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Bundick occasionally turns the energy up, like in the last 30 seconds of album highlight “Low Shoulders,” but those moments are too few and far between to make an impact.
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For some, this could be unlistenable; for others, it will simply come off like the natural product of glitch, shoegaze (to which Bundick certainly owes his chord palette), lo-fi, and psych.
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UncutBudget keyboard presets and filtered, treble-heavy production give the likes of "Lissoms" and :low Shoulder" an endearingly woozy, lo-fi feel. [Mar 2010, p.98]
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Toro Y Moi puts intelligence and inventiveness into a youthful music genre dumbing itself down at an unduly early stage.
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Bundick's Causers of This is also peaceful, but the album's tranquil tones sound a lot more like happy accidents than well-executed plans.
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Bundick embraces a cleaner and mellower sound that's more indebted to hip-hop. He wears his inspirations proudly, and throughout there's a clear nod to producers like J Dilla and Flying Lotus.
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Causers of This sounds like a dance-pop mixtape plunged underwater -- it's all smeary synthesizers, chopped-up dance beats, and washes of reverb.
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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.
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Unlike, say, Memory Tapes though, Bundick doesn’t burn straight for a memorable hook, the pop elements of Causers of This trickling slowly from a frame that’s shaped primarily upon forms usually spied and assimilated by artists operating in more dance-savvy circles.
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It squirms and shimmers for an all-too-brief 33 minutes, sounding like somebody melted a cassette with a mix of early-90s R&B jams on one side and Person Pitchon the other.
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While Causers Of This appears lo-fi on a superficial level with its rough, oversaturated sound quality, it's evident that Bundick has achieved a level of familiarity with his tools which goes way beyond awkward, sophomoric fumbling.
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Despite its basis in a genre with an expiration date, Causers of This is nonetheless an album worthy of consideration. While lacking in straight-ahead pop sensibility, it redeems itself by simply being interesting.
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Pronounced experimentalism is one of the more appealing properties of Bundick’s record, while those most tolerant of tepid, early ‘80s tones will find certain segments easier to swallow than the rest of us.
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It’s easy to commend this album on the sole basis that despite coating his tracks with an incomprehensible amount of tripped-out trickery, Toro Y Moi still branches out into less protected songwriting.
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Under The RadarTrend spotters will likely label this as glitchy hypnagogic pop but Bundick's attention to pop melodies is almost as razor-sharp as his closest contemporary, Neon Indian. [Winter 2010, p.70]
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Closing with a bit of gaudy, high ’80s bubblegum, Causers of This is a bold introduction to a promising newcomer.
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Q MagazineThe imaginative scope of this debut shows why expectations have been raised, his hazy soundscapes and blurred falsetto recalling Animal Collective's more strung-out moments. [Mar 2010, p.110]
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As casual pop, Causes of This pleases effortlessly, though the listener doesn't get the sense that that's what Bundwick is all about here.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 28 out of 31
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Mixed: 2 out of 31
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Negative: 1 out of 31
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Jan 11, 2023
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Mar 31, 2018You might as well waste your time with me if you're gonna be here. That's it and that's all.
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Aug 3, 2015