Heart of Noise

It was hot. It was sweaty. It was filled with people wanting to check out the hotly tipped hipster. But the Toro Y Moi gig at CAMP basement was lots of fun.

Chaz Brundick’s debut album Causers of This is full of chilled out electronic pop songs, but the live drums and bass bring a lot more of a dance edge to this set. This is great in theory, but at times the sound balance wasn’t right, with the subtlety of Brundick’s sampling and vocals being drowned out.

Most of the punters didn’t seem to mind though, treating the gig like a club night and getting their groove on. (What people did seem to mind was the price of the drinks and lack of beer on tap – at one point the barmaid was stacking up seven glasses of water on the bar for different orders..!)

The music of Toro Y Moi is more about the atmosphere than the hooks, which is fine for bedroom listening, but the set felt like it was a few ‘hits’ short of amazing. That said, if it had been a ‘proper’ club, at 1am rather than 10pm, and if I had been a bit more inebriated, I doubt that would’ve been a problem.