Although his government name is Steven Ellison, Flying Lotus has made a name for himself in the underground electronica circuit. With a host of EPs, collaborations and mixtapes to his credit, FlyLo has a chronicle of work that spans nearly a decade.
Steven Ellison a.k.a Flying Lotus
While the rest of us were pulling all-nighters and doing keg stands, Flying Lotus was hard at work crafting his first two studio albums, ‘1983‘, in 2006 and ‘Los Angeles‘, in 2008. But enough of the history of things, let’s talk about his latest release, ‘Cosmogramma‘
Considering the fact that FlyLo is the great-nephew of Alice Coltrane, much of this album has obvious (and not so obvious) jazz elements that hearken back to the days of Miles Davis-esqe freestyle sessions. This is one of the few albums, as of late, that actually sounds like an album. By this, I mean that the record must be played in its entirety in order to get the full effect of Ellison’s hard work and diligence towards the project.
Merely skipping around from song to song would only do you a disservice.
Album art for 'Cosmogramma'
The album as a whole is a very symphonic piece of work that requires more than one complete listen to experience every element that he seemed to have worked so meticulously on. Tracks such as “Do the Astral Plane” and “Zodiac Shit” have the makings of being breakout singles for ‘Cosmogramma‘ with pleasantly rhythmic back beats by Stephen”Thundercat” Bruner.
If you let me, I could go on and on about the album and all the intricately placed elements within this 42-minute-and-one-second opus, but a review is a review. Even it has it’s limits.
I suggest you pick up a copy if you haven’t done so already. That’s an order.