DOWNLOAD: Thundercat - Daylight (prod. Flying Lotus)
Posted by Tal Rosenberg
Tags: r n b, hip-hop, soul, funk, fusion, electronic, experimental, beat, glitch
He's named after one of the best daytime cartoons of all time, he plays bass in Suicidal Tendencies, and his new album is produced by Flying Lotus. What is there not to like about Thundercat? The man otherwise known as Stephen Bruner made an appearance on last year's FlyLo album Cosmogramma, on standout glitch-soul track "Mmmhmm." Though "Daylight" shares that song's crystalline keyboards and a vibe that hearkens back to '70s jazz fusion, its odd time signatures and serpentine movements are coated in more polished, less compressed surfaces. But Thundercat's breathy, smooth vocals and webbed bass playing are still intact, so you can gain a clearer insight into what was going on beneath the murk. Nonetheless, this is by no means a predictable artist, and who knows what else we'll hear when The Golden Age Of Apocalypse, Thundercat's FlyLo-produced debut, drops August 30th on Brainfeeder.
Get More Flying Lotus Music Here
DOWNLOAD: Ford & Lopatin - Emergency Room
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Ford & Lopatin are Joel Ford and Daniel Lopatin. They met in sixth grade, and have spent the last few years making music alone as Tigercity and Oneohtrix Point Never respectively. For the last year they've made music together as Games, but had to change their names because lawyers said so. Undeterred, Ford & Lopatin are still as playful as ever, "Emergency Room" a low-tech, hi-fi fun jammer that flexes where it's supposed to chill, and dips where it's meant to surge. This is party music for lab technicians, influenced by Kraftwerk's robo-funk, the strange wail of Eighties fusion guitars and the sociopathic vocals dude from American Psycho heard in his dreams at night. Their new album Channel Pressure is out June 7 through Mexican Summer's Software Imprint—if it's anything like this, and the EP they made together as Games (the cunningly named That We Can Play) it'll be well worth the money you need to take it from the record store to your MIDI heart.
Ford & Lopatin - Emergency Room
RCRD OF THE DAY: Ozomatli - 45
(Photo: Christian Lantry)
L.A. fusionists Ozomatli have been at it for fifteen years, spreading the activist gospel via an inimitable mash of countless global musics. On April 20 they'll turn the page with Fire Away, their fifth studio album and first for new home Mercer Street. "45"'s catchy, sun-dappled funk falls second on the tracklist, a stand-up-and-be-heard anthem masquerading as a worry-free summer jam. Download it here and pre-order Fire Away directly from the band's website.
