He's not the only one reeling Them Changes is an utter knockout. Thundercat's deeply distorted plucking sets the tone for his musicians - including Flying Lotus and jazz saxophonist Kamasi Washington - who likewise stomp through three minutes of warped-into-orbit funk as a done-wrong Bruner coos about the "black hole in my chest" where his heart used to be. If that doesn't sound funky to you, then you haven't heard Them Changes, a low-riding beast of a jam powered by the heaviest, stankiest groove of the year. In fact, the only real voice on the EP is Bruner's gentle, reverb-steeped falsetto - think Boz Scaggs channeling Bon Iver, or vice versa. In July, Bruner dropped The Beyond/Where the Giants Roam, a spacey, six-song solo EP that contains no rapping at all. Both feature moments of sizzling musicality and ethereal fluidity.Ī major contributor to both albums was producer-bassist Steven Bruner, formerly of thrash punk outfit Suicidal Tendencies and better known as Thundercat. The past year has brought two prime examples of this new style: You're Dead!, by producer and DJ Flying Lotus (a relative, it bears mentioning, of Alice and John Coltrane) and To Pimp a Butterfly, the ambitious LP from Kendrick Lamar.
The spectrum of sounds these young bloods produce owes as much to jazz, soul and funk as it does to beats and rhymes. Post-Kanye, we're seeing that influence trickle to a new crop of rappers and producers whose music nods not only to Yeezus, but to genre-melding pioneers like Davis, Herbie Hancock and Gil Scott-Heron. That West considers Davis an influence is no surprise like West, Davis cherished the idea of experimental expression.
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