Flying Lotus: Cosmogramma (Warp, 5/4/10)
Flying Lotus: “Pickled!”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Flying_LotusPickled.mp3|titles=Flying Lotus: “Pickled!”]
Electronic producer Steven Ellison, known as Flying Lotus, made waves two years ago with his Warp debut full-length, Los Angeles, an atmospheric psych-hop affair that was augmented with white noise, blippy sci-fi scales, and a deep bass underpinning.
Cosmogramma is Ellison’s brilliant new collage, but the endowments of Los Angeles have been surpassed by an ever-burgeoning skill for composition. Beautiful and wild runs of harp, bass, and classical guitar are present from the start, contrasting but not conflicting with cuts of sharply buzzing guitars, train whistles, and deep-space synths. String swells and chopped vocals slide in and out of the mix, layering atop glitch, dance, and drum-and-bass beats; rubbery dance-floor passages disappear into symphonic swaths.