Live Review: Toro Y Moi, Jonti & Andras Fox

Saturday night with Toro Y Moi headlining at the Corner Hotel is one of those times when if you only see the headline act then you may have been to a great show, but you have also missed out. The evening opens with DJ/producer Andras Fox taking to the stage with a maturity of beats beyond his years. Starting solo, programming and adjusting, he also takes to the keyboard, and is soon joined on stage by a female singer for several tracks. It conjures vocals such as those of Single Gun Theory but with a new level of fat beats and more sophisticated arrangements. Hugely danceable, this session is perhaps too early in the night for the audience to have built to the point where they feel like moving to the music. Rough edges aside, Fox has the right beats, easily outshining several international acts that have come through Melbourne in the last year.

Second act, Jonti, provides something for everyone, with his personality reaching through in the range of electronic references, guitar and vocals. You won't confuse Jonti with DJ Shadow but you might like their music for the same reasons. He is a performer not afraid to let his inner geek show through – this is far from being a criticism, as there is a solid ripple of affirmation through the crowd following his most 8-bit boy, almost classic computer game composition.

Toro Y Moi have a surprise in store for the audience. Rather than just performing their new album, Anything In Return, in original form, they pare back the chilled electronic beats and effects. As a four-piece, with the addition of two guitars and a drummer to Chaz Bundick's keyboard and voice, it becomes apparent how wide the range of Chaz's musical interests are. This line-up shifts the live show into more traditional pop-rock territory than their previous chillwave tag would suggest.

Both live and through their albums, Toro Y Moi perform relaxed, assured music. One of Bundick's signature points is the willingness to let the vocals drift back like another piece of instrumentation. The lyrics, on tracks like High Living, are still there as much for their contribution to the musical journey as for the individual lines of the story. This links the separate tracks together, making for great flow. Pop isn't dead, and Bundick pushes the genre forward using his skills of composition, leaving us wondering where he will head next.