Flying Lotus
Cosmogramma

Release Date: 2010 | Tracklist

Flying Lotus' first two records were marked by his avant-garde take on hip-hop. "1983" was what some reviewers call "post-Dilla" which basically means highly textural hip-hop tracks. "Los Angeles" built on this sound, but added more standard electronic music cliches. "Los Angeles" was released on Warp records and was clearly more indebted to that side of FlyLo. In turn the sound of that record presented more of a mixtape of his ideas rather than a complete record. "Cosmogramma" is still built on both of those sounds though Steve Ellison has his sound again to another level with the addition of live instrumentation from a variety of sources. Notable contributors are Thom Yorke and Ravi Coltrane. Yorke's contribution sounds like Ellison remixing Kid A era Radiohead. Coltrane's various saxophone passage move Flying Lotus' sound into realms of avant jazz yet very much removed from his extensive family connections.

"Cosmogramma" starts off where "Los Angeles" left off. 'Pickled!" and 'Nose Art' are certainly the most familiar moments for former Flylo fans. As the album begins to progress though the tracks get decidedly more stranger. 'Intro // A Cosmic Drama' is where the record ironically enough starts showing its more alien moments. Rather than building emotion through direct grooves and heavy bass tracks, Ellison has peeled back another dimension to his music. Softer tones make highlights like 'MmmHmm' serene futuristic pop songs. The layering of 'Do the Astral Plane' is incredibly dense. The amount of different types of textures and sounds found on the track is impressive and the fact that it still works is even more so. Every track on the record should be commended with how easily it flows into the next while still retaining moments of individuality. Rebekah Raff's harp performance highlights a personal touch throughout the record, but most notably on 'Drips // Auntie's Harp'. In terms of perfection of a sound its hard to imagine that "Cosmogramma" could do much more. Everything you could want in electronic music is here with equal amounts of hip-hop and jazz thrown in for good measure.

"Cosmogramma" is the next "Mezzanine". This is a record that has perfected a style of music. Ellison throughout his short career has already released three seminal releases and helped launch a pretty amazing collective of like minded artists in Los Angeles. "Cosmogramma" is from a fan's standpoint a very understandable evolution. "1983" drew its strength from consistency and its fluid tracklist, "Los Angeles" lost that with a pretty sprawling length. "Cosmogramma" is FlyLo's most consistent record to date and in general overwhelmingly enjoyable. The emotional power the record manages to achieve when in reality it is just a sequence of electronic beeps is perhaps what is most impressive. While structurally and musically there is very little similarities to the Coltrane name he's related to, the emotion of those musicians has clearly been instilled in Ellison. Time will tell if "Cosmogramma" is the most definitive moment of his career, but at this point it seems the realm of electronic music is open for Flying Lotus to be the next big visionary of his genre.

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4.2 excellent

Rank: #16 for 2010