other end, has a ridiculous langorous cruising sort of movement to it, and doesn't feel any particular need to force you awake, as it is just musically carefree: it's tight and bound to its beat, but the beat is so natural that that almost doesn't matter. "Grown Up Calls" is something of an R&B interlude from the 90s, a scatter of sounds until shaker and bass glue it all together to turn it to a full-on groove.
I don't think I can question the fact that "Cake" is my favourite track on the record: warm, sustained synth chords, a wiggling curlicue of a keyboard lick over them, and the kind of beat that pushes your head down and forward to follow it. Chaz's verses are exceedingly great at seeming to define the beat rather than follow it. The ebb and flow of the backing track as it goes through the sparse verses and then the thrum of the chorus is just fantastic. I've been openly guilty of miserable physical expression of my appreciation of this one in a work environment, no less. It just hits all the right kind of notes--alas, not one of the times where I picked the single (and I had 3 chances to be right!), but that's all right.
"Day One" shambles along like something off Tricky's Maxinquaye, but with just a little bit less of the deliberate ramshackle-ness: it's clear Chaz was aiming for something smooth. And so it smooths out, even around that clatter of percussion, bonding it with softer, smoother synthesized sounds and some of his more mid-range and comfortable vocals.
While "Cake" didn't make it, "Never Matter" did--it got its own video of random people videotaped dancing to it on headphones, and you really can't blame them. It's a dance-y beat, sprays of synthesizer and the plain-old irresistible hook of "Push it along..." that carries with it a wilder key riff than most of the album. And when those slow, sustained chords ring out by themselves and climb up slowly after the back-and-forth juggle bridge only to fall back on that hook--yeeow! Good stuff. Makes you wanna dance even if you can't (Hello! We have something in common!).
"How's It Wrong" closes the album, and still gives me those amusing mental points of Donald Fagen soundscape. It's not unreasonable--electronics-heavy, smooth, but the rhythms and Chaz's vocal style shake away such cobwebs pretty quickly. The beat is too heavy for Fagen's stuff, and the groove far too sensual and dance-y. The track itself doesn't scream out "album-closer", but the dissolution into warbling wateriness and distant bleepiness, cold but friendly, spins it all off into space quite nicely.
Oddly, 2013 made it harder for me to pick the higher end of the list, rather than the lower end. My top two were undeniable, but as it got up the list, it got harder to say--I finally settled on this record because it's one thing to make an ass of myself home alone, and entirely another to do so (in this fashion, at least) in front of coworkers. That the show made me feel like I'd somehow managed to magically catch a rising star on the way up, too--get in now, while you still have a chance to figure his stuff out for yourself, before you're inundated and can't divorce it from endless appearances! Only a few of my friends recognize the name, but all nod approvingly when it happens--join them, and start here.
On a silly sidenote: the CD version (which I also own) has a version of the cover in black and white, which bears the wonderful invitation "Color me!", but the vinyl sadly lacks this, despite containing the same version of the image. Indeed, it is the flip of the first inner sleeve, and was facing outward when I found the record (amusingly, in October, back at Lunchbox, a week from the show I'd go to, and completely oblivious to that fact at the time). Ah, well. Guess it's better not to risk folks trying to colour with the LP still in the inner sleeve!
- Up Next: Number Eight!
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