#49



Chaz Bundick Meets the Mattson 2
Star Stuff

At #49 we have an album that was on heavy rotation while I was out in California growing doobage. The genre term "neo-psychedelic" never, and I mean never, elicits a huge amount of excitement from me. It reminds me of a number of bands that are so average it makes my head hurt yet somehow they are regarded as the pinnacle of music over the last decade. I'm talking about bands like Tame Impala, Animal Collective, Flaming Lips, and Deerhunter. I'm not saying those bands are terrible, save for maybe Tame Impala, but they're just so goddamn derivative. I swear they all get together a couple times a year and they have a huge "OMG WE ARE SO WEIRD GUYS" orgy and all of a sudden a bunch of similar sounding albums come out.

Not into it.

This album however is something that grabbed my attention and while it took a few listens to really sink in, it made me realize how different it was. First off you have Chaz Bundick AKA Toro y Moi in here with the Mattson bros. Not a huge Toro y Moi fan but what he brings to this music is a bit of melody and the bare minimum electronic tones that separate this from all the other neo-psych albums.

It's also a very good summer album. We would take drives to the beach on days off and I'd play this a lot. The lush guitar work really makes sunny day drives that much more enjoyable. The album stays very close to being an instrumental album but the times Bundick lays some vocals down fit very well.

Highlights include the early Pink Floyd sounding opening track Son Moi, Disco Kid which has some pretty awesome guitar work going on, and Don't Dream Yourself which has a drum section in it that's probably one of my favorite moments in a song this year.