Sticking to any one kind of sound isn't something
Chaz Bundick has ever felt comfortable doing. Under the
Toro y Moi banner -- where he made his bones helping to invent chillwave -- and under other guises, he's taken a crack at dream pop, modern funk, psychedelia, jazz, new age, alt-R&B, and country-rock. One thing he hadn't tried yet, despite taking on production gigs for various rappers, was rap. His 2024 album
Hole Erth remedies that situation as
Bundick and a handful of guests whip up a heady mix of SoundCloud rap, chillwave, dream pop, and emo-y alt-rock that is utterly charming and full of nostalgic delights. As he usually does no matter what style he attempts,
Bundick proves up to the task of creating a record that doesn't only capture the essence of the sound, it sounds like the best possible example. Not that a ton of people are making records with songs like "Reseda," which matches heavily processed shoegaze guitars with thundering prog drums, a loping trap loop, an emo-punk bassline, and a vocal melody borrowed from late-period
Weezer. Plus rapping, yet another skill that
Bundick has tucked away in his toolbox. The record is peppered with these kind of genre collisions that somehow don't sound stitched together in desperation but rather feel very natural and relaxed. Tracks like "HOV," which conjures up a nocturnal meeting between hardcore rap and ambient pop, or "Smoke," which singlehandedly invents the folk trap genre, probably shouldn't work. They do, though, thanks to
Bundick's wizardry and his rap persona, which is very fuzzy around the edges, backward looking, and not tough at all as he drifts through the songs like the chill, sad dude
Drake wishes he was. Along with the aforementioned genre smashes and amalgamated songs like "Heaven," a beautiful trap/R&B/bedroom pop ballad, that sound like newly created genres, there are also a handful of tracks that stick closely to the late-night trap template, and these come across really well too. The
Don Toliver feature "Madonna" is smooth fun, the two of them trading Auto-Tuned verses back and forth, as is "Babydaddy," another track that
Drake will probably steal shortly after he hears it.
Hole Erth is definitely something of a departure for
Toro y Moi and
Bundick as he's never sounded quite as modern and rap friendly as this. Unsurprisingly to anyone who has been following him since the beginning,
Bundick handles the shift with sure-handed aplomb, and everything he tries works out perfectly. As usual. ~ Tim Sendra
