Tag Archives: Toro y Moi

[Podcast] Music Ninja Radio – Episode 46 (Recap)

Music Ninja Radio
Episode 46

Music Ninja Radio is a weekly podcast broadcast live on San Francisco’s BFF.fm — Best Frequencies Forever. You can tune in here every Friday from 4-6PM PT / 7-9ET. 

Last Friday’s show marks the one year anniversary since we took our talents to the airwaves of BFF in San Francisco’s best kept secret(alley). From deep in the Mission District, through the port of a pirate ship, we’ve been bringing the best of the best to your ears – Best Frequencies Forever wasn’t voted ‘Best Radio Station‘ in the Bay Area for nothing!

With that in mind, now seems as good a time as any to start providing our fellow Ninja readers with a weekly recap of our show, Music Ninja Radio aka Dojo by the Bay. Curating the best releases each week, themed shows coinciding with specific artist releases, and a fair amount of throwbacks sprinkled throughout, Music Ninja Radio has something for everyone.

The full show’s playlist can be found on the website’s archive here.

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14 Unforgettable Sets from Outside Lands 2015 [Festival Review]

CoverIt’s been nearly a week since we first stepped into Golden Gate Park for Outside Lands, but with the return to the daily grind it feels like even longer for most of us. This year’s festival, yet another record-breaking one by attendance, featured all the amenities that make OSL special–amazing food, craft beers, a star-studded comedy lineup, the beautiful backdrop of Hellman Hollow and of course a top-notch bill of musical performances. With its rapid expansion came some growing pains as well, though, and our main gripe was the inaccessibility of the Heineken House, which featured some great DJs, due to overcrowding. At the same time, the greater depth of the lineup made the previously overlooked Panhandle stage the place to be and when the crowd came together at shows, the energy was unbelievable.

In the stupor that follows music festivals, it can be easy to allow your precious experiences to fade in the rearview of your memory bank, but there will always be sets that you’ll never forget. We’ve recounted 14 sets that have been stuck in our minds all week and also tried something a bit new with this review by asking random fans to review our favorite sets. If you were in attendance this year, we hope this brings you back and, if not, it might just make you want to check out OSL next year.

All images by Ninja Dominic Powell. All writing, unless otherwise noted, by Ash.

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Lollapalooza 2015: Our Top Takeaways [Event Review]

Lollapalooza-2015

As with any music festival, after Lollapalooza is over, it always takes us a few days to digest everything and snap back to reality. For locals, the festival serves as a three day escape within our own city. For outsiders, it provides them with a completely unique way to experience Chicago. The magic of Lollapalooza is simply unmatched, and despite a weather scare on the final day, Lollapalooza 2015 turned out to be just as memorable as years past. On the next few pages we’ve broken down some of our lasting impressions from Lolla.

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[Hip-Hop] Toro y Moi – Pitch Black (feat. Rome Fortune)

Toro y Moi
Pitch Black (Ft. Rome Fortune)

A few months back, we wrote a piece about Toro y Moi titled “5 Faces of Chaz” exploring the broad-ranging styles and experimentations he’s taken with his music thus far, which really just scratches the surface of his creative scope. Chaz Bundick, the enigma behind Toro, has dabbled in hip-hop in the past (Tyler, the Creator loves him and they’ve got a song together called “Hey You”) and, shortly after releasing a stellar indie-rock leaning album in What for?, he seems to be re-opening that facet of his style. Through his Soundcloud page, he’s released a couple unique trap and hip-hop inspired productions including “2Late,” a collab with former Das Racist member Kool A.D., as well as an epic instrumental titled “That Instead of This,” which we can only really describe as “trapwave.”

Yesterday, he released a collaboration with TMN-favorite, Atlanta emcee Rome Fortune, who couldn’t be a better partner-in-crime for a producer as adventurous as Chaz. In some ways similar to Toro y Moi, albeit much earlier in his career, Fortune has been consistently ahead of the curve proving audacious when it comes to stepping out of any genre constraints. His work with Four Tet, most recently on “Leaders,” is the perfect example of how Rome Fortune can be a chameleon of sorts shaping his delivery to match an unconventional instrumental.

