flying lotus: c/d, s/d

http://soundcloud.com/flyinglotus/coronus-the-terminator

couldn't make it all the way through

:-(

really, why not? it sounds like a madlib/badu track.

i don't really like erykah badu ... i guess maybe i don't have enough appreciation for r&b?

r&b wasn't the first thing i thought though - i was more reminded of early/mid-00s broken beat

huh. you mean like Cinematic Orchestra 'Every Day'? 'cause that came to mind, but just because they're referencing the same '70s spiritual jazz vibe.

the flylo track though, except for the drums it sounds like it could actually be a lost, idk, Norman Connors record or something.

no i mean something different ... but what i'm thinking of, now that i think of it, was never quite as downtempo as flying lotus, or at least nothing comes to mind immediately

i understand what you're saying about the influences but to me it sounds really lightweight

i like that track

so ...

i understand you could listen to a stream of this with a full length animated movie called "psychedelic death trip". did anybody see it? was it cool? any way to watch it now?

I watched what I now know was the start of it, but as it said it was a 'live-stream', and as I had no idea if it began from the start of in the middle, I gave up on it. Have listened on spotify, man, the beginning of this album is chaotic. The visuals were kinda cool, though. And the music is cool as well, though VERY fusion-y. Sounds a bit like an update of late-nineties thrill jockey chicago jazz post-rock.

album is great though too short

Every time this guy puts an album out I get lured into buying it and every time they give me a headache.

try until the quiet comes instead... clues in the title ;)

i like the new album, i prefer him doing fusiony speedfreak jazz to transcendent stuff, which always seems to sound lightweight when brainfeeder producers do it, i could do without the rapping overall, and i think its a pretty exciting album, but the appeal/energy is mainly just in the pace, how quick it jumps from style to style, you never get a chance to really get into it. i would like to hear a 'complete you're dead sessions' record.

Good.

i really like the record. i'm kinda torn on the jazz tracks, i like the slower/more melodic/beat-oriented material better but on the other hand, if only jazz groups making records paid this kind of attention to sound and production. i love how the live drums sound like they're redlining/breaking up whenever the kick hits.

it opens up for me after 'coronus'. 'turtles' is especially great and the melody reminds me of Tortoise (ha), so i can see what Frederik is saying.

A couple really good tracks, the Kendrick one (though I find the kick that comes in at the end infuriatingly sloppy and simple for the track) and that one with the vocal oohs and aahs alternating, but I'm not really into this very much. I agree with Jordan that other jazz albums would be great with such production. Tbh this album just makes me wish thundercat was a better songwriter

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

― rinse the lemonade (Jordan), Wednesday, March 24, 2010 11:53 AM (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Guess the answer to this was: have a very expensive light show

lol

Play jazz fusion?

he said in an interview that that would be too expensive (bringing a band).

funny that you can listen to the 30 second Amazon preview clips and hear most of the record.

he's live-tweeting the album now and apparently 'Turtles' is based on a Morricone sample, which explains why it sounds like Tortoise :)

im getting andre influenced outkast feels on parts

apparently hes doing a few live shows with a band, at least i hope he is as i bought tickets for the london show next month.

I feel like the jazzier he gets the least interesting he becomes - I've enjoyed each album since Cosmogramma less than the previous one, it feels like there are far fewer elements swilling around in the mix, a more organic feel to everything, but worthier and duller at the same time.

Cosmogramma is a little too dense for me, it might be my least favorite, but i do feel like Thundercat might be a crutch at times. he's great and all, but it seems like an easy way to create motion in a track, and i kinda miss the solo approach of Los Angeles and Pattern + Grid World.

doing jazz fusion doesnt automatically = worthy and dull

its not like hes making 20 minute jazz suites, hes doing something pretty unusual with it all, even if that is simply on account of how fucking compressed it all is (if i could change one thing about youre dead, it would be that, but then maybe it really WOULD sound worthy and dull)

flying lotus has actually been a little bland since day one i think... great at atmosphere and everything but hes never exactly been 'edgy'. both LA and UTQC were close to musical wallpaper, even if they never quite got there. id argue between this one and cosmogramma that the jazzier he gets, the more interesting and edgier he actually becomes. when hes doing straight (relatively speaking) beats, his music becomes quite polished and slick, etheral bordering on schmaltzy. hes an odd producer who manages to make tracks sound somewhat 'organic' but only in so far every 'organic' touch has been perfected to death. when he works with thundercat, he has to let some of that go, which i dont mind at all.

ah: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=so7WUf6hMk8

(so i apparently the tortoise-esque melody is not from sample after all)

Just heard You're Dead! today and I'd say it's a mixed bag, a bit too hyperkinetic for me at times... I recall enjoying UTQC quite a bit more... but I'll definitely give it multiple spins and see what I think over time.

Good grief this guy's records sound fucking horrible.

his albums have a tendency toward noisy, over-compressed, clattery, too busy, fragmentary, and this one is no different. Love it!

