Toro y Moi collaborated with jazz duo The Mattson 2 and released a cover of Latin soul singer Joe Bataan’s 1967 single “Ordinary Guy.” Funds from the cover, released to Bandcamp Friday, will go to charity.
The funk-inspired soul track features a moderate percussion and guitar, with Toro y Moi delivering smooth vocals. The song is a rejection of a high-class lifestyle for life’s simple pleasures.
While Toro y Moi debuted the cover on a radio show in 2019, he released it to Bandcamp to support the fight for racial justice.
Bandcamp announced that to support Juneteenth, 100 percent of the platform’s Friday revenue from music sales will be donated to the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund. The LDF advocates for racial justice through education, advocacy and law. The platform also announced it will donate $30,000 per year to collaborate with organizations fighting for racial justice and to create opportunities for people of color.
“The recent killings of George Floyd, Tony McDade, Sean Reed, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and the ongoing state-sanctioned violence against black people in the US and around the world are horrific tragedies,” the platform wrote in statement. “We stand with those rightfully demanding justice, equality, and change, and people of color everywhere who live with racism every single day, including many of our fellow employees and artists and fans in the Bandcamp community.”
He said in a statement that Baatan’s music first resonated with him in 2009. Both artists are Afro-Filipino, and Toro y Moi felt like he could relate to Bataan.
“I was immediately hooked by Joe’s music because, to me, he represented the impossible,” Toro Y Moi said, “he felt so comfortable in his skin and he had so much confidence and appeal.”
Toro y Moi and The Mattson 2 previously collaborated on “Star Stuff” in 2017. Toro Y Moi will release an instrumental version of Causers of This June 27.
Photo Credit: Owen Ela
Leave a Comment