Toro y Moi and Rome Fortune’s inventive styles fuse masterfully on “Pitch Black,” which starts off with an ominous bass-line and disorienting arpeggiated synths before falling into a smooth groove. In Toro’s keys and trickling percussion, you can hear bits of the production style on his 2013 album Anything in Return but with a marked cadence friendlier to an emcee. That being said, it’s not by any means a traditionally structured hip-hop strong with a constantly shifting backdrop. Rome raps accordingly, though, with flows that span slow and spread-out raps, melodic chorus-esque portions and traditional hard-hitting delivery sections. Similarly, the lyrics mirror the juxtaposition created by the instrumental as Rome calls himself the “coolest motherfunker in the planet” all the while talking about a soul-sucking relationship.

Collaborations like this one are important for music and have become increasingly feasible in the digital age. Songs like “Pitch Black” tear down genre walls and, in doing so, push culture forward by bringing together fans of both styles. In short, Rome’s right he really is “the coolest montherfunker on the planet.”

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Coachella 2015 – Must See Acts [TMN EDITORS’ PICKS]

TMNCoachThe spectacle and legend of Coachella Valley Arts & Music Festival seems to grow every year and, although it’s certainly reached a critical mass at this point, it proves time and time again to be worth the trip. After breaking box office records for consecutive years, Coachella continues blazing ahead in 2015 with a deep, diverse lineup and some of their most ambitious projects to date including their largest investment in art installations ever. With the first weekend kicking off this Friday, the set times for Coachella were finally let loose yesterday bringing up the regular scheduling conflicts and tough decisions. To make things easier for you all, we’ve decided to lay out our top acts to see every day chronologically. We hope this serves as a useful guide as you prepare for the whirlwind of emotion that is Coachella. Best advice we can give you all: keep good company, don’t sweat (figuratively, of course, perspiration is imminent) and most importantly be safe. Hope to run in to some of you ninjas there!

P.S. We didn’t forget the Do Lab! You can find our Do Lab picks on the final page.

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[Event Review] 5 Faces of Chaz: Examining Toro y Moi’s Evolution at The Independent, SF 3/28

DSC_0344Over the last five years, Chaz Bundick, as both Toro y Moi and Les Sins, has repeatedly redefined his style bringing refreshing facets of his reserved, enigmatic persona to light all the while maturing with each album. A true musical chameleon, Chaz has worn many hats but, regardless of genre, he maintains his aesthetic always remaining true to himself. This realization couldn’t have been more evident as I watched Toro Y Moi perform a hometown show at The Independent in San Francisco last weekend in which he intertwined his various musical identities into a cohesive and career-spanning set.

Backed by several talented musicians, including ninja-favorite Astronauts, etc. on the keys, Toro y Moi’s countless jams, from hazy bedroom productions to groovy indie rock, were presented in the most vibrant way possible. Almost signifying transitions between old and new, Chaz swapped between MIDI keyboard and guitar through out without losing a beat. As an avid fan, and music geek, I found myself not only dancing steadily through out, but also hit with a flurry of thoughts and emotions inspired by the diverse, yet unified, setlist. To best capture those feelings, I decided to recount the performance in the context of a career retrospective. Flip through the pages and explore the five faces of Toro that I witnessed last Saturday with photos and songs from the set to match.

Toro y Moi’s upcoming album, What for?, drops on April 7th but can be streamed via NPR Music now. You can pre-order on iTunes here and find upcoming tour dates here.

All photos by Dom Powell

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[Alternative] Toro y Moi – Run Baby Run

Toro Y Moi
Run Baby Run

The latest single from Toro y Moi solidifies the direction of his highly anticipated upcoming album, What for?. Continuing in the vein of dreamy indie rock, “Run Baby Run” features a breezy guitar backdrop, with the lightest touch of funk and psychedelia, teamed with Chaz Bundick’s vocals, which feel like they could soundtrack a 90s movie. It’s yet another showcase of versatility adding to Toro’s many successful musical pivots. The results make for as enjoyable and pleasant a listen as any Toro track and, similar to “Buffalo,” grows on you with every play. Enjoy above–What for? drops on April 7th. Pre-order here.

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