Brainfeeder Collective

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I remember hearing about these guys several years ago when I was listening to a DJ Krust Masterclass interview (circa 2012), he was giving a history lesson on Full Cycle (ie. him, Roni Size, Die, Suv, etc.) and when asked who else he felt were working along a similar musical ethic he brought up Brainfeeder Collective - mentioned that they were doing the same thing of being uber-confident, really living in their own circuit of sound, and could care less what the outside world was doing.

It took me a while to chance on their stuff but where it started for me - I grabbed a thread from Chick Corea (RIP) doing some music with Hiromi, then from her to the Stanley Clarke band, heard some of Ron Bruner Jr's drum solos and he really caught my interest, and then.... this whole thing really went in a wild circle for me. I was a big fan of Suicidal Tendencies back in my teen years (early-mid 90's) and I found out that Ron Bruner Jr played drums for Suicidal back in the early 2000's, and then not only did his brother play bass for Suicidal Tendencies but his brother is Thundercat (Steve Bruner), who I knew of from his work with Flying Lotus, so that made another really interesting connection.

Looking at Brainfeeder Collective it includes Flying Lotus, Thundercat, Kamasi Washington, there were some live shows that Ron Bruner Jr. got together which brought these guys all on a rather small (semi-outdoor) stage? I get what Krust was saying, it's one of those musician groups where they've got talent dripping from their fingertips - much like Full Cycle - and I can see why both Bruner's were in Suicidal Tendencies, incredibly organic band (for those who don't know - late 80's and early 90's they were skater thrash/metal, something you'd be able to relate to if you're an Anthrax fan or Metallica Master of Puppets era, ie. loads of double-kick).

Some of the above, first that Krust interview I was mentioning (worth it just for Full Cycle history):



Ron Bruner drum solo:




Unofficial Brainfeeder live jam session I mentioned:




I notice that Steve / Thundercat likes to jam with Domi and JD Beck, not sure if they're considered members but they're a lot of fun to listen to as well.


Yeah, this might be a bit esoteric for WP but I'm still curios if anyone else has seen these guys and found them interesting or found correlated groups doing similar things.

The closest other thing I can think of, currently, where you have a collective like this doing really cool things (in this case neosoul and modernization of golden-age hip hop) is Manchester UK's The Mouse Outfit.