Flying Lotus | ||
| Allmusic Biography : Experimental electronic music producer Flying Lotus, born Steven Ellison, is a grandson of songwriter Marilyn McLeod (the co-writer of Diana Ross "Love Hangover"), as well as a great-nephew of pianist Alice Coltrane, and therefore a cousin of saxophonist Ravi Coltrane. Ellison made beats for the Cartoon Networks Adult Swim network before releasing his debut full-length, 1983, which resembled the work of fellow avant-garde hip-hop producers Madlib, J Dilla, and Ammoncontact on Plug Research in 2006. Following the six-song EP Reset, he released his second full-length, Los Angeles, on Warp in 2008. A three-part series of satellite EPs consisting of remixes and additional productions appeared throughout the next year. His third album, Cosmogramma, was issued on the same label in 2010, while the relatively pared-down Until the Quiet Comes was released in 2012. The suite-like Youre Dead!, on which he was joined by Herbie Hancock, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, and Captain Murphy (Ellisons rapping alias), among others, appeared in 2014. Following the albums release, Ellison focused on several film-related projects. These included his debut feature film Kuso, a grotesque horror movie that premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. That year, Ellison also scored Blade Runner Black Out 2022, the animated prequel to Denis Villeneuves Blade Runner 2049. In 2018, he composed the music to Eddie Alcazars sci-fi thriller Perfect, which he also produced. The following year, Ellison released his sixth album, Flamagra, which featured collaborations with artists ranging from Solange, Anderson .Paak, and Thundercat to David Lynch. Ellisons considerable quantity of additional production and remix work is scattered across dozens of releases on revered labels such as Tectonic, Hyperdub, Ghostly International, and Ninja Tune -- the last of which is the distributor of his Brainfeeder label, home to releases by the likes of the Gaslamp Killer, Austin Peralta, Martyn, frequent collaborator Thundercat, and Taylor McFerrin. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 14 Title: 1983 Released: 2006-10-03 Tracks: 10 Duration: 30:02 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 1983 (05:10) 2 São Paulo (02:08) 3 Bad Actors (01:28) 4 Orbit Brazil (02:40) 5 Shifty (01:28) 6 Babble (00:53) 7 Pet Monster Shotglass (06:39) 8 Hello (02:48) 9 Untitled #7 (03:22) 10 Unexpected Delight (03:22) |
| 1983 : Allmusic album Review : Flying Lotus (or Alice Coltranes great-nephew) proves that Plug Research is the perfect home for him with his debut full-length, 1983. Sounding like a mix between Ammoncontact and Dntel, Lotus layers spacy keyboards over bass-heavy beats, clearly very much influenced by the whole free jazz-based electronica and hip-hop Sa-Ra craziness thats prevalent in the L.A. area (he also takes a cue from Stones Throw producers Madlib and J Dilla, using fractured rhythms and subtle chords to propel the songs forward). However, unlike many of his labelmates, Lotus doesnt drag out his pieces; instead, all but two of them fall neatly under four minutes, keeping 1983 from becoming a masturbatory exercise in keyboard lines and instead making it very listenable, with beats that circle around without becoming predictable, pulling jazz and Brazilian rhythms into his own electronic-based production and creating a very coherent and listenable album. The individual songs are good -- especially "Pet Monster Shotglass," which, even though it clocks in at over six minutes, stays fresh and fun with its wet, sloshing beats, like rubber boots in mud, a kind of Plug Research interpretation of G-funk -- but its the entire record that has the greatest effect. Its controlled and circular but also very warm and expressive, able to have fun, to not take itself too seriously. The closer, the Daedelus remix of the title cut, is almost video game-worthy, with quirky keys, neo-polka drums, and unintelligible arcade-esque vocal synths that dance around energetically. 1983 represents the best of what Plug Research and the entire genre is: intelligent, accessible, jazz-based electronica and left-field hip-hop that never fail to provoke listeners while also, and maybe more importantly, entertaining them simultaneously. | ||
