Summary:Bassist Stephen Bruner collaborated with Flying Lotus on his second release infused by jazz, soul, and electronic music elements as Thundercat.
This album is the full realisation of his talent as a bass player, musician and, most importantly, a songwriter. Apocalypse is, in short, a supreme triumph.
Apocalypse is very literally a rewarding and difficult second album, with its roots in tragedy and loss and its furthermost fronds in hope and moving forward, an album that challenges listeners with an incredible level of subtlety, hidden depths and wash of openly expressed emotion.
While he’ll probably never eclipse the flaming star that is label boss FlyLo’s reputation, Bruner here shows that he’s both his collaborator and peer, fusing a multi-genre musical mentality with a brilliantly sharp edge of accessibility.
The album's winning touches come from Bruner's soulful vocal melodies. They're a calming element tying each of the record's varied creative efforts together beautifully.
Here Bruner again shows that he has the tools for crafting tuneful compositions, but presents little that's dynamic enough to anchor an entire album, resulting in innocuous background burbles that never come off as especially attention-grabbing.
Thundercat AKA Stephen Bruner is a longtime session musician who I believe is just now coming into his own and getting the attention heThundercat AKA Stephen Bruner is a longtime session musician who I believe is just now coming into his own and getting the attention he deserves. Fantastic album for studying, writing or otherwise doing something creative. It can fade into the background just as well as it can jump out and grab you.…Expand
The most versatile Thundercat album, mixing organic and electronic with maestry. Creativity, daring, musicality, groove and virtuosity makesThe most versatile Thundercat album, mixing organic and electronic with maestry. Creativity, daring, musicality, groove and virtuosity makes presence start to end.…Expand
This Album was for Austin Peralta, his bandmate who passed away. The bass lines and lyrics are meaningful and you have to really listen to theThis Album was for Austin Peralta, his bandmate who passed away. The bass lines and lyrics are meaningful and you have to really listen to the album to appraciate what he has done. Though it may not be as good as The Golden Age of the Apocalypse for some, it does shine. It's an honest and sometimes raw album with a lot of emotion pouring through.…Expand
I'll start by saying this is not my type of music, and I only listened to the album digitally online via Rhapsody, but the quality was great.I'll start by saying this is not my type of music, and I only listened to the album digitally online via Rhapsody, but the quality was great.
Nice first couple of track. Good background music. The mood of the album changes to a bit of medium paced funk that is soft toned with a soulful vocal that is more in focus on 'Special Stage'. The next song 'Tron Song' keeps the soulful melodic vocals in most of the spotlight, but brings back the leftfield style, which is a good combo on the track, although a bit schizophrenic at times.
With the sixth song, somewhat ironically called 'Seven', the vocals disappear (almost) completely, and Thundercat's leftfield experience shines through with the addition of a nice funky guitar solo toward the end. Full quality traditional funk is on display with the humorous 'Oh Sheit It's X'. Thundercat loses me on "Without You" which is a little a too far out there and spread apart. I give him a pass because the next song 'Lotus and the Jondy" is great in so many ways including a cool background drum with solo halfway through that takes the song to a nice nightclub-style ending.
The album bounces around with style and genre, but ends with a very good outro called "A Message for Austin Praise the Lord Enter the Void" which is a song with an orchestral inspired intro with string instruments, pauses in the middle and then transforms into what I could call a tribal lullaby that toys with becoming leftfield-ish, but just skims the surface of the style.…Expand
This album doesn't feel as great as The Age of Apocalypse. His singing on most of his songs seem worse than on his previous album. There wereThis album doesn't feel as great as The Age of Apocalypse. His singing on most of his songs seem worse than on his previous album. There were only a small handful of tracks I enjoyed, like the closing track A Message for Austin. I would recommend listening to his first album before you check out this one.…Expand