Artist of the Day: Flying Lotus

It's a pretty safe to make the suggestion that some musicians are more popular than others. It's usually quite obvious why (i.e. more advertising or the fact that one is just plain better), but you can't help but think that a slight bit of luck is involved when artists reach such cult acclaim as Flying Lotus. Despite only releasing his first EP on Warp in 2007, many now consider him the undisputed king of beat music and all things holy in heavily-texturised hip-hop. He's done a lot to deserve this claim: founding the hugely successful L.A. based glitch-hop label 'Brainfeeder' along with releasing some incredibly influential LPs in these last few years. We're at a point where it seems that FlyLo can do no wrong.


Best described as a 'experimental multi-genre producer', Flying Lotus has a habit of smashing jazz into hip-hop before straining it through a fine eclectic,electronic mesh. His styles switch haphazardly from more chilled out, ambient-ish downtempo (see 'Endless White') to the more dense 'the drum machine's on the fritz again' mindfuck that was his most recent LP, Cosmogramma. Each track is submerged in a consistently rich palette of emotions, despite the varying styles, and his releases have gained the reputation of 'albums you have to get in to before you truly enjoy them' ala. ITAOTS and DrukQs.

It would be unfair for me to say that FlyLo does not deserve his praise, but with a release scheduled for October 1 this year the hype is building up to unbearable levels. It's a fair bet to say that Until The Quiet Comes will be a good album, but to live up to the lofty expectations of what are now better titled as 'worshippers' than 'fans' FlyLo is going to have to release a masterpiece.

So good luck, mate. No pressure.

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