One night at the beginning of last year, my girlfriend and I were lucky enough to experience two of the best live acts beginning with the letters “F” and “L”. One was Fleet Foxes. The other was Flying Lotus. But these two acts could not have been more different. Fleet Foxes, while nonetheless brilliant, played their songs pretty much as they are on the record. Their tightly structured baroque folk-pop doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for improvisation. Flying Lotus, on the other hand, is an artist whose entire career is built on improvising. His work is constantly changing and intangible. Even on his records his ‘songs’ are loosely structured. He is more like a modern Jazz musician than a DJ or ‘producer’, but I would hate to label him as such.
Ellison is great-nephew to the late and great John and Alice Coltrane, and he effortlessly carries on the family tradition of trailblazing and humble meditation on the greater things in life. Cosmogramma could easily be seen as an extension of that family history—particularly John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme—of rumination on the cosmic and divine. Probably the most striking thing about this album is its humbleness. It doesn’t assume to know anything or to provoke any concrete emotions from the listener. It is the sound of a man who is searching, looking upwards, but not necessarily knowing at what. This sense of mystery of the unknown permeates throughout. Even the guest vocals of Thom Yorke on ‘…And the World Laughs With You’ are employed as an instrument of that feeling, as his spliced voice coos “I just need to know you’re out there somewhere”. That’s a good signifier of the album: it’s so wholly engrossing that who’s doing what is beside the point.
Cosmogramma features more live instrumentation, including hallucinogenic string arrangements, electric bass, sax (courtesy of cousin Ravi Coltrane), and harp (an ode to his harp-playing aunty?). All of this, plus his J Dilla-esque production, results in an even richer sonic palette than on his full-length debut, Los Angeles. It’s one of the most musically satisfying albums I have heard in a long time. Dubbed a “space opera”, it certainly puts you in that general frame of mind. Hell, just have a go on the application he made for this thing and you’ll understand what I mean! Its fascinations with the cosmic aren’t purely superficial, though, and it ends up being both a cathartic and sobering listen.
Although he didn’t gather a huge crowd when I saw him, he still had a massive grin on his face the entire set, bopping his head vigorously along. I may just be naïve but I’m fairly sure he didn’t have help from any substances—it all came from him and his love for his craft. On our way out my girlfriend thanked him and they shook hands. He looked straight at her, giving her a smile of genuine appreciation for having come and thanked her back. I’m pretty sure he’s an atheist but he is nothing if not a man with spirit.
4.5/5
For those low on funds (or who have expended their monthly gigabyte diet) this online application is a good taster for the album and way more fun than it should be: http://www.flying-lotus.com/fieldlines