I'm glad he's carving out his own path, he's got a vibe that is instantly recognizable and you aren't going to get it anywhere else

posts very much in character.

as well as the suggestion that more jazz artists should make records with this much attention to production, i would add that they should unnecessarily compress them as well, if only as it allows you to get away with making 'trad' stuff sound... not as trad.

No, fuck that. Not at all. The Polar Bear record does a lot of (but not all, and it has it's own ambitions too) what this guy tries to do and it sounds amazing and not trad at all.

Caribou manages it.

Not saying he should be like them aesthetically or compositionally, btw - I really like the idea of what he does - just, y'know, drum sounds and space in the mix and clarity. They both do chaotic tumbling distortion and noise that's blissful rather than horrible.

any recommendations on 21st century electronicish stuff that is jazzy but goes WAY more pretty and minimal than most of the stuff I've come across? ie Bill Evans/Miles as ref point rather than Coltrane et al?

The new mndsgn is kinda like that I guess

It gets a lil too simple for me but it's pretty peaceful

http://youtu.be/cwFnZWlVVl4

i prefer him doing fusiony speedfreak jazz to transcendent stuff

Definitely. I like this album and Cosmogramma a lot but UTQC bored the fuck out of me

not quite miles/gil influenced but there was the medeski martin wood album the dropper in 2000 which was basically an organ jazz album engineered like a 90s hip hop record that ive always liked...

*bill, not gil

just, y'know, drum sounds and space in the mix and clarity. They both do chaotic tumbling distortion and noise that's blissful rather than horrible.

You bring this up every couple of years but comparing him to Caribou is revealing. Because Caribou records (especially the new one) sound like a live band playing dance-influenced music, albeit more stiff and rhythmically awkward than that would generally be live. But also it's one of the reasons why 'Sun' sounds so weedy when you hear it in a set with loads of other house music on a big system, in a dancefloor context you need that big sidechained kick sometimes. Good dance producers know how to create space around the kick, Caribou's music has so many sonic elements it sounds lightweight and cluttered at the same time.

Of course, Flying Lotus's music isn't meant for the dancefloor and is entirely intended to be massively brash and have dozens of elements coming at you full on at the same time, part of the whole appeal is the oversaturated nature that repels you so much. But actually the most revealing thing you've posted on this is:

That may be so, but for me it just destroys something like MmmHmm; I can't ride the bassline cos it keeps vanishing, I'm trying to follow it and I'm having it pulled away like jerking a string from a kitten; my brain literally can't keep up and I get a headache. Also, many tracks (especially the first 3 or 4) end up being MEGA loud start-to-finish. I think the grooves would be better if it wasn't sidechained and pumping at me... Do The Astral Plane would be fucking amazing if I could hear every note on that trumpet and all of the clicks on that percussion track. But they keep vanishing because of the fucking kick.

Which is really weird to me because I personally don't find these elements difficult to follow at all, maybe I'm just used to a big kick sound in my music, so I barely even notice it except as an ongoing pulse. But IMO FlyLo's music would lose more than it gained by being mixed in a more conventional or organic way, it'd just be another proggy jazz record, which is fine if you like that sort of thing but it wouldn't be particularly noteworthy in an electronic music context.

Good post !

couldn't read it, there was all this stuff about a kick

Also I listened to Cosmogramma again earlier today and, while the first few tracks are really loud, with every sound right up in your face, it's hardly like the whole album is mixed like that. There's a lot of subtlety in there as well, things moving in and out of the mix. Scik talks about Polar Bear upthread but what I've heard from Polar Bear is recorded as a traditional ensemble with some added electronic elements. You can never fully ascribe intentions to musicians but Flying Lotus clearly doesn't want you to listen in that way, it's meant to be a swirling smoky cloud of sound with things drifting in and out, and at other times an overwhelming swarm of noises coming at you. There's not much in the way of conventional space, but there isn't meant to be, and there doesn't need to be when the TEXTURES are so interesting and constantly changing. Recording it like a Polar Bear album would lose all that.

Yeah, Caribou's always been a bit weedy on the bottom end, until this album at least, and particularly on those first few albums.

Part of the issue is that I don't go out dancing to this music (or any music, really), so it's all about home-listening to me (even if Caribou and FlyLo records aren't really about dancing to, obviously), and my home-listening is atypical to most, and FlyLo records are clearly not made for how I generally listen, even if the aesthetic appeals.

I very much mean the current Polar Bear album, which is very different to their previous records and doesn't really have that 'live band' feel; there are a lot of programmed beats that the drummer plays around, and some tracks that really move into hazy drone territory. It's much more electronic feeling than anything else they've done. That said, it is still jazz first, and it's also quite minimal.

I listened to Cosmogramma yesterday and, after the first couple of red-lined tracks, I did enjoy it much more than I remember doing previously; UTQC really irritated me when I played it on Friday night, though.

I just think he could do what he does better sonically, without having to compromise the vision of what he's doing or the aesthetic he's going for.

Chuckled when I read this, and immediately thought of Scik:

https://twitter.com/flyinglotus/status/521324219423277058