What a strange music-release morning! Everyone was convinced that Drake’s new album was coming out today, but it’s not here. Instead, we’ve got an Earl Sweatshirt/Alchemist album that’s only available on some NFT site, and we’ve also got a new surprise EP where Toro y Moi gets all mellow and ruminative. We’ll take it

Toro y Moi’s Chaz Bear has explored a ton of musical terrain since he first came into the game during the whole chillwave thing. Last year, Toro y Moi released the chilled-out psychedelic pop album Mahal. Since then, Bear has appeared on electronic singles from Nosaj Thing and SBTRKT, and he’s collaborated with the rapper Elijah Kessler. But the new Toro y Moi EP Sandhills sounds nothing like any of those records. Instead, it’s Chaz Bear returning to his Columbia, South Carolina hometown and making warm, blissful folk-rock.

On the 14-minute Sandhills EP, Chaz Bear sings about going back to South Carolina and seeing how things have changed, and the music is laid-back, countrified indie rock. The EP comes with a companion film that’s coming out later today. Bear’s high school photography teacher Katherine Perry produced the video, and Perry’s husband Steve, who worked on a video with Bear’s high-school band, directed it. The local artist Ernest Lee, also known as Chicken Man, did the Sandhills cover art, and he’s also in the video. Below, stream the Sandhills EP.

The Sandhills EP is out now on Dead Oceans.