 | Album: 2 of 14 Title: Reset Released: 2007-10-01 Tracks: 6 Duration: 17:33 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Tea Leaf Dancers (03:12) 2 Vegas Collie (02:18) 3 Massage Situation (02:47) 4 Spicy Sammich (04:15) 5 Bonus Beat (00:51) 6 Dance Floor Stalker (04:10) |
 | Album: 3 of 14 Title: Los Angeles Released: 2008-06-04 Tracks: 17 Duration: 43:26 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Brainfeeder (01:32) 2 Breathe . Something/Stellar STar (03:21) 3 Beginners Falafel (02:28) 4 Camel (02:23) 5 Melt! (01:45) 6 Comet Course (03:02) 7 Orbit 405 (00:44) 8 Golden Diva (04:02) 9 Riot (04:02) 10 GNG BNG (03:39) 11 Parisian Goldfish (03:01) 12 Sleepy Dinosaur (01:56) 13 RobertaFlack (03:07) 14 SexSlaveShip (02:14) 15 Aunties Harp (00:56) 16 Testament (02:29) 17 Aunties Lock/Infinitum (02:45) |
| Los Angeles : Allmusic album Review : Before he started experimenting with left-field hip-hop beats and electronic samples, Steven Ellison, aka Flying Lotus, experienced a moment of enlightenment. While filming a documentary about his great aunt/spiritual advisor Alice Coltrane and his cousin Ravi Coltrane, their cab driver asked if they were musicians. Alice responded that, in fact, the three of them were, except Steven didnt know it yet. It was a turning point, and soon after, when he viewed an ad challenging aspiring beat-makers to send in music to be used for Cartoon Networks Adult Swim bumpers, he took a chance on a whim, sent out a demo, and landed himself a paid position pumping out silky tracks for promos of his favorite shows. As an avid gamer, it was only natural that he would create downtempo Boards of Canada beats sauced with retro 8-bit bleeps and chimes, and these were a perfect fit for the Nintendo generation fan base of Adult Swim. Lotus second full-length, Los Angeles, expands on fractured Zelda grooves, muddy bass stamps, and glitched drum loops to stir up nonintrusive computer chillout music modeled for a hip graphic designers headphones. It could be considered headphone candy, but with the beats as liquefied and squishy as they are, headphone Slushee is more appropriate. "Golden Diva" rides the line between cold and sugary, crackling and popping like melting ice as carbonated hiss rotates in and out of the void behind unintelligible syllables diced together from stray vocal bits. In the same fashion, "GNG BNG" flips a Middle Eastern sitar groove into a mangled keyboard line slithering over a distorted rototom beat, before dropping down into "Aunties Lock" to end the album in a quiet hush with breathy whispers over electronic piano loops. Like 2006s 1983, the patterns are subtly atmospheric and individual grooves feel tailored for the attention deficient, never lingering for very long before switching into a new tapestry. Loaded with 17 tracks, its an entertaining and fitting addition to the Warp catalog that makes for some highly hypnotic video arcade/coffee parlor mood music. | ||
 | Album: 4 of 14 Title: L.A. EP 1 X 3 Released: 2008-06-30 Tracks: 6 Duration: 14:10 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Sleepy Dinosaur (01:57) 2 Rickshaw (01:41) 3 My Chippy (02:09) 4 RobertaFlack (03:07) 5 Paper Crane Gang (02:29) 6 Interference (02:46) |
 | Album: 5 of 14 Title: L.A. EP 2 X 3 Released: 2008-11-24 Tracks: 9 Duration: 36:45 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 RobertaFlack (Martyns Heart Beat mix) (06:06) 2 Sleepy Dinosaur (Ras_G remix) (04:11) 3 Camel (Nosaj Thing remix) (02:54) 4 Grapesicles (Samiyam remix) (03:55) 5 RobertaFlack (Mike Slotts Other mix) (03:03) 6 Secrets (Soundmurderer refix) (05:04) 7 Melt! (Monopoly mix) (03:48) 8 Infinitum (Exile remix) (04:09) 9 Aunties Lock/Infinitum (Quarta330 remix) (03:35) |
