Toro Y Moi

Toro Y Moi, the primary alias of Chaz Bear (born Chazwick Bradley Bundick in 1986), emerged from Columbia, South Carolina as a foundational figure in chillwave, that hazy, nostalgic microgenre that briefly captured the internet's attention around 2010. His debut Causers of This arrived alongside Washed Out and Neon Indian, offering sun-damaged synthesisers and lo-fi production that suggested both bedroom intimacy and narcotic detachment. Bear quickly refused to calcify, moving through French house, funk, psychedelia and hip-hop production across subsequent releases like Anything in Return (2013) and Boo Boo (2017).

What distinguishes Bear's trajectory is his restless genre fluidity without losing melodic coherence. Albums such as Outer Peace (2019) and MAHAL (2022) incorporate everything from disco to prog rock, reflecting his South Carolina upbringing alongside Filipino-American heritage and evident record collector obsessions. Beyond recording, he's designed album artwork, scored films, and produced for artists including Travis Scott and Caroline Polachek.

His cultural impact lies less in singular innovation than in embodying the post-genre malleability of streaming-era artists, treating decades of musical history as fungible material rather than sacred lineage.