Fans of experimental electronic music such as myself have been enamored over the past couple of years with the rise of LA beatsmith Flying Lotus (real name Steven Ellison). His style really fits no genre, (and recently he did a great job diffusing another potentially shitty genre name), but his work melds jazz, hip hop, and other avant-garde electronic techniques for sounds that don't exist anywhere else. Live performances transcend what was believed to be possible by a guy on stage with a laptop, and his Gobi tent closing performace at Coachella 2010 has been hailed as one of the weekend's finest. Not a small feat, indeed.
His most recent masterpiece, the full length album Cosmogramma was released in May and was another genre-busting affair, fusing synthesized trip-hop beats with a symphonic storyline lurking throughout. Thom Yorke, from that one band who sing "Creep", even lent FlyLo his vocals on the track "... And the World Laughs With You" after letting him open some of his solo dates the previous year.
The amazing thing about this record is the way it unfolds, taking the listener somewhere into the beyond for almost an hour. He achieved such a unique melding of sounds by blending his samples and beats with the playing of live musicians, something he never attempted on previous records. The result is truly game-changing, and it showcases some of the most forward-thinking music I have ever heard. The album, when experienced as a whole, ceases to be music but rather exists as art that at times is monstrous but always slips back into a staggering, indefinable beauty.
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Along with the Album of the Week (and maybe the year?), Steven Ellison found time to produce yet another release. While his remixes can be interesting, (the Weezy mixes, Reckoner), and Cosmogramma was certainly groundbreaking, the latest EP entitled Pattern+Grid World sees a return to form for his previous releases. He chooses to forego any collaborative music and instead sends out another collection of his spacey beats, and they are a good starting point if Cosmogramma is too daunting of a listen. One of my favorites so far is the second track, "Kill Your Co-Workers"
Nothing like some beats to let your mind wander.
Enjoy.
