The Austin 100: Morabeza Tobacco

NPR | By Stephen Thompson

Published March 5, 2019 at 5:01 AM EST

Hometown: Stockholm, Sweden

Genre: Pop

Why We're Excited: There's a slightly warped, undeniably nostalgic quality to Morabeza Tobacco's "TTYL," as if it's been dubbed from cassette to cassette to cassette ever since it first assumed form in 1983. The duo of Gustav and Vanilla clearly put a fair bit of effort into creating the effect, which only enhances the pair's distinct mix of chillwave, vintage synth-pop and funk. At times it's like hearing a 45 RPM record played at a slower speed, but "TTYL" allows slivers of sunlight to peek through all that haze.

Stephen Thompson

Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)

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