Flying Lotus - Los Angeles on CD

Description

Along with the rising profiles of both Scottish producer Rustie and fellow Warp artist Harmonic 313, FlyLo's migration to the Sheffield label for his first full-length release indicates that this strain of instrumental, broken hip hop is whetting aural appetites. Steven Ellison's hometown provides the impetus for a narrative of city life where off-kilter beats, cloaked in ambience, set the soundscape. His is an L.A that threatens; the ominous, static fog of opener Brainfeeder seduces, while Roberta Flack is just sublime. Where David Holmes' Bow Down To The Exit Sign packed a visceral, urban punch through spoken monologues from corner street dwellers, Ellison's eschewing of M.Cs smacks of confidence. Without lyrical clutter the imagined city is as much the listener's creation as the artist's, a trick that perhaps betrays Ellison's jazz lineage (his aunt is Alice Coltrane). Prefuse 73's shadow looms large over the wonderfully-monikered Beginners Falafel and the crunchy edits of Camel. That aside, Ellison's deftness of touch, matched with the application of ethereal backdrops that recall EL P's stone cold work with Cannibal Ox, ensure this street storyboard intensifies with each listen. The rabbit-warren, rhythmic freefall of Riot, for example, baits the listener to grapple with its organised chaos. Tilts of the cap to mainstream hip hop come with a weighty and satisfying abstraction. Melt lifts the drum pattern from Ludacris' Stand Up, treating it to an echo-chamber rework, while the forward-leaning GNG BNG rolls off the back of eighties drum pads before touching hyphy, bollywood and finally a Shadow-esque drum break. Underpinned by a woozily plucked double bass and a heavenly female vocal, penultimate track Testament echoes most Ellison's sound on 2006's Reset E.P. The analogue bubble bath of swansong Auntie's Lock is a final, brazen challenge to resist this record's charms. The first moments of Flying Lotus' LOS ANGELES come on as lush analog waves, just distorted enough to sound like a faded memory of something you once heard on a radio from across a room. Essentially, it's instant transportation. Whether it is forward or backward in time, you'll never know as the sounds of the record leap recklessly into the future while keeping a sly glance back towards the classics of every genre. Like Flying Lotus' full-length Warp debut, LOS ANGELES and it's surrounding areas are studies in deep contrast: haves and have-nots, glitter and grime, sunshine and shadow, whimsy and tension

TRACKS

Brainfeeder 1.31
Breathe. Something/Stellar Star 3.20
Beginners Falafel 2.28
Camel 2.22
Melt! 1.45
Comet Course 3.01
Orbit 405 0.43
Golden Diva 4.01
Riot 4.02
GNG BNG 3.38
Parisian Goldfish 3.01
Sleepy Dinosaur 1.55
Robertaflack (Feat. Dolly) 3.07
SexSlaveShip 2.14
Auntie's Harp 0.55
Testament (Feat. Gonja Sufi) 2.28
Auntie's Lock/Infinitum (Feat. Laura Darlington) 2.44