 | Album: 6 of 14 Title: Whole Wide World / Lit Up / Keep It Moving Released: 2009-02 Tracks: 5 Duration: 16:11 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Whole Wide World (04:40) 2 Whole Wide World (instrumental) (04:37) 3 Lit Up (01:50) 4 Lit Up (instrumental) (01:44) 5 Keep It Moving (instrumental) (03:20) |
 | Album: 7 of 14 Title: LA CD Released: 2009-05-02 Tracks: 21 Duration: 1:16:51 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Rickshaw (01:41) 2 My Chippy (02:09) 3 Paper Crane Gang (02:29) 4 Interference (02:46) 5 RobertaFlack (Martyns Heart Beat mix) (06:06) 6 Sleepy Dinosaur (Ras_G remix) (04:10) 7 Camel (Nosaj Thing remix) (02:54) 8 Grapesicles (Samiyam remix) (03:54) 9 RobertaFlack (Mike Slotts Other mix) (03:03) 10 Secrets (Soundmurderer refix) (05:02) 11 Melt! (Monopoly mix) (03:48) 12 Infinitum (Exile remix) (04:09) 13 Aunties Lock/Infinitum (Quarta330 remix) (03:35) 14 Parisian Goldfish (Take remix) (02:32) 15 Comet (MatthewDavid) (01:47) 16 Testament (Breakages Bills Suit mix) (03:07) 17 Endless White (04:39) 18 Aunties Harp (Rebekah Raff remix) (06:05) 19 Riot (Take remix) (02:40) 20 Infinitum (Dimlite’s Re-Finitum) (05:45) 21 Spin Cycles (04:30) |
 | Album: 8 of 14 Title: L.A. EP 3 X 3 Released: 2009-08-17 Tracks: 8 Duration: 31:22 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Infinitum (Dimlite’s Re-Finitum) (05:45) 2 Comet (MatthewDavid) (01:46) 3 Endless White (04:49) 4 Parisian Goldfish (Take remix) (02:32) 5 Spin Cycles (04:32) 6 Testament (Breakage’s Bill’s Suit mix) (03:08) 7 Auntie’s Harp (Rebekah Raff remix) (06:10) 8 Riot (Take remix) (02:40) |
 | Album: 9 of 14 Title: Cosmogramma Released: 2010-04-21 Tracks: 17 Duration: 45:47 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Clock Catcher (01:13) 2 Pickled! (02:14) 3 Nose Art (01:58) 4 Intro//A Cosmic Drama (01:15) 5 Zodiac Shit (02:45) 6 Computer Face//Pure Being (02:33) 7 …and the World Laughs With You (02:55) 8 Arkestry (02:51) 9 MmmHmm (04:15) 1 Do the Astral Plane (03:58) 2 Satelllliiiiiiiteee (03:49) 3 German Haircut (01:57) 4 Recoiled (03:37) 5 Dance of the Pseudo Nymph (02:47) 6 Drips//Aunties Harp (02:10) 7 Table Tennis (03:02) 8 Galaxy in Janaki (02:28) |
| Cosmogramma : Allmusic album Review : For 26-year-old Steve Ellisons deservedly hyped third album, Flying Lotus loosened the reins and set out to make Cosmogramma, which his label, Warp, promoted as a space opera of sorts. More of a long-playing, cohesive listen than the prior year’s excellent Los Angeles, which felt like a collection of insular, Dilla-inspired beats, Flying Lotus evolved into a forerunner of his own personal genre. On this, his most far-out release to date, he incorporates a thicker amount of live instrumentation (horns, strings, bass, guitar, and even harp) with his laptop manipulations, and branches away from hip-hop. Call it futuristic fusion, if you will, but the result is much more ahead of the curve than, say, Herbie Hancocks Future 2 Future (though it shares some similarities) and more on par with a Jaga Jazzist or a Four Tet release. That is, its left of center. Free jazz plays a huge part, and Flylo draws deeply from his Coltrane lineage, but he also dips into past-prime electronic and dance styles. Techno, house, and drumnbass all take shape alongside IDM blips, dubstep, and disco strings or blaxploitation soundtrack orchestration, courtesy of OutKast and Erykah Badu arranger Miguel Atwood-Ferguson. As a mass of shape-shifting layers, the album mutates constantly throughout the tracks, in a dense soundscape that sometimes feels palpable and at other times becomes liquid, rife with bottomless possibilities. Cosmogramma is an instrumental genre-jumping journey for head-bopping intellectuals, and the meditative melodies by vocalists Thundercat, Laura Darlington, and Thom Yorke only add to the experience. | ||
