Chaz Bundick Meets The Mattson 2 – Star Stuff
Chaz Bundick is a chameleon. Pioneering the chillwave epoch of the early 2010s under the moniker Toro y Moi, he’s since tried his hand at funk, psychedelic rock, and even hip-hop. Now, shedding the stage name and any semblance of his pop heritage, he’s teamed up with Californian jazz duo The Mattson 2 to deliver an expressive collection of fluid, vibrant psychedelia.
Evoking the hallucinogenic soul and jazz of late 60s and early 70s counterculture, Star Stuff channels the political angst of musicians like Funkadelic and Sun Ra into a postmillennial milieu. They’re not railing against ‘The Man’ or fighting for civil rights, but rather confronting their personal demons. Loneliness and insecurity encroach the few tracks with lyrics, though Bundick assures us that 'everybody goes through it' on moody joint Don’t Blame Yourself. Somber JBS finds him in a mood of melancholic contemplation, 'welcoming confusion' as he finds any excuse to be alone over plucked harps and a sedative glockenspiel line. The album drifts along with the vague fuzziness of a daydream but if anything grounds it, it’s this intimate lyricism.
Emotive storytelling plays to Bundick’s strengths, but it’s only when the trio forgoes lyrics entirely that the Mattsons’ flair for conjuring up epic compositions shines. The intoxicating guitar tones of the wah-wah-drenched Steve Pink melt seamlessly into Jonathan Mattson’s restrained drumming on the deceptively named Disco Kid, an unsettling cut of moody melodies and soft keys that drift in and out like smoke over polished bass notes. The faraway cawing of crows swoops in like a bad dream in the latter half of the track, before a smooth guitar solo brings us back down to earth. They know how to set a mood.
Star Stuff is a voyage into the realm of the indefinite and, by Bundick’s own admission, the music he has always wanted to make. He’s in his element here, embracing the improvisational jazz of The Mattson 2 as together they pry open your third eye and flood your mind with their cosmic apparitions.
Listen to: JBS, Steve Pink, Star Stuff