Thundercat - The Golden Age of Apocalypse [Brainfeeder]

8.2

Stephen Bruner, aka Thundercat, is the bassist for hardcore punk band Suicidal Tendencies, but when Bruner is using his nickname, Thundercat, Bruner make music that is completely contradictory to Suicide Tendencies’s bizarre hardcore, thrash metal/punk. The Golden Age of Apocalypse is Thundercat’s debut effort produced under the transcending experimental electronic artist Steven Ellison, aka Flying Lotus. With so much going for Bruner; phenomenal, wide-ranged bass playing from his time with Suicidal Tendencies and his guest work on Flying Lotus’s excellent LP Cosmogramma from last year and the inclusion of Fly Lo’s production, what can possibly go wrong with The Golden Age of Apocalypse?

Digesting The Golden Age of Apocalypse is curious. On the front side you have very catchy and ironically more experimental tracks that really define the high points of Apocalypse, while on the back side of the record, you have more vintage sounding groove tracks that reek of the ‘80s. Though the introspective Cosmogramma is no way an apt comparison to the much different Bruner who crafts more dancey electronic that really grooves. Inevitably though you are going have hints of Fly Lo everyone once in a while; the mixed bag of instrumentation on opener “Daylight” sounds like a brighter, more easily accessible Fly Lo tune, but Bruner adds his own character with futuristic synths soaring in and out. I have an uncanny feeling that the heavily produced songs at the beginning were heavily helped by Fly Lo while the latter tunes are Bruner finding his niche, but I could be completely wrong.

The futuristic jazz fusion Bruner crafts throughout Apocalypse is just purely shallow satisfaction with every drop of noise. At times it can be that high-driven, bombastic electronica that bursts with noises mostly unsuitable for the ear such as the pounding “Feel Ultra” that has a very flat-out in-your-face effect with its high-soaring synth centerpiece. Fortunately, Apocalypse doesn’t just dwell in that energetic, fast-paced experimental electronica; the slow-burning “For Love I Come” is an excellent rendition of George Duke’s 1975 tune “For Love (I Come)” and really defines Bruner’s internal brilliance as a musician. The dancey and more loud-thumping “Daylight” and “Is It Love” really can be enjoyable, but it’s tunes like “For Love I Come” and the fuzzy “ Return To the Journey” make Bruner “Thundercat”.

The track lengths aren’t rightly placed on an album of so much potential like Apocalypse; it needs more five minute intervals that hold your attention at the perfect standard rather than the two to three minutes that most tracks hold you to. The thoughts at sometimes feel incomplete as well, I feel as though “Mystery Machine (The Golden Age of Apocalypse)” could have been highly set-up as an epicenter that the whole album revolves around prominent, like “The End” is to the The Doors. Rookie, debut mistakes happen, and these are luckily easily fixed, so the sophomore can be even more defining.

With Bruner’s immense possibilities within this reign of “nu-jazz” is exciting. Bruner can easily be a front runner alongside Fly Lo and Gonjasufi. It’s as simple as experience in this case: Fly Lo’s third album was easily his defining work so far in his career after more and more progressively better albums and even Gonjasufi’s last year release, A Sufi and a Killer, gleams potential. Expect Bruner to be picked up by the next level of label: Warp with Fly Lo and Gonjasufi.