 | Album: 10 of 14 Title: Pattern+Grid World Released: 2010-09-11 Tracks: 7 Duration: 18:42 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Clay (02:53) 2 Kill Your Co–Workers (03:04) 3 PieFace (02:34) 4 Time Vampires (02:23) 5 Jurassic Notion/M Theory (03:15) 6 Camera Day (02:22) 7 Physics for Everyone! (02:09) |
 | Album: 11 of 14 Title: Cosmogramma Alt Takes Released: 2011-01-12 Tracks: 9 Duration: 19:56 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Clock Catcher (harp arrangement) (01:12) 2 Melting3 (03:28) 3 Pickled (stripped version) (00:52) 4 Drips Mix3 (01:16) 5 Computer Face (02:48) 6 Catacombs (extended version) (02:26) 7 Galaxy in Janaki (2008 version) (02:16) 8 Galaxy in Janaki (string solo) (02:25) 9 Archway (Teebs remix) (03:13) |
 | Album: 12 of 14 Title: Until the Quiet Comes Released: 2012-09-26 Tracks: 19 Duration: 49:43 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 All In (03:00) 2 Getting There (01:49) 3 Until the Colours Come (01:07) 4 Heave(n) (02:22) 5 Tiny Tortures (03:04) 6 All the Secrets (01:57) 7 Sultan’s Request (01:42) 8 Putty Boy Strut (02:54) 9 See Thru to U (02:54) 10 Until the Quiet Comes (02:11) 11 DMT Song (01:19) 12 The Nightcaller (03:29) 13 Only If You Wanna (01:43) 14 Electric Candyman (03:32) 15 Hunger (03:40) 16 Phantasm (03:51) 17 me Yesterday//Corded (04:40) 18 Dream to Me (01:39) 19 The Things You Left (02:50) |
| Until the Quiet Comes : Allmusic album Review : Rewarding as it was for most lovers of 1983 and Los Angeles, Cosmogramma was so complex and knotted that Steven Ellisons next step could have gone beyond the challenging and into the self-parodic. On his fourth album, Ellison not only peels away layers from his sound but organizes his tracks into a gracefully flowing sequence. The producer once again draws from numerous instrumentalists and vocalists, from Brainfeeder associates Stephen "Thundercat" Bruner and Austin Peralta to the likes of Erykah Badu and Thom Yorke. Bruner has the most presence. His tremulous basslines are on nine of the albums 18 tracks, and his spaced-out, quasi-oracular vocals poke through on occasion, such as on an 80-second track that is titled after a natural psychedelic compound and references the title of Ellisons 2010 EP. True to Flying Lotus form, Bruners voice, as well as those of everyone else, is made to sound phantasmal rather than spotlit. While much of the material on Ellisons previous three albums came across like brief and isolated ideas with an impact unaffected by the shuffle function, the shorter pieces here act more like true connectors or proper set-ups/interludes. The 12 minutes from "See Thru to U" through "Only if You Wanna" make for the albums least divisible section. It begins with lithe and slightly unsettling pattering and closes with a futuristic, organic-synthetic jazz trio piece. Somewhere in the middle, theres "The Nightcaller," the closest the album gets to dancefloor funk like Cosmogrammas "Do the Astral Plane" -- that is, until the last minute, when the gliding/chugging beat stammers and switches to a delirious strut. For all the elegiac and turbulent moments, several tracks, including the majestically wistful "Getting There" and the cascading "Until the Colours Come," are gorgeously starry and even lullaby-like, laced with ear-perking flourishes. And then theres the alien critter voice on "Putty Boy Strut," and the bizarrely bleak and comical "Electric Candyman," featuring Yorke, which arouses some serious cognitive dissonance by provoking thoughts of Tony Todd and Beyoncé ("Say my name, say my name, say my name"). Ellisons trademarks -- skittering and rustling percussion atop slightly irregular drums that knock and thud, for instance -- factor almost as much as ever, but his slight adjustments and increased restraint make this his most accessible and creative release yet. | ||
