As chillwave runs aground, it is up to each individual practitioner to innovate his way out of sinking with the ship. Toro Y Moi moves into live instrumentation, with a resultant trade-off of added funk for
lost nostalgia. New Beat is an undeniable disco classic in the wrong time, impossible not to groove out to. There are still reverb washes that sound like waves, but they underpin a much more reverential (and simply better) approach to cheesy old music than, say, Ariel Pink.
Words: Karl McDonald
