Thundercat-The Beyond / Where the Giants Roam (2015)

Thundercat-The Beyond / Where the Giants Roam (2015)

“Style is whatever you want to do, if you can do it with confidence.”

George Clinton

By: Ghost Writer

“Bassists immersed in Electronica” seem to describe the careers of the individuals known as Squarepusher and Thundercat, superheroes they are not, well not comic or TV cartoons ones, musical heroes surely, as they are quick to bring us a whole new musical universe full of amazing innovation and creativity.

Along with Kamasi Washington, Thundercat aka Stephen Bruner seem to be the men about to make jazz come back in recent years, but not the kind of jazz Matthew Shipp or David S. Ware used to create, in the case of Thundercat his take on jazz is a different one, one verged on experimentation and totally opened to new genres, to fusions, not afraid to be part of a hip hop record one time and the next in a crossover thrash one, yes, Bruner is a wild cat, an awesome bass player whose ace playing we have been able to appreciate on Flying Lotus extraordinary exotic Electronica records, the amazing Kendrick Lamar record which furiously fusions hip hop with jazz in a way no recent record has done, on The Epic record by Kamasi, a tremendous exotic jazz record, and that brave showing on the 13 record by the great Suicidal Tendencies.

The Beyond/ Where the Giants Roam is quite a title for a record, and Thundercat take on this album is a brave one, the man known for versatility and magic on bass puts both of his musical weapons on full display, Hard Times starts sounding, beginning with beautiful Pet Sounds like chorus, gentle vocals, deviating into the mournful Song For The Dead with a tremendous bassline that becomes the spinal structure of this beautifully contemplative song full of nearly cosmic electronica passages, showcasing a wonderful ability for writing deep, sensitive and meaningful musical themes.

Them Changes is another amazing tune full of Parliament like bass playing and solid funk durmming, with that almost under the sea atmosphere, and a laid back groove so deliciously created with Thundercat delicate bass work once again taking the spotlight and showing an amazing technical progress impossible to ignore, as the guy immerse himself in endless passages of carefully threaded lines going alone hallucinating almost out of the earth background, it seems as if people like Frank Ocean, Miguel and Thundercat in this specific recording are aiming to reconstruct those warm sounds of the 70s, a trend that people like Daft Punk or The Strokes, coming from other genres have been revisiting in recent years.

Is hard to escape form the attention grabbing Lone Wolf and Cub, with its beautiful string arrangements and delicate bass effects, once again Thundercat is clever enough to guide us thru a forest of sound in the middle of the night, where we can hear a whole bunch of incredible warm and eerie sounds coming from another time and place, combining organic, synthetized, warm and cold atmosphere to create pieces as shocking as the exotic works of his friend Flying Lotus, all this while being hit by his monstrous bass, a beast at full control of Thundercat who can activate in perfect control the instrument roar at will.

Although is not the first to do it, Thundercat is another artist with the comprise to bring deep human emotions and combine them with Avant garde technology, this without forgetting that first of all he is a bass player, and this is the record of a bass player, and on second place, the fact that he is a fabulous composer, one who wants to go beyond the limitation of his instrument and beyond the role of a bass player, here we have a strong proof that music, in the 21 century hasn’t lost any of its soul, and in an amazing way, it is even regaining it more than ever.