 | Album: 13 of 14 Title: You’re Dead! Released: 2014-10-06 Tracks: 19 Duration: 38:11 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Theme (01:24) 2 Tesla (01:54) 3 Cold Dead (01:34) 4 Fkn Dead (00:40) 5 Never Catch Me (03:54) 6 Dead Man’s Tetris (02:26) 7 Turkey Dog Coma (03:09) 8 Stirring (00:30) 9 Coronus, the Terminator (02:40) 10 Siren Song (02:38) 1 Turtles (02:07) 2 Ready err Not (01:46) 3 Eyes Above (01:13) 4 Moment of Hesitation (02:18) 5 Descent Into Madness (01:27) 6 The Boys Who Died in Their Sleep (01:51) 7 Obligatory Cadence (02:56) 8 Your Potential//The Beyond (01:46) 9 The Protest (01:57) |
| You’re Dead! : Allmusic album Review : An early form of Youre Dead! was the length of a double album -- a large mass of brief tracks that, for Steven Ellison, possibly signified nothing more than his fifth Flying Lotus album. As the producer and keyboardist spent more time absorbing and shaping the recordings, the title, initially comic in meaning, gained emotional weight while he was provoked to consider his mortality and the losses he has been dealt, including the deaths of his father and mother, his grandmother, his great aunt Alice Coltrane, and creative collaborator Austin Peralta. The completed Youre Dead! consists of 19 tracks averaging two minutes in length that are intended to be heard in sequence from front to back. Its flow is even more liquid than that of Until the Quiet Comes, though the sounds are more jagged and free, with roots deeper in jazz. Ellison once again works extensively beside longtime comrades and pulls new collaborators into his sphere. All of them -- bassist and vocalist Thundercat, drummer Deantoni Parks, saxophonist Kamasi Washington, and many others worthy of mention -- help him push jazz, R&B, rap, and electronic music forward at once. Most striking and powerful of all is "Never Catch Me," easily the longest cut. An albums worth of ideas and a whirlwind guest appearance from rapper Kendrick Lamar are condensed into its four sonically rich minutes. The tone dramatically shifts with the following "Dead Mans Tetris," a sinister concoction of melodic bleeps and gunshot effects involving Ellison as Captain Murphy, and also Snoop Dogg, in which J Dilla, Freddie Mercury, and Peralta are all part of the afterlife fantasy. Previous Flying Lotus releases have their bleak and elegiac moments, but theyre central here, highlighted by "Coronus, the Terminator" (an Ellison/Niki Randa duet), "Siren Song" (fronted by Dirty Projectors Angel Deradoorian), and "Obligatory Cadence." The instrumentals range from playful, as reflected in titles like "Turkey Dog Coma" and "Turtles," to the distressed likes of "Tesla" and "Moment of Hesitation," with the latter two both anchored by Gene Coyes feverish percussion and Herbie Hancocks glimmering/flickering piano. It all plays out in a kind of elegantly careening fashion. It concludes with "The Protest," where Laura Darlington and Kimbra softly sing "We will live on forever" like a defiant mantra. Like his great aunt, and his great uncle John Coltrane, Ellison has created exceptionally progressive, stirring, and eternal art. | ||
 | Album: 14 of 14 Title: Flamagra Released: 2019-05-24 Tracks: 27 Duration: 1:06:57 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Heroes (02:44) 2 Post Requisite (02:08) 3 Heroes in a Half Shell (01:17) 4 More (04:17) 5 Capillaries (01:54) 6 Burning Down the House (03:03) 7 Spontaneous (02:08) 8 Takashi (05:51) 9 Pilgrim Side Eye (01:30) 10 All Spies (01:45) 11 Yellow Belly (03:11) 12 Black Balloons (reprise) (02:41) 13 Fire Is Coming (03:16) 14 Inside Your Home (01:26) 15 Actually Virtual (01:58) 16 Andromeda (01:28) 17 Remind U (02:41) 18 Say Something (01:15) 19 Debbie Is Depressed (02:19) 20 Find Your Own Way Home (01:40) 21 The Climb (03:15) 22 Pygmy (01:24) 23 9 Carrots (03:01) 24 FF4 (01:11) 25 Land of Honey (03:27) 26 Thank U Malcolm (01:32) 27 Hot Oct. (04:35) |