Thundercat, aka bassist extraordinaire Stephen Bruner, has been busy in the past two years as a featured contributor on Kendrick Lamar, Flying Lotus, and Kamasi Washington's new albums. Next week, he'll release a new solo effort—his first since 2013's Apocalypse. The mini-album The Beyond / Where the Giants Roam is coming on Monday (June 22) via Flying Lotus' label Brainfeeder. Listen to "Them Changes", co-produced by Flying Lotus and featuring Washington, above.
"Them Changes" has been part of Thundercat's live sets in recent months. Find video of him performing the song as part of Pitchfork's "Nightcap" series below.
Flying Lotus co-produced half of the tracks on The Beyond / Where the Giants Roam. Herbie Hancock provides keyboards on "Lone Wolf and Cub". Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Mono/Poly also contributed to the record.
The Beyond / Where the Giants Roam: 01 Hard Times 02 Song for the Dead 03 Them Changes 04 Lone Wolf and Cub 05 That Moment 06 Where the Giants Roam/Field of the Nephilim
His vocals are among the best I've heard in the past 20 years. So effective.
I'm sure his songwriting could stand to improve if you're a stickler for lyrics instead of vibe, but this guy's touch is just incredible. He and Quelle Chris are my favorite post-2010 artists without a doubt. Pure class.
32. "The EP is like 2 songs couched in a bunch of interludes..." In response to Reply # 0
so I found it a bit disappointing on the quantity end... Don't get me wrong, the interlude-sounding material is very nice and well-done, and it was probably genius to put this out as so many different tracks for the sake of getting a dollar here and there for individual tracks people might like. He can also say he put out a 6 song EP even though it's not really 6 songs, AND it shows just enough promise that we look forward to the full-length album. Smart business, but disappointing overall. ... and 4 of the "songs" being about 2 1/2 minutes or less doesn't really help either.
All that said, "Them Changes" and "Lone Wolf & Cub" are FLAMES, and make me anticipate the album even more lol.
33. "Is it just me who thinks this?" In response to Reply # 0
or has his vocal game stepped up? I'm not talking necessarily about how he sings (though that might have improved too, but I've always loved his voice), more like, how he records his vocals, the use of multitracking and stuff like that really stood out to me as pretty damn beautiful over the 16 minutes he just gave us
40. "When I initially saw this post last year" In response to Reply # 0
I dismissed listening to the song because I very incorrectly assumed it was simply cover of the Band of Gypsies song. I listened recently in the course of hearing about the Drunk album and boy was I wrong. Quite wrong.
I greatly look forward to getting the Drunk album when it drops.
"Sean sparks like John Starks, nah, Sean ball like John Wall" - Rest In Power Forever Sean Price.
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