Thundercat (feat. BADBADNOTGOOD and Flying Lotus), "King of the Hill" (Brainfeeder)

The most extraordinary thing about Thundercat—aside from his fuchsia dreadlocks—is his ability to make jazz fusion accessible to large numbers of young people. The virtuosic bassist/vocalist's association with Flying Lotus undoubtedly helped to elevate Thundercat's profile among hip electronic-music fans, an impressive feat for a guy who used to play with Suicidal Tendencies.

As I wrote in a Slog review of Thundercat's 2017 Capitol Hill Block Party set, "Thundercat recontextualizes the flamboyant virtuosity of fusion phenoms like Jaco Pastorius and Stanley Clarke for the Low End Theory crowd. His soulful, falsetto vocals pirouette over complex yet sensuous bass lines and beats, creating a bizarrely romantic strain of progressive electronica." This hardly seems like the formula for commercial success, but somehow Thundercat (aka Stephen Bruner) has glazed the heady genre with enough melodic sugar and falsetto-vocal butter to cross over to people who don't have the slightest idea who main inspiration George Duke is, even if they were walloped over the head with Daft Punk's "Digital Love," which samples Duke's "I Love You More."

"King of the Hill"—which appears on the recently released Brainfeeder X compilation and features Canadian jazz popularizers BADBADNOTGOOD and mercurial beatmaker Flying Lotus—is one of Thundercat's most straightforward tracks. It's a gorgeous, celestial ballad that twinkles like a dream of opulence and oozes soulful beauty with nonchalance. Anyone expecting these cats' renowned hyperkinetic showboating or frenetic funk will be disappointed. However, "King of the Hill" is so sophisticatedly blissful and transporting, you can forgive its creators' intentions to try to sneak into the charts—which is exactly what this Marvin Gaye-in-space song deserves to do.