Flying Lotus - Flamagra
The Quietus
In just over a decade Steve ‘Flying Lotus’ Ellison has gone from unknown LA beat maker to one of the most influential and in demand producers in the world. As well as this, Ellison runs the Brainfeeder imprint that has pushed musical boundaries for over a decade. His previous five albums are critically lauded, combining elements of wonky hip-hop, bouncy funk, nu-jazz, sparse electronica, and neo-psychedelia to create something that sounds of their time, whilst simultaneously progressive and futuristic. On his sixth album, Flamagra, Ellison pushes himself, and listeners to deliver a concept album about an eternal flame that channels astral afro-futurism via the LA bass scene.
Everything on Flamagra sounds amazing. The beats are crisp and crunchy, the synths and loops are tight and catchy, the basslines are deep and wobbly and the vocals floating above it all take centre stage, but because everything sounds so perfectly measured it’s hard to get excited about the next song, as it all merges into one long sicty-two minute listening experience. This might sound counter-intuitive – because isn’t that the point, to have something that sounds faultless, sublime and flows together? Probably, but after twenty mins it’s hard to get excited about the next song as you know the unrelenting perfection will continue.
The songs that really stand out are the ones that deviate from the blueprint. ‘Land Of Honey’ is full of delicate 30s piano runs and minimal guitars with Solange delivering an understated vocal performance that generates chills and wide grins in equal measure. Tierra Whack is brash and unapologetic on the swaggery ‘Yellow Belly’. ‘Say Something’ is filled with wonky piano and a delicate string section. ‘Fire is Coming’ features David Lynch ranting on about, well, fire and feels like unused dialogue from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. ‘The Climb’ sees another glorious collaboration with Thundercat and is one of the standout moments Flamagra has to offer. Meandering bass riffs, falsetto vocals, and minimal beats draw you in, while strings swirl about you gently, offering a change in texture and tone.
Flamagra is everything that we’ve come to expect from FlyLo: a collection of songs expertly composed and produced that we are left scratching our heads over, wondering if anyone else should even bother. However this is also the problem with the record. It isn’t that Flamagra is a bad album – far from it – but at times it feels like a slog to get through as the songs are so incredibly dense and earnest. Ellison’s work with Kenrick Lamar, Kamasi Washington, and Thunrdercat shows he’s an excellent producer, but perhaps he needs someone to help channel his own creative outputs so they meet the pleasure and enjoyment of those releases.
After listening to Flying Lotus, the Walter Yetnikoff quote about Leonard Cohen comes to mind. "Look, FlyLo; we know you're great, but we don't know if you're any good.” This is something that only time, and repeat listens, will tell. But for now, the jury’s still out.
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Thu May 30 09:18:03 GMT 2019Tiny Mix Tapes 80
Flying Lotus
Flamagra
[Warp; 2019]
Rating: 4/5
Even when just casually seeking out cultural criticism, you will likely read pieces on what a creation supposedly means for “our current moment.” This approach is oftentimes used as a conduit to lazily discuss hot-button issues — Trump, Brexit, Game of Thrones, you name it. It’s a fixation on the modern landscape that leads to a kind of regression, one that yields to what has been previously stated or taken for granted. In short, honing in on Twitter topics gives your analysis an expiration date, one that hardly warrants coming back to.
This is why Flying Lotus feels so vital (pardon the Mic.com speak). He seems to have no interest in what anyone else is doing. And like so many visionaries before him, Steven Ellison takes cues from the cosmic consortium, basking in the glow of spaces undefined, places unreachable. His jazz née hip-hop swirly disregards the takeology complex, concerned instead with the grander landscape at hand. OK, the world is burning and fascist leaders are at power all over, but there’s more to existence than corporeal matters, y’know?
FlyLo draws on many of the cosmic jazz greats here. Shades of Sun Ra, Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders — even George Clinton. His arrangements stay wondrous as usual, carrying a gravitas that hasn’t been present in his recent creative (see: non-musical) work. The man is far more interested in probing deeper truths than merely addressing a topic at a time. His operatic nature suits Flamagra immensely; one could see a theater company performing the album live, complete with flamboyant production and bizarre costumes.
Flamagra is also by far FlyLo’s most guest star-laden album. Ellison loves to curate talents who are just as weird as he. Tierra Whack comes through with predictably wacky lyricism, finding the essence of the song and infusing it wholeheartedly. Denzel Curry brings the opposite: a teeth-gnashing, Illmatic-esque boom-bap tune that reverses the mood and shows how unconcerned Flamagra is with comfort and permanence. On the back half of the album, Solange shows up with a wholly pertinent turn: her song “Land of Honey” draws on When I Get Home, hitting languid grooves and showing how well the two can work in tandem, straining the limits of this jazzy permutation.
If there is one major flaw in Flamagra, it’s that Flying Lotus didn’t think any songs needed to be cut. That’s OK, of course. It’s rare nowadays to see a true double album, an ambitious effort that’s not reliant on singles or gaming streaming platforms in order to boost profits. Maybe it’s just that I’m impatient, but with this record jam-packed with goodies to dig into, we can forgive Ellison for being greedy with his spoils. Why not, right? If the earth is crumbling and we are all passively doomed to a life of servitude by way of late-stage capitalism, Flamagra understands that there needs to be an astronomic aspiration to counteract this disparity. So take it in. Bathe in the lush, singular visions conjured by Flying Lotus. Refresh yourself and begin anew.
