TORO Y MOI : 8 Essential Non-Album Tracks

This year marks the 10-year anniversary of Toro y Moi’s influential chillwave masterpiece Causers of This. The eclectic patchwork of sundrenched samples and distorted beats is still as vibrant and current today as it was in 2010. Since his debut album, Chaz Bundick has released countless songs under different monikers and through many collaborations. Projects like Les Sins and Chaz Bundick Meets The Mattson 2 have revealed different facets of the musician’s kaleidoscopic creativity, while Toro has continued to evolve through the years, and itself has shapeshifted many times in various colorful iterations of avant-garde indie pop. Let’s take a look back at some lesser-known tracks of Toro y Moi’s catalog, songs that are just as essential as the singles we all know and love.

109 (2009)

109 is a garage rocker that stands out in Toro’s catalog. Released as a B-Side of an early version of Blessa - which would eventually open Causers of This - it was an oddity, although in hindsight it also foreshadowed aesthetic themes to come for Bundick. He would continue to explore and refine his electric influences in the decade to come, culminating with the power pop of What For? (especially the Weezeresque Empty Nester), but the results were never as effortless as with this off-the-cuff guitar jam.

Lyin (Pt. 1-4) (2013)

Originally released as part of a tour-only single, this suite of sample-heavy beats rekindles Toro y Moi’s love affair with Dillaesque groovebox wizardry. After the air-tight, minimal electro funk of Anything in Return, it was a breath of fresh air - if not a knee-jerk reaction - that characterizes Toro’s ever-changing oeuvre.

Chromeo - Come Alive feat. Toro Y Moi (2014)

While Chaz actively tries to break down every rule and barrier set up by the electro pop world, the Montreal retro-funk duo Chromeo carefully draws inside the lines and plays on the paradigms of pop with reverence. While they are completely different in their approach, their respective genres perfectly complement each other. Come Alive is one of those rare collaborations where the result is greater than the sum of its parts.

The Usual (2015)

A kick-ass mixtape, Samantha remains unavailable on streaming platforms to this day, probably because it samples anyone from Little Richard to Kanye West, uses which are most probably uncleared. A collection of instrumental beats and odd-ball collabs, it’s a laboratory exploration of urban genres that encompasses modern trap and lo-fi hip hop influences. As idiosyncratic as it was at the time, it would prove to be a logical link between Toro y Moi’s psychedelic albums and is more angular material of Boo Boo and Outer Peace. Whether it’s genuine or playful, The Usual is an unusually dark and aggressive track in which the producer exorcises a different side of his personality.

Still Sound (Live from Trona) (2016)

Although Live from Trona is a legit release, it feels like a fun experiment. Nodding cheekily at Pink Floyd’s Live at Pompeii, this concert album recorded in front of no one (the band is literally in the middle of the desert) is a great document of Toro y Moi’s live performances at the time. It’s interesting to see how they reinterpret this Underneath the Pine classic, recreating very faithfully - read: perfectly - the wobbly synth tones and washed out grooves, adding just enough stank on it to justify this rereading. Like all great live records, it elevates the original composition without making you feel like you had to be there.

Omaha (2017)

Omaha was part of the benefit compilation Our 100 First Days, a project contributing to various causes threatened by the Great American Nightmare that represented Trump’s administration rolling in office. Released on the heels of What For?, it’s as good as anything on the album, and it’s perhaps Toro y Moi’s most accessible track. A bittersweet ballad nodding confidently to the 70s L.A. rock. It’s also the last hurrah of Toro y Moi as a rock “band”, which might explain why it was sort of tossed aside without ceremony. The shape of Bundick would be much more synthetic and post-modern.

1-27-17_intro_function_wifi_v3 (2019)

Toro y Moi released Soul Trash after the album Outer Peace, but this mixtape is actually a spiritual successor to Samantha. I like to imagine that Bundick split himself in 2 somewhere around 2012. In a parallel universe, Toro is an experimental R&B project that’s redefining urban music, while in reality as we know it he continues to decline groovy indie pop with aplomb. Like some lost files recovered on a hard drive spinning somewhere in this parallel dimension, Soul Trash is the yin to his yang (or is it the other way around?) You have to give the Chaz credit for continuously ignoring the rules of the game and playing it by ear. Experimenting is often mistaken for career suicide, Toro y Moi proves again and again that the questions are more interesting than the answer.

Flume - The Difference feat. Toro y Moi (2020)

This collaboration with Flume came out during the quarantine. It’s definitely a Flume track featuring some Toro y Moi’s vocals, but Bundick’s voice is so characteristic that it brings interesting nuances to the star-producer’s sometimes hermetic EDM aesthetic. As much as I’m hoping Chaz Bundick isn’t going to leave us for the scintillating world of mainstream pop, I’m happy to hear is talent recontextualized in a different sphere of the music industry… Also, the track is dope.