flying lotus: c/d, s/d

I'm seeing him live next week, should be interesting

I think he's incredible live. Best thing I've seen at the SXSW fest in Austin in perhaps 8 years of going (whether that says more about his live show or my being easily impressed, I'm not sure).

Anyway... I'm no superfan (yet anyway), but highest recommendations to the live show.

The live set is good because it's prerecorded except for the delay/filters. He's a poser and a fake on stage. If you want to see a guy posing behind his laptop and twisting a couple knobs with greatly exaggerated movements, go for it.

Cool, can we also please talk about how Ashley Simpson is OMG SOOOO FAKE because she lip-synced on SNL?

Sure, it's a valid comparison.

I'm cool with that sort of thing if he has something visual going on and the live venue has a good sound system.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWvlA5RLuf8 -VS- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RrLAgi_mBY

damn, those knobs be hot.

if you've ever assigned knobs to functions in Abelton Live, you know exactly what's going on in that clip. If you haven't, you think he's actually doing something.

serious question, what is a dude like this supposed to do live? make beats from scratch on the fly?

So "assign[ing] knobs to functions in Abelton Live" =/= "actually doing something"?

i think "faker" is a bit ridiculous as language for this, but what do you like a fly-lo artist to do in this context? live mpc playing? different mixes on the fly?

heh xposting there obv

"performance"

this dude shld ask ppl in the audience if they are having a good time at the show

he shld use his real name when referring to himself and telling anecdotes abt the tour

then say "have any of u assigned knobs in abelton live? if so u no whats going down here"

"but if u havent ur gonna think that if really doing smthn & the joke is on u"

then he can tear his sunglasses off & throw them into the crowd & start blasting the tunes

I can't tell from that clip if he actually is just playing with effects, but I agree that doing some on-the-fly sequencing adds a lot. He's probably doing a little bit of it - when he moves over to the laptop for a second he's likely clicking on the next row of 4 or 8 bar sequences - but using something like this would make a more exciting and genuinely "live" performance: http://lostinmusik.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/novation-launchpad-music-control-surface_1.jpg

oops, that's bigger than I thought.

or this

http://www.snyderphonics.com/products.htm

Unless the audio is off, it seriously doesn't even sound like he's messing around with effects. I mean, I hope I'm wrong, but it really looks like he's just randomly twiddling on the beat and occasionally "cueing" a new sample, but he does it a little late a couple times!

Again, someone please inform us on what he SHOULD be doing during a live set.

How about somebody explain High Places live. Nothing I saw really seemed to match what I heard. I am aware of my ignorance about his equipment and am seriously curious, not just looking for an argument.

It's fine if that's all he does to play his set, but the grandstanding and over the top knob twists annoy me.

why not just bill himself as a dj? then he can just play his own records, including a few unreleased remixes on cdr, plus that nsfw video, plus throw in a few trax by other people?

alternately he could a) get himself a theramin, learn to play it, b) set up a loop player or two and throw random rhythmic sounds played live on a spatula or tin can or whatever, bring them in and out of the mix, c) bring along his fave guest instrumentalist to add some live vibe, d) throw in some live keys every once in a while (or even build up tracks from semi-scratch, again via looping program) or e) or play live drums if he can - this worked great for the ting-ting's live show (no really, i saw them last year and they had a great live show considering how many canned elements there were to each song, simply on the strength of the programmer dude being a v. passable drummer and the energy that brought to the set)

the filter twiddling has it's place in electronica live pa's (it's sort of the equivalent of the cliched pick scratch at the end of a guitar solo) but does make for a pretty stale show if that's all you're ever doing on stage

in that flylo clip above it's a track from 'los angeles', but massively re-worked (new synth lines, tempo changes, etc.). so maybe he prepared it all ahead of time, but at least it's new shit designed for the live show.

folks could just say "his music sounds great in a club with a good sound system" instead of "he is great live"

Well, the music does sound great, yes, but it's also about the *show* -- and whether he is twiddling knobs, creating new beats on the fly or something in between, he's a great performer and plays a very engaging set.

Can we talk about the album?

"Table Tennis" is also great

so if the version I downloaded has a female robot voice saying at the beginning of "A Cosmic Drama" that "this is a compilation of beats completed july 2005" then it's probably not the real album huh?

I kind of hope this isn't the real album, it's kind of boring

listening to this flying lotus streaming thing now: http://flying-lotus.com/radio

he's got stephen bruner (dude who kills it on the nu-amerykah records) jamming along on bass. he's bad, but if he's all over cosmogramma then i can see why whiney made the sub-squarepusher crack (which seemed o_O).

i cant make up my mind about this album. its so all over the shop that its hard to latch on to any of it. but it does that approach better than hudson mohawke for instance, who just made a mess of his album. that first track with all the manic synth squiggles seems to be from some other track though that i cant quite think of. anyone know? its bugging me.

i don't know, i think that it has an identifiable sound that encompasses a lot of different shit (the usual beats & synths, bleeps, strings, the free jazz snippets).

that said i wasn't blown away on first listen like i was hoping, but it's growing.

btw track 2 is the only squarepusher-y thing on the record

so he now has set up his own label : brainfeeder (which ninjatune are going to dist. in the uk)
i was not overly impressed with the flying lotus album, but the lorn album, nothing else, thats coming out on his label is very good.
less twisting and turning glitch beats a la p73, more of a flow.
and at only 33 minutes, doesn't outstay its welcome,
also, sounds great.
which is probably why it has 'mastered by clark' clearly shown on the basic artwork.

Loving "Cosmogramma", particularly the increased jazz elements. It feels like a cohesive album, something I don't at all need or necessarily look for. I was a big fan of "Los Angeles" but feel like I'm on my way to liking this even more.

Picked this up, listened once... like it fine, can tell it's gonna be a big "grower" over the course of the year.

Okay Cosmogramma is 17 different kinds of awesome, but right now I can't get enough of "German Haircut".

i like it more & notice more detail every time i listen to it

Yeah, "German Haircut" is great. Honestly, the only track I could do without is "Table Tennis" and that's because of the vocals. At least it reminded me of this awesomeness:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQOKys_pN2c

Does anyone know what the guitar sample in 'dance of the psuedo nymphs', sorta sounds like one of the songs from 'the wicker man' soundtrack.

First half of first listen is underwhelming. Sonically this is very brash, when these elements ought to be dealt with a little more... carefully? He loses things in the mix. Maybe it'll reveal with more lessons. Mind you vie come at this after tbd Steve Mason, which is fucking beautiful.

Lessons = listens.

Wall Street Journal sez: Flying Lotus Soars

So this album is really excellent. When the scatting comes in on Do The Astral Plane straight form MmmHmm, my heart puts on a pair of shades. Very special.

its very special. though id have liked some of the tracks to be more developed.

This is sounding great, I like that each track is only a couple of minutes long, nothing outstays its welcome.

genuinely excited to see how he maps these parameters to knobs in ableton live