Tiny Mix Tapes 80
Flying Lotus
Flamagra
[Warp; 2019]
Rating: 4/5
Even when just casually seeking out cultural criticism, you will likely read pieces on what a creation supposedly means for “our current moment.” This approach is oftentimes used as a conduit to lazily discuss hot-button issues — Trump, Brexit, Game of Thrones, you name it. It’s a fixation on the modern landscape that leads to a kind of regression, one that yields to what has been previously stated or taken for granted. In short, honing in on Twitter topics gives your analysis an expiration date, one that hardly warrants coming back to.
This is why Flying Lotus feels so vital (pardon the Mic.com speak). He seems to have no interest in what anyone else is doing. And like so many visionaries before him, Steven Ellison takes cues from the cosmic consortium, basking in the glow of spaces undefined, places unreachable. His jazz née hip-hop swirly disregards the takeology complex, concerned instead with the grander landscape at hand. OK, the world is burning and fascist leaders are at power all over, but there’s more to existence than corporeal matters, y’know?
FlyLo draws on many of the cosmic jazz greats here. Shades of Sun Ra, Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders — even George Clinton. His arrangements stay wondrous as usual, carrying a gravitas that hasn’t been present in his recent creative (see: non-musical) work. The man is far more interested in probing deeper truths than merely addressing a topic at a time. His operatic nature suits Flamagra immensely; one could see a theater company performing the album live, complete with flamboyant production and bizarre costumes.
Flamagra is also by far FlyLo’s most guest star-laden album. Ellison loves to curate talents who are just as weird as he. Tierra Whack comes through with predictably wacky lyricism, finding the essence of the song and infusing it wholeheartedly. Denzel Curry brings the opposite: a teeth-gnashing, Illmatic-esque boom-bap tune that reverses the mood and shows how unconcerned Flamagra is with comfort and permanence. On the back half of the album, Solange shows up with a wholly pertinent turn: her song “Land of Honey” draws on When I Get Home, hitting languid grooves and showing how well the two can work in tandem, straining the limits of this jazzy permutation.
If there is one major flaw in Flamagra, it’s that Flying Lotus didn’t think any songs needed to be cut. That’s OK, of course. It’s rare nowadays to see a true double album, an ambitious effort that’s not reliant on singles or gaming streaming platforms in order to boost profits. Maybe it’s just that I’m impatient, but with this record jam-packed with goodies to dig into, we can forgive Ellison for being greedy with his spoils. Why not, right? If the earth is crumbling and we are all passively doomed to a life of servitude by way of late-stage capitalism, Flamagra understands that there needs to be an astronomic aspiration to counteract this disparity. So take it in. Bathe in the lush, singular visions conjured by Flying Lotus. Refresh yourself and begin anew.
Pitchfork 78
On Steven Ellison’s sixth album, his sweeping jazz-funk feels limitless. It sounds more like a sketchbook with FlyLo crafting each minute with great care and technical dexterity.
Fri May 24 05:00:00 GMT 2019The Guardian 60
(Warp)
Always known for Technicolor hip-hop odysseys, Flying Lotus has now gone fully cinematic. Following his directorial debut with the gross-out flick Kuso, Steven Ellison’s sixth album includes a short story from David Lynch and cartoonish rap miniatures such as Yellow Belly, a collaboration with R&B innovator Tierra Whack. Even on the instrumentals, Flamagra conjures visual extremities. If Hieronymus Bosch wrote ad jingles, they’d probably sound like the dismembered funk jam Pilgrim Side Eye.
In truth, FlyLo on form is too discombobulating to evoke cinema. A bellwether of the decade’s jazz renaissance, his 2010 opus Cosmogramma is less like a screen experience than a waterslide through his neural passages. Flamagra, by contrast, sometimes forgets it’s not a film, with Ellison indulging in nightmarish sketches that betray his close kinship with Adult Swim, the cartoon company for grown-ups. Despite its charismatic Tierra Whack verse, Yellow Belly plays more like a gag than an epiphany, and the clanks and warbles of Fire Is Coming fill Lynch’s eerie tale with dread but little replay value.
Continue reading... Fri May 24 07:00:08 GMT 2019The Guardian 40
(Warp)
Steven “FlyLo” Ellison usually releases an album of his collapsed nu-jazz every other year to roaring acclaim, but has spent much of the past half-decade producing for Kendrick, mentoring Thundercat and rowing back his imbecilic defence of alleged rapist the Gaslamp Killer. This long-delayed sixth album, weakly based around the concept of fire, is a mixtape sprawl with high-profile features including David Lynch, Solange and Little Dragon. Yet despite being so revered for futurism, Ellison often settles for retreading his past. It feels like these are 27 job applications for top production gigs, rather than songs.
It’s a treat to hear Anderson .Paak and the flame he always brings to a booth on More, but it’s a rare highlight. Burning Down the House refamiliarises us with late-period George Clinton, sounding more than ever like a man struggling to unfold a map on a tram, backed by funk that’s far more Z than P.
Continue reading... Sun May 26 06:59:06 GMT 2019