Flying Lotus, along with a dozen other premiere electronic artists, have shown that there’s been a real change of tide in the last ten years—that sampling is cool and it has its place, but music software can take you on wild trips through space and time real quick. One listen to “Computer Face//Pure Being” or “Pickled!” and you’ll see what I mean; drums, bass lines, glitch noises and other sound effects fly by as quickly as the Star Gate sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey. L.A.’s Flying Lotus has been flying a flag of trip-hop so far, but on this latest disc, it’s almost closer to Sun Ra’s space-rock-jazz—there are the aforementioned brain-blistering jazz-nodding tracks, (FlyLo is Alice Coletrane’s nephew, don’t ya know) but also laid-back tracks like “Arkestry” will flatten you out, and make you appreciate the drum roll, and pure electronic filters/bliss! But of course he’s got his dance floor shaker as well: “Do the Astral Plane.” An elaborate album, yes. Unlistenable, hell no. (Warp, www.warp.net) Taylor Benjamin Burgess
Winnipeg music & culture since 1989