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Voltando à tua própria música, achas que a canção “Blessa” é um episódio essencial para Toro Y Moi? Achas que, de certa forma, foi a canção que definiu o projecto? De certa forma acho que sim. Eu quero continuar a mudar e a desafiar-me a mim mesmo e essa canção foi a primeira daquele tipo que eu escrevi. Aprendi muito musicalmente e tecnicamente com ela.

O que é que nos podes dizer acerca do teu outro projecto, Les Sins? Sentiste que tinhas de criar outra persona para criar coisas diferentes, para explorar outros territórios? Sentiste-te de certa forma limitado dentro de Toro Y Moi? Sim, Les Sins é basicamente música de dança, que era uma coisa com a qual não queria que Toro Y Moi estivesse associado. Mas obviamente, isso não significa que eu não goste de música de dança. Toro Y Moi, é o mais ilimitado dos dois projectos. No máximo, Les Sins é o projecto mais limitado.

Porquê o nome, porquê Toro Y Moi? A mim parece-me um nome bastante exótico… [risos] Inventei o nome quando tinha 15 anos. Desculpa ser um desmancha-prazeres, mas foi completamente aleatório… Tão típico dos adolescentes…

‘Causers Of This’ infects your mind with pure psychedelia, splicing such conflicting sounds as soul, freak folk, hip-hop and electronica, and the result hits you like Animal Collective on a comedown, or Ariel Pink with Seasonal Affective Disorder. Although a mere 33 minutes, ‘Causers...’ is a woozy kaleidoscopic voyage, sending you in and out of consciousness with each splendidly shoddy lo-fi recording. Opener ‘Blessa’ is feather-light dream-pop which hypnotises your ears into complete submission, whereas soulful vocals blend with hip-hop beats in ‘Fax Shadow’, proving Toro Y Moi as quite the chameleon. ‘Talamak’ is the record at its most energetic, as the anaesthetic starts to wear off for a psychoactive dance-off between body and mind.

Call it glo-fi, chillwave, hypnagogic pop or… well, pretty much anything you like

Stylishly soporific, the glo-fi pioneer's debut is a blissed-out masterpiece

the idea that Toro Y Moi isn't really that different from Washed Out, Memory Tapes is basically an ambient Neon Indian, and so forth. This one's a little more difficult because there really are clear aesthetic similarities between these guys. Still, there are distinctions. Looking at Toro Y Moi in comparison to Washed Out and Neon Indian, the main difference is that the latter two put more of an emphasis on hooks. Their songs are generally catchier and more straightforwardly composed. Bundick, on the other hand, is more producer than songwriter. While they might lack the immediacy of a "Deadbeat Summer" or "Feel It All Around", his tracks often have deeper, more interesting layers.

The album starts out strong with a string of tracks that showcase Bundick's range. First two songs "Blessa" and "Minors" exhibit his pop sensibilities, setting a wash of vocals over looped electro-funk instrumentals and crisp drum programming. Here Bundick strikes a nice balance between sticky vocal melodies and the undulating arrangements that feature through the rest of the record. On other tracks in the first half, he takes on genre experiments with similar success-- first jaunty piano soul on "Imprint After" and then sparkly disco with "Lissoms", the album's most propulsive moment. While these songs are all enjoyable, "Fax Shadow" serves as the best representation of Toro's potential. It's the most complex track here, and in its Dilla soul sampling and distorted beat pattern, Bundick shows production skill far beyond most of his peers.

This craftsmanship carries him through most of the album, but begins to fade towards the end. Bundick doesn't run out of ideas at this point, but his balance of arrangement and song feels off. "You Hid" is wobbly but one-note, lacking punch, and the closing title track is too cluttered. If Causers of This stayed consistent through the end, it might be up there with the assured debuts of his peers; instead, it's just a few notches below.

While wholly generic, to the position of near-pastiche at times, the debut long-player from Toro Y Moi – aka South Carolina’s Chaz Bundick – is nevertheless engrossing and entertaining, lifting as it does from sources as exquisite as the squelch-and-fizz beatscapes of J Dilla and the blogosphere-borne chillwave sounds of summer 2009.

Come the album’s midsection, echoes abound of not only Dilla (Fax Shadow, especially) but also more recent purveyors of glitched-and-grafted forward-thinking hip hop: Flying Lotus stands proud as the primary parallel to be drawn. Lissoms, meanwhile, could be a stray cut from Hudson Mohawke’s attention-grabbing EP of 2009, Polyfolk Dance, and alongside the shadowing of stateside influences Bundick does a decent impersonation, more than once, of Scotland’s aquacrunk scene.