FLYING LOTUS
Cosmogramma
WARP195
Warp Records 2010
17 Tracks. 45mins37secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP | DLD US: CD | LP | DLD Boomkat: CD | LP | DLD iTunes: DLD

Thought Flying Lotus’s Los Angels was ambitious? Think again. There’s a lot to get your head round on the latest slice of goodness from California-based Steven Ellison, all crammed into a mere forty five minutes of virulent twists and turns, where beats are compressed into hectic sequences and dropped over thick layers of sounds. Ellison refers to Cosmogramma as a space opera, but it is more akin to the soundtrack of a disjointed sci-fi cartoon

It is difficult to keep track of where Ellison is at any point of the record, so quick is he to move from one step to the next. Continue Reading »

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Warp20 (Box Set) / Warp20 (Recreated) / Warp20 (Chosen)
WARP20.0 / WARP201 / WARP 202
Warp Records 2009
– / 21 Tracks / 24 Tracks. – / 99mins13secs / 127mins18secs

Warp20 (Box Set)
Boomkat: BX

Warp20 (Recreated)
Amazon UK: CD Amazon US: CD Boomkat: CD iTunes: DLD

Warp20 (Chosen)
Amazon UK: CD Amazon US: CD Boomkat: CD iTunes: DLD

LFO. Three metallic blue letters, straddled by a ghostly shape, set on a black background. Three letters that changed things forever. The year was 1991, I was browsing through the new arrivals in my local records store, and the Designers Republic artwork of LFO’s Frequencies was standing out from the blur, calling out for my attention. An hour or so later, I was left baffled by a record which I was struggling to understand. On one side, the lush flow and shattering bass of LFO or Simon From Sydney irresistibly titillated my appetite for crisp evocative electronics, on the other, I had never experienced anything quite as bare as Mentok 1 or We Are Back. This album bore its influences on its sleeve, literally, and it took a few listens to ‘get it’. But ‘get it’ I did. More than I could have ever wished for. I was hooked. Not only on LFO, but also on Warp.

The brainchild of Steve Beckett and the late Rob Mitchell, who founded the label twenty years ago in the former metallurgic city of Sheffield, Warp found itself at a crossroad between the dying acid scene and the nascent UK techno/electronica movements Continue Reading »

FLYING LOTUS
L.A EP 1×3
WAP247
Warp Records 2008
06 Tracks. 14mins25secs
Format: 12″/Digital

Flying Lotus follows the release of his excellent second album, Los Angeles, a few weeks ago with a series of three limited EPs, each released at just 2,000 copies on 12″. First to materialise is L.A. EP 1×3, which features Sleepy Dinosaur and Robert Flack, taken from Los Angeles, and four brand new tracks.

Kicking off the EP, the glitchy and short Sleepy Dinosaur is quickly followed by the even shorter (just over one minute forty) Rickshaw which despite its rather compact form manages to dispense quite a devastating groove, only lightened up by light oriental flavours. Continue Reading »

FLYING LOTUS
Los Angeles
WARPCD165
Warp Records 2008
17 Tracks. 43mins17secs

Flying Lotus’s family credentials could hardly be more legendary. Grand son of Marilyn Mcleod, who penned songs for Diana Ross, The Four Tops and countless other Motown legends, and great nephew of jazz legend Alice Coltrane and cousin of Ravi Coltrane, Steven Ellison has quite a lot to live up to. With his first offering, 1983, released two years ago on Californian imprint Plug Research, Ellison set the foundation for his classic blend of hip-hop infused electronica and established Flying Lotus alongside the likes of Dntel, Madlib or Daedelus. Having consequently moved to London’s Warp Records, Flying Lotus delivered the rather impressive Reset EP last year, and is now bringing out his second album.

Dedicated to the city in which he grew up, Los Angeles is a largely instrumental collection, with only a handful of tracks featuring vocal contributors. Continue Reading »

FLYING LOTUS
Reset
WAP228 / WAP228CD
Warp Records 2007
06 Tracks. 17mins32secs
Format: 12″ / CDS

Flying Lotus is the project of Los Angeles resident Steven Ellison, a young musician with an impressive pedigree, counting Alice Coltrane as his great aunt no less, yet he owes his burgeoning music career to Snoop Doggy Dog, whose Doggystyle album made a strong impression on a thirteen years old Ellison.

Ellison’s debut album, 1983, was released last year on Plug Research and received critical acclaim for its impressive scope. A tight exercise which freely borrowed from hip-hop, jazz, tropicalia and electronica, the album called on comparison with the likes of Daedelus and Dntel, but Ellison’s sonic dexterity made it a remarkable personal effort. Now signed to Warp, Flying Lotus has just delivered a dense six track EP, ahead of his second album, scheduled for next year. Continue Reading »