After building anticipation over the past few months, Toro y Moi, a.k.a Chaz Bear releases his seventh studio album MAHAL via Dead Oceans. Chaz continues to make music from the soul with this 13-track project showcasing inspiration from 1960s and 70s psychedelic rock to 1990s post-rock taking listeners on an auditory expedition as if they’re riding in the back of Bear’s Filipino jeepney that adorns the album’s cover. MAHAL features the previously released singles “Déjà Vu,” which arrived with a video directed by Justin Morris, “The Loop” and “Postman,” both of which arrived with videos directed by Kid. Studio, and the Arlington Lowell-directed video for “Magazine” featuring Salami Rose Joe Louis.
On Wednesday night, Chaz hosted a unique listening party of MAHAL in the form of a short film created with the visual artist Joe Cappa. Cappa’s full album video features live-action characters in custom paper maché heads sitting in their living room analyzing the new album as they listen through it on vinyl along with the viewer.
MAHAL arrives ahead of the release of GOES BY SO FAST, a short film starring Eric André and Chaz that brings the world of MAHAL to life. GOES BY SO FAST premiered at Brain Dead Studios last week and is directed by long-time Toro y Moi collaborator Harry Israelson (Live From Trona, “Freelance,” “You and I”) and produced by Ways & Means. GOES BY SO FAST weaves together a variety of formats including narrative, documentary, animation and a live performance to create a film that further realizes the world of MAHAL.
In celebration of MAHAL’s release, Toro y Moi launches his 8-date spring tour with Khruangbin tonight in Cincinnati. Following his dates with Khruangbin, Toro y Moi will perform at Electric Forest Festival, Pitchfork Music Festival, Capitol Hill Block Party and more this summer, in addition to his own sold out weekend of performances in Big Sur at Fernwood Resort on September 23rd and 24th. Those dates will feature support from Drugdealer, Salami Rose Joe Louis, Sound Bath with Secular Sabbath and DJs TBA. See full live dates below.
MAHAL follows Toro’s highly celebrated 2019 album Outer Peace, which Pitchfork described as “one of his best albums in years” along with his Grammy-nominated 2020 collaboration with Flume, “The Difference,” which was also featured in a global campaign for Apple’s Airpods.
Toro y Moi is the 12+ year project of South Carolina-reared, Bay Area-based Chaz Bear. In the wake 2008’s global economic collapse, Toro y Moi emerged as a figurehead of the beloved sub-genre widely known as chillwave, the sparkling fumes of which still heavily influence musicians all over today. Over the subsequent decade, his music and graphic design has far, far surpassed that particular designation. Across 9 albums (6 studio as Toro y Moi along with a live album, compilation and mixtape) with the great Carpark label, he has explored psych-rock, deep house, UK hip-hop; R&B and well-beyond without losing that rather iconic, bright and shimmering Toro y Moi fingerprint. As a graphic designer, Bear has collaborated with brands like Nike, Dublab and Vans. And as a songwriter and producer, he’s collaborated with other artists like Tyler, The Creator, Flume, Travis Scott, HAIM, and Caroline Polachek.
What the press is saying about MAHAL’s singles:
“playfully electric”
Cool Hunting
“toe-tappin’, spine-slithering grooves”
KCRW
“a slinky psych-funk jam, powered by bass, tambourine and Bear’s breezy, Bootsy Collins-esque vocal”
Paste
“a groovy, laidback slice of funk-pop”
Pitchfork
“Easygoing acid-jazz grooves”
Rolling Stone
“heavily funky, vocally low-key heater”
Stereogum
“Uncontained indie rock that spans everything from psychedelic to chilled-out disco and R&B”
Vulture
“Mahal…is a highly enjoyable sampler of Mr. Bear’s talents”
Wall Street Journal
More about Toro y Moi:
Toro y Moi’s seventh studio album, MAHAL, is the boldest and most fascinating journey yet from musical mastermind Chaz Bear. The record spans genre and sound—encompassing the shaggy psychedelic rock of the 1960s and ‘70s, and the airy sounds of 1990s mod-post-rock—taking listeners on an auditory expedition as if they’re riding in the back of Bear’s Filipino jeepney that adorns the album’s cover. But MAHAL is also an unmistakably Toro y Moi experience, calling back to previous works while charting a new path forward in a way that only Bear can do.
MAHAL is the latest in an accomplished career for Bear, who’s undoubtedly one of the decade’s most influential musicians. Since the release of the electronic pop landmark Causers of This in 2009, subsequent records as Toro y Moi have repeatedly shifted the idea of what his sound can be. But there’s little in Bear’s catalog that will prepare you for the deep-groove excursions on MAHAL, his most eclectic record to date.
The second the album begins we’re immediately transported into the passenger seat, jeep sounds and all, ready for the ride Chaz and company have concocted for us. Seeds of some of MAHAL’s 13 songs date back to the more explicitly rock-oriented What For? from 2015. MAHAL was mostly completed last year in Bear’s Oakland studio with the involvement of a host of collaborators, Sofie Royer and Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Ruban Neilson to Neon Indian’s Alan Palomo and the Mattson 2.
“I wanted to make a record that featured more musicians on it than any other record of mine,” he explains. “To have them live on that record feels grounded, bringing a communal perspective to the table.” As a result, MAHAL is lush and surprising at every turn, from the cool-handed “The Loop,” which recalls Sly and the Family Stones, to the elastic psych rock of “Foreplay” and the dizzying Mulatu Astatke-recalling of “Last Year.”
Lyrically, the album zooms in on generational concerns, picking up where the Outer Peace standout “Freelance” effectively left off. Bear seems to be surveying the ways in which we connect with technology, media, each other, and what disappears as a result. Cuts like the squishy “Postman” and “Magazine” take a deep dive into our relationship with media in a changing digital world. “It’s interesting to see how we adapt to this new age. We’re so connected, but we’re still missing out on things,” Bear ruminates while discussing the album’s themes.
It’s not all introspection. Bear cools things down near the album’s end with the Mattson 2-featuring “Millennium,” a laid-back jam with tricky guitar licks about ringing in new times even when everything else seems upside down. “It’s about enjoying the new year, even when it’s been shitty,” Bear explains. “There’s nothing else to do.” Finding a sense of joy in the face of adversity is embedded in MAHAL’s DNA, right down to the jeepney that literally and figuratively brings the music out into the community. “We know that touring is messed up for now, and large gatherings are a fluke,” he explains. “It’s about the notion of us going out to the people and bringing the record to them.” And with the wide-open atmosphere of MAHAL, Toro y Moi stands to connect with more listeners than ever before.
