GlovePilot (aka Matt Hull and Joe Hartigan) have, like many great minimalist artists, done quite a lot with very little. Thunder Suite (& More) is driven onward into the halls of improvisational greatness with nothing more than a trumpet, a loop station, and a drum set. And though this album is improvisational, it is nonetheless a balanced, complete work--Side A leading the listener through all three realms of the soul's existence, and Side B serving as a sort of extended, meditative encore.

Reviews:

“Thunder Suite” is like God’s love, indifference, and wrath all meted out upon the mortals of earth with severe judgment, just like we learn in the Bible. It should be no surprise to any of you that I’m on the receiving end of the “love” third of this spectrum, but don’t mistake that designation as something I eased into: God’s love is incredibly hard to come by, and you really have to jump through a litany of legalistic hoops to attain it. In fact, you’re probably better off shooting lower, going for God’s indifference, because being good is hard – it’s really hard. Just ask all those people expecting God’s wrath, the worst of the worst, the Ted Cruzes and the Michelle Bachmans and the Richard Spencers of the world. Because there’s no way God’s even remotely indifferent toward those swine.

And because I’m so filled with the love of God, I’m here to present you GlovePilot’s “Thunder Suite (& More),” from which my account takes its inspiration. See, jazz duo (God loves jazz!) Matt Hull (trumpets/pedals) and Joe Hartigan (drums) have basically one-upped Dante Alighieri’s totally bloated and contrived “Divine Comedy” with something more streamlined and accessible, something that most of us normal people can enjoy. The “Thunder Suite,” which appears on side A of this tape, flits through the three different possibilities your immortal soul will inhabit, from the mega-upbeat “Heaven” to the middle ground of “In Limbo” and finally to the terrifying breakneck scribble of “Hell.” All this in about ten minutes – how long did it take you to read “Divine Comedy” in high school? Longer than ten minutes? There, I’ve saved you A LOT of time.

Side B features the “(& More)” part of this tape, as Hull and Hartigan drop the pretense of narrative and spiral off into psychedelia with “Laika” and “Sun Riser,” the former a minimal meditation on, uh, space dogs (sure) and the latter a splatter of tone and percussion across the audio canvas. I’m not sure God likes all that “experimental” stuff though – GlovePilot might have gone a little too far here. Too many “bong hits” if you get my meaning.

Still, if you’re having second thoughts about buying “Thunder Suite (& More),” you should pray about it, and then you should buy one before Bad Cake Records runs out of tapes (or me and the other chosen ones are raptured)."

-Ryan Masteller (Tabs Out Podcast)

"Thunder Suite refers to a three track piece captured on this cassette recording. The tracks, (titled Heaven, Limbo, and Hell, respectively,) tell a wild, jazz-infused spiritual story not unlike Dante's Divine Comedy. Armed with only a trumpet, a drum kit, and a loop pedal, minimal jazz explorers Matt Hull and Joe Hartigan create an improvisational sound that calls and answers itself with an extraordinary level of balance and composition.

Heaven is a rollicking piece that seems to ask a lot of questions. How did I get here? What is this place? It conjures feelings of chaos, loneliness, and confusion. Limbo is a more whimsical place at first, but emanates an emptiness and a solitude that are nearly palpable. Hell, is a fiery dance with swirling loops of trumpet and rapid, unpredictable percussion. The & More portion of the album consists of two pieces, Laika and Sun Riser, that provide an artistic closure.

GlovePilot delivers an improvised, yet artistic musical experience that is both compelling and introspective, that deftly illustrates the indelible connection between music and the soul."

-Houdini Mansions