It turns out all Chaz Bundick really wants to do is dance. Since releasing his debut album as Toro Y Moi in 2010, the 27 year-old musician has staked a career on making sometimes idiosyncratic but soulful pop, with occasional shades of R&B. But for his latest project, Bundick assumes the name Les Sins and drops throbbing dance beats, with minimal lyrics, deep bass lines and pulsing synths. It's a full-throttled, unapologetic leap to the dance floor.
Michael is the debut full-length from Les Sins (available to hear in its entirety in our First Listen series until its release on Nov. 4), and the lead-off track, "Talk About," is its most irresistible house jam. The song opens with chilled-out synth stabs under a warped and completely disinterested voice that asks Bundick to "talk about your newest record, and where did you get the name?" A recording Bundick made with a friend, it's a fantastic jab at the mindless press junkets and meaningless questions artists often endure. But "Talk About" soon takes a shift to a decidedly darker and more urgent question about "who got shot in the dome-piece," a sample from the Nas song "One Love" that recounts the various crimes and acts of violence that plague a circle of friends and family.
"Talk About" is both wry and wicked, a sly mix of both the comical and profound. But really, it just wants you to get up and move.
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