Flying Lotus - Los Angeles

Warp

July 9th, 2008.

FlyLo's second studio album, Los Angeles, finds a fitting home on Warp Records. The idiosyncratic nature of the material warmly sits alongside the Aphex Twin's and the Squarepushers of the music world, although Los Angeles doesn't necessarily fit in with them either - it's an obtuse, off-beat and glitchy piece of abnormal art.

In the annals of music history Warp Records holds prestigious status as the home of the weird and wonderful - masterful too, of course. So to say that Flying Lotus is at home on the label would be a severe understatement. On Los Angeles, offset rhythms awkwardly jitter back and forth. Unsure of their purpose, unclear of their goal. Wonky aims cause wonky effects and inherently produce wonky results. In a similar way to traversing the universe - you can never truly know what you're going to get - FlyLo traverses his skill set; the results are sonic planetary exploration. The artwork works in tandem with the music - what on earth is it? Is it even of this earth?

A standalone on the spectrum of experimental music - the kind of experimentation which remains musically structured and adheres to overarching compositional qualities. Many can experiment, not many can experiment and stick to defined foundations - or at least make the results appear as if they do. Los Angeles exists on the outskirts - it's the cool person at the party that everyone wants to get to know, but doesn't know how to. Do you ask them questions? Or just leave them be? Will a chance present itself? Or will it have to be made? It's hard to know how to interact with these types. There isn't a rule-book to follow, so working out the requirements and gauging the response is virtually impossible. Did I pass the test? Or fail miserably? Did I do enough? Or too much? Only time will tell, but probably not in this lifetime - leave it up to the Gods themselves. The answers that you seek exist beyond reach - deep in the abstract the obscure festers.

Los Angeles lies akin to interplanetary clairvoyance - it's a phenomena of the musical kind.