Toro y Moi bring their blissed out pop jams back to Oxford Art Factory, with special guests to be announced.

Born and raised in Columbia, South Carolina, Chaz Bundick aka Toro y Moi has been actively involved in music going back to his early teenage years playing in punk and indie rock bands. Chaz unveiled his Toro y Moi guise in 2001, in which he began incorporating electronics and channeling a wider swath of stylistic influences - from indie rock and '60s baroque pop to '80s R&B, French house and underground hip-hop - into his own solo music. By the time he graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2009 with a BA in graphic design, Chaz had refined Toro y Moi into a truly unique, captivating project, with numerous music magazines and blogs touting his hazy recordings as the sound of summer. His Mistletone-released debut album, Causers of This, followed in 2010, garnering high praise in many publications including NME and Pitchfork.

Chaz Bundick has proven himself to be as prolific as he is diverse with his subsequent records, always pointing Toro y Moi in new directions while never sacrificing his melodic sensibility or keen ear for arrangements and texture. With 2011's Underneath the Pine, he delivered a set of motorik space-age funk, trading the smeared production of Causers of This for a more crystalline sound that was still steeped in atmosphere, even without the aid of source material and drum machines. Toro y Moi's Freaking Out EP, which came out later that year, brought '80s-inspired R&B, freestyle, and quiet storm soul into the 21st century via its shimmering digital sheen, and set the stage for 2013's introspective Anything in Return, which effortlessly glided between smoky 4/4 house-tinged pop, electro-funk and late-night electronic soul.

Toro y Moi's latest studio album, What For? featured Chaz's meticulous production capturing the feel of a rock band playing together in the same room. While Chaz cites Big Star, Talking Heads and Todd Rundgren, as well as the psychedelic soul of Brazilian legend Tim Maia and the '70s-era jazz-funk of France's Cortex, as some of the inspirations behind What For?, these names just act as signposts dotting Toro y Moi's vivid musical landscape.

Following extensive touring behind What For?, Chaz brought the band to the middle of the Mojave Desert in April 2016 to play a special concert. Live from Trona was recorded live beneath the geological wonders known as the Trona Pinnacles, formed thousands of years ago in what used to be a prehistoric lake. The album features unique live arrangements of songs from across the band's catalogue, new music, and an expanded band line-up. Chaz's collaboration with tourmates The Mattson 2 takes on a classic groove with a jazz fusion approach. As the sun sets behind the pinnacles, the supernatural setting seamlessly weaves together with the 13 psychedelic tracks, all recorded on site over the course of an entire day. Through the use of hand-drawn animations and behind-the-scenes VHS footage, Live from Trona offers viewers a surreal concert experience, placing them front row at a private Toro y Moi show.