Stephen ‘Thundercat’ Bruner’s day job may be as bassist with legendary thrash metal outfit Suicidal Tendencies, but there is precious little in the way of muscular riffs on his debut solo effort, The Golden Age Of Apocalypse. Instead, Bruner has joined the seemingly endless array of supremely talented, LA-based artists – all centred around Flying Lotus’s Brainfeeder label – who, against considerable odds, have given the phrase “electro jazz fusion” a certain degree of hip.
Produced by Flying Lotus himself, The Golden Age... takes its stylistic cue from FlyLo’s superb 2010 effort Cosmogramma (and even includes a cover of the same George Duke track, ‘For Love I Come’), skilfully mixing berserk electro rhythms, jazzy flourishes and ethereal vocals. Bruner’s bass abilities are also deployed to stunning effect on ‘Fleer Ultra’, with his fluttering groove bouncing irresistibly off the glitch-y beats.
The undoubted highlight of the record is the awesome one-two of ‘Is It Love?’ and the aforementioned ‘For Love I Come’, which together work as an ambient suite with echoes of everyone from Ariel Pink to Ornette Coleman. No doubt Thundercat’s golden age has just begun.