Virtuoso bassist and singer-songwriter Stephen Bruner aka Thundercat returns with his first solo material in two years, The Beyond / Where The Giants Roam. Having already made outstanding contributions to not one, but two, of the greatest albums of 2015 – To Pimp a Butterfly and The Epic – by fellow Los Angelians Kendrick Lamar and Kamasi Washington, Bruner has now turned the spotlight onto his own music once more.
The mini-album picks up where 2013’s Apocalypse left off, with Thundercat joined on production duties by longtime sparring partner Flying Lotus for six spiralling excursions to the outer limits of jazz-funk. The legendary Herbie Hancock pops up on keyboards on “Lone Wolf & Cub” and there are contributions from fellow Brainfeeder family members Kamasi Washington, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Mono/Poly on sax, strings and production respectively.
The Beyond / Where The Giants Roam is out now on Brainfeeder via Inertia.
Sia’s current single “Big Girls Cry”, from her album 1000 Forms Of Fear, has officially reached ARIA accredited platinum status.
As the third single released from 1000 Forms Of Fear, “Big Girls Cry” has been sold more than 70,000 times in Australia alone. More life was breathed into the track in April of this year when Sia released an official video clip for “Big Girls Cry”, featuring her ‘mini me’ Maddie Ziegler in the third and final collaboration between the two.
In the midst of his massive national tour, Aussie hip-hop mastermind Seth Sentry treats fans once more with the launch of the new clip for “Hell Boy”, which premiered on Channel [V]. “Hell Boy” made its debut spin via Richard Kingsmill on triple j in early May as the second warning shot fired from his recently dropped Strange New Past album, out now on High Score Records.
Directed by Joel Crane, the video for “Hell Boy” is a humorous, if not slightly eerie addition to Seth Sentry’s trademark observational and story-telling style. The video features a convincing anti-hero that complements rather than outshines Sentry’s lyrical genius, in which he documents a youth laden with mischief and misadventure.
Melbourne based songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Gab Strum, aka Japanese Wallpaper, has revealed the video for his engaging single “Forces feat. Airling”. The release comes ahead of sold-out Sydney and Melbourne shows, and coincides with the launch of his long-awaited self-titled EP, out now on Zero Through Nine.
“Forces”, featuring the achingly beautiful voice of Airling on vocals, is Japanese Wallpaper’s most auspicious collaboration yet. With its beautifully framed and almost ethereal shots, the video, which is directed by Jacques Poluleuligaga, is the perfect companion to the dreamy, pulsing intensity of “Forces”.
Minnesota-based outfit Low are have announced plans to release their latest full-length album Ones and Sixes on Friday, September 11. The announcement comes with the first official single from the album, “No Comprende”.
Ones And Sixes follows their 2013 album The Invisible Way, produced by the likes of Jeff Tweedy of Wilco. This time around, the new record was produced by the band with the help of non-other than B.J. Burton known for his previous work with Sylvan Esso and The Tallest Man On Earth to name just a few.
Recorded in Justin Vernon’s April Base Studios, “No Comprende” is testament to Low’s ability to create melancholic and aesthetic sounds married to perfectly synchronised vocals from Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker.
David Edwards is the editor of The Blurb and a contributor on film and television
