Review Summary: Cosmogramma’s smooth jazzy distant cousin.
Thundercat or rather Stephen Bruner is an ambitious bassist that blends groovy bass lines with soft harmonic synths to create a heartfelt album that will have something for everyone to enjoy. Stephen Bruner not exactly new to the industry has played with Suicidal Tendencies and worked in the studio with Snoop Dogg and FlyLo.
Nowadays, however; Stephen seems to be making his own music rather then helping others create it. His debut album The Golden Age of Apocalypse is a well crafted synth driven funk album that dampens its toes within several genres like electronica, jazz and technical death metal, just playing even though his bass skills wouldn't render him from doing so. The music can be described as dreamy or mellow, for example the song For Love I Come is a gentle synth oriented song that starts off with warm vocals, relaxing lyrics and soon takes off provided by Stephens milky bass into a planetary stroll of the cosmos and human emotion. Another song that fits this description is Fleer Ultra, a spacey modern bass induced melody that stays mid tempo and lets your ears take a walk in Stephen Bruner’s groovy world.
Every song has one nerve that connects them all, that nerve is the bass.You will hear Stephen bumping to his bass and no matter how set apart the songs may be the bass always brings them all back together. All the songs are very unique and invoke feelings of euphoria however some will cringe and lose its luster after a few listens. For example the song Daylight is a bit of a mess, it feels like there are too many sounds, as if it was trying to imitate something FlyLo would do, also it has little to no replay value. Other songs like It Really Doesn't Matter To You will be average at best simply because its just bass and a couple of synth passages thrown together.
Overall the album is excellent and manages to achieve its goal, which is to make some awesome ass funky music! While there may be a few flaws, its originality and creativity makes up for most of it. TGAA is certainly one of 2011’s most inspired albums so kudos to you Stephen Bruner.
