Thundercat Welcomes ‘Them Changes,’ Preps New Mini-Album

Los Angeles bassist, producer and songwriter Thundercat will release a new mini-album, The Beyond / Where the Giants Roam, on June 22nd, teasing the project with the bumping, buoyant new track, “Them Changes.”

Flying Lotus — whose Brainfeeder label will release the mini-LP — co-produced the track, which boasts a melange of sticky, gurgling synths over which the occasional plunking piano, sailing sax and Thundercat’s own soft vocals soar. “I’m sitting here with a black hole in my chest / A heartless broken mess,” he croons, finding the joyous funk even in abject misery.

The six-track The Beyond / Where the Giants Roam marks Thundercat’s first set of solo material since 2013’s Apocalypse. Along with contributions from Flying Lotus, the mini-album boasts an appearance from Herbie Hancock, who plays keyboards on “Lone Wolf & Cub.” The collection also features Kamasi Washington, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Mono/Poly on saxophone, strings and production, respectively. A complete track list is below.

Thundercat is scheduled to hit the road later this year, though he has a handful of festival dates lined up, including sets at Pickathon in Oregon (August 1st and 2nd), the Low End Theory Festival in Los Angeles (August 8th) and Afropunk in Brooklyn (August 23rd).

Despite the two-year gap between solo material, Thundercat has remained busy, contributing to two of 2015’s most lauded releases: Washington’s jazz opus, The Epic, and Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly.

“I’ve never been around a person like that,” Thundercat said of Lamar during a recent interview with Rolling Stone. “He was so freed up to the point that he didn’t care. It would sound so weird, but he would risk it. I’ve spent so much time around cats that try so hard to be this one thing. With him it was effortless and fast… always in the moment and on the seat of his pants.”

The Beyond / Where the Giants Roam Track List

1. “Hard Times”
2. “Song for the Dead”
3. “Them Changes”
4. “Lone Wolf and Cub”
5. “That Moment”
6. “Where the Giants Roam / Field of the Nephilim”