Track Listing

1. Brainfeeder
2. Breathe. Something/Stellar Star
3. Beginners Falafel
4. Camel
5. Melt!
6. Comet Course
7. Orbit 405
8. Golden Diva
9. Hot
10. GNG BNG
11. Parisian Goldfish
12. Sleepy Dinosaur
13. Robertaflack - Dolly, Flying Lotus
14. Sexslaveship
15. Auntie's Harp
16. Testament - Flying Lotus, Gonjasufi
17. Auntie's Lock/Infinitum - Laura Darlington, Flying Lotus

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43868 in Music
• Brand: Dig
• Released on: 2008-06-10
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .11 pounds

Album Description
With the Reset EP released October last year and his bootleg mixes of everyone from KELIS to MR. OIZO and MADVILLAIN circulating amongst the heads, FLYING LOTUS' name is on the lips of many as the leader of a new generation of artists emerging from California. A movement that has captured attention worldwide, fuelled by hip-hop and cutting-edge dance music, FLYING LOTUS is redefining the sound of LA. Flying Lotus is a man of many sides; from the huge sounding collabs and remixes giving indication of the slickest productions you are likely to hear on radio to his high voltage live shows (we saw earlier this year) which are somewhere between the best ever house party DJ and the most crowd-smashing live electronic act you've seen, to this new album proper - 'Los Angeles' - a deep, soulful, intricate album where glints of detail are unearthed to make this opus richer on every listen. Of course, it?s no secret that Lotus is the product of a rich musical lineage and Auntie's Harp serves not only as a collaboration with his majestic aunt (ALICE COLTRANE), but also a more fitting tribute. Testament arrives as the intro to Fly Lo's collaborator GONJA SUFI in all his mage-like splendor. Like DR. DRE & SNOOP DOGG, TIMBALAND & MISSY or BETH GIBBONS & GEOFF BARROW, the pairing of a pioneering producer & entirely distinct vocalist/songwriter is a force to be reckoned with. The feeling is only amplified with the closing opus Infintum. Enveloping vocalist LAURA DARLINGTON in a track that bridges GAINSBOURG/BARDOT territory with BROADCAST and shape-shifting post-modern R&B, it is a sublime bookend to Brainfeeder and serves as the perfect FIN to Los Angeles epic journey.

Review
On the heels of brilliant success from early remixes and 2007's Reset, Flying Lotus releases yet another little gem of a record with Los Angeles. Lovingly adorned FlyLo by fans, Flying Lotus has always produced a fresher than fresh (mostly instrumental) electronic hip-hop sound. Ultra cool, futuristic, and representative of everything at the forefront of the title city's hip-hop and electronic music scenes, Los Angeles continues FlyLo s tricked-out lounge vibe just as well, if not better, than their previous releases. The liquidity of the tracks flows so well that it feels like a continuous stream and the next thing you know you re listening to Track 17. The EP's best new tracks include the outerspacey ''Beginners Falafel,'' the percussive and janky ''Camel,'' the lush and complex neo-soul ''RobertaFlack'' featuring Dolly (reminiscent of FlyLo's delicious remix of Mia Doi Todd s ''My Room Is White''), and the culminating pulsating ''Auntie s Lock/Infinitum'' featuring the soft vocals of Laura Darlington. Los Angeles is a beautifully complex and widespread full-length from one of LA's most creative and perceptive music producers. --Urb

Customer Reviews

Mesmerizing and atmospheric instrumental hip-hop
I'll admit, my exposure to avant-garde, left field instrumental hip hop is limited to the major players--Dilla and Madlib, among a handful of others. My first exposure to Flying Lotus were the interludes on Adult Swim that he soundtracked, although I didn't know it at the time.

FlyLo makes no attempt to disguise his influences or history. A self described member of "the Nintendo generation," this record is teeming with glitchy blips and beeps that evoke the 8-bit classics, but they're drenched in swirling synth lines and chopped apart beyond recognition. I would like to resist mentioning that he's the grand-nephew of Alice Coltrane, but his clear affinity for jazz arrangements (and relentless defiance of genre restrictions) almost forces my hand, whether it was derived from his relatives or not.

Los Angeles strikes a perfect balance between establishing a consistent (dank) sound, while never growing tiresome. Think London-based dubstep artist Burial with hip-hop leanings and a lot more variation. Colorful synthetic swirls, drum breaks, and vocal samples fall into a cinematic groove on every track, only to be deconstructed again (often in less than three minutes).

This is one of the first standout albums of 2008. Highly recommended.

Thematic hip-hop
While making a documentary in Paris about his musical relatives, a taxi driver asked Steven Ellison aka Flying Lotus if he and his crew were musicians. He slumped down in his seat, but great aunt Alice Coltrane spoke up: "Yeah, this guy, he's a musician too; he thinks he's a filmmaker, though". After a few listens to Los Angeles (and all of his stellar work, for that matter), you notice that Ellison's music is the perfect mix of both, the album title, his hometown, providing the thematic element (something you'll really notice if you've ever spent time in L.A.) to this extraordinary hypercompressed, claustrophobic mélange of samples, broken rhythms and analog loveliness. You hear spooky, foggy nighttime Malibu surf ("Camel"), experience whiffs of Little India's spices and rhythms ("Melt!"), see red carpet traffic jams ("Golden Diva"), pull down the wrong street at the wrong time ("Riot") and drowsily smile like a tourist in La Brea ("Sleepy Dinosaur").

best flying lotus work to date.
Flying Lotus takes it to another level with this album. I just got done listening to it for the second time in its entirety. If you liked the direction he took with the Reset EP in the Fall of 07, this is sure to please. Buy it for the music and also for the great artwork, the booklet inside is great! This album is also a great reminder that Warp is still capable of releasing great electronic albums.