The digitally augmented future pop that Animal Collective helped pioneer was boldly innovative. At a time when many other musicians were busy worshipping the 1980s, whether it was skinny tie synth pop, Eno's No New York compilation or the Talking Heads, Animal Collective created something that felt appropriately post-millennial. Now that we've finally closed the door on the Oughts (or the Awkwardly Named Decade, as it will soon be known) it's nice to see new bands expanding on that style and add fresh perspectives. With all the backward loops and hazy distortions Toro Y Moi certainly sounds like a graduate of the Animal Collective Academy. But rather than blandly imitate, Toro Y Moi is thinking for himself; like the Aristotle to Panda Bear's Plato, Toro Y Moi is adding original thoughts back into the dialogue.

The opening salvo of Causers of This, "Blessa" starts with a soft crunch of audio hiss and a harmonizing chorus before it finds its rhythm. The track fades in and out and blurs at the edges, like a drawing on wet paper bleeding into itself. Underneath the effects and layered production lie relatively simple melodies, but the flourishes encompassing each track take on a life of their own. Whatever is at the core of "Fax Shadows" is lost in a fog of reversed bits and overlapped vocals. The end result - though it bears resemblance to Animal Collective and peers like Neon Indian - is unabashedly its own creature.

And like Neon Indian, Toro Y Moi creates something that defies contradictions and sounds simultaneously nostalgic and new. Listening to Causers of This triggers flashes of deja vu, where a snippet sounds so familiar you swear you've heard it before, but then fades away before you can determine what it was. On "Talamak," the album's most recognizable hit, the production swirls around the song and imbues the track with a startling sense of emotion. Hints of loss and reflection mix together in the strain of the chorus, and it feels like Toro Y Moi is looking for something he can't quite find. Whatever this new era that Animal Collective ushered in is, it's nice to see that the graduating class is already going on to great things.

Recommended Tracks: "Blessa," "Fax Shadow," "Minors," "Talamak"

-Devon Tincknell