Stuck at home in California during the COVID lockdowns, Chaz Bear turned his attention to finishing up an album he had started years earlier. A more psychedelic outing with a focus on gnarly guitars and all flavors of funk, 2022's
MAHAL feels like a logical follow-up to 2013's
What For?, the first
Toro y Moi album to lean hard into uptempo, guitar-led indie rock. Casting aside the slick pop sound of the previous two albums, this time Bear and friends turn the amps up and let rip on a collection of tracks that feel a long way from the dream-like sound Bear first cut his teeth on. Opening track "The Medium" sets the tone, with heavy-as-bricks guitar work provided by
Unknown Mortal Orchestra's
Ruban Nielson fighting a rock-solid funk backbeat to a draw. It's like
Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone got together to whip up a perfect instrumental, and it's a quick slap to the head for anyone thinking this was going to be something slick and easy to swallow. The rest of the record continues to defy expectations, explore psychedelic byways, and deliver goosebumps, even as it hews a little closer to the chillwave template on tracks like the watery, slinky groover "Magazine," which features a half-awake vocal assist from
Salami Rose Joe Louis. Even that track explodes into some amp-shredding guitar wrestling at the end, something that happens at many other stops along the way. Bear noodles majestically like he was searching for the ghost of
Carlos Santana on laid-back funk jam "The Loop," sets the effects free to oscillate wildly on the billowing ballad "Clarity," blasts off into the cosmos like
Prince on a good day ("Days in Love"), and lets guests Dylan Lee and
Hannah Van Loon unleash some wild backwards soloing on "Deja Vu" and "Way Too Hot" respectively. All the guitar overload lends a grittier, more immediate feel to much of the record, blending with the relaxed grooves and Bear's somnolent vocals to create a sound that's both bracing and calming. Not surprising considering the opposing poles of anxiety and solitude brought on by being isolated, a theme that pops up in many of the song's lyrics. After a couple of records where it felt like the machines and radio waves were taking over a bit too much, it's refreshing to have Bear invest the songs with some added excitement and imagination. Even the tracks that shy away from heavy six-string action, like the rollicking "Postman" or the cocktail jazz in space "Last Year," show the effects of the time and care spent crafting the arrangements. It might scare off some of the fans drawn to the pop side of
Toro, but for those who appreciate the subtle twists and turns of his early work -- and especially those who wish he had expanded on
What For? -- this is Bear and band at their most exciting, most inventive. and most fun. ~ Tim Sendra