Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on April 2010
Photo by Timothy Saccent
Steve Ellison throws around big concepts without ever sounding grandiose or pretentious. As Flying Lotus, he’s spent the past decade charting an ambitious course that’s taken him from inoffensive J Dilla-esque hip-hop to full-blown space jazz. After channeling the spirit of his hometown on 2008’s Los Angeles, his latest record, Cosmogramma, ropes in the whole damn galaxy.
“The name comes from an ancient Greek word for the study of the universe, and this great map of the cosmos,” Ellison says by phone from Detroit, where he’s due to play a show later in the evening. “It’s actually a word that came to me by accident, and it just haunted me for a while.”
If the theme is grand, the music rises to the task, flitting from psychedelic folk to bass-heavy jams to lush orchestrations that recall the astral meditations of Ellison’s great-aunt, the late Alice Coltrane. He’s quick to acknowledge the influence, which “was more like a spiritual discourse about how… we’re all playing parts in a cosmic state of play—a cosmic drama, is what she called it. That concept is also where I’m at with this record.”
It’s an album that demands to be listened to in one sitting, preferably without any distractions. The promo CD for Cosmogramma came in the form of a single, continuous track, while individual songs that have leaked online in the run-up to its release have drawn mixed reactions. If Los Angeles took a few listens to unravel, this is denser still: even after a month in its company, I’m still working it out. It’s also terrible background music, mastered so loudly it feels at times like being clobbered around the ears with a jazz bat.
“I felt that this record needed to have a sense of urgency to it, because that was what my life was like at the time I made it,” Ellison says. “From a time in my life when things were very calm, almost predictable, things just got really crazy, for whatever reason. And I wanted to have that feeling come across. When the record started, I wanted you to already have fallen into this madness, this pit or whatever it is—it’s already started, and it’s too late to come back.”
He’s helped in this regard by Steve “Thundercat” Brunner, formerly of hardcore group Suicidal Tendencies, whose frenzied bass runs lend added fire to tracks such as “Pickled!” Yet it’s another collaborator who has been drawing the most attention: Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, who contributes vocals to “…And The World Laughs With You.”
“It was a really easygoing process,” Ellison says. “It’s great to work with him—he’s a very sweet guy… I think that people need to be respectful of the musical universe that someone’s creating, and that was something that I said to Thom, shortly after we worked on the song. I was so honored that he invited me to this place that not a lot of people are invited to.”
It’s a testament to Ellison’s single-mindedness that the result feels more throwaway than reverential, briefly flaring up before evaporating in under three minutes. Flying Lotus tracks do that a lot, seldom pursuing any one idea for long. “There’s a lot to do, man,” he drawls, “a lot to say, and I don’t have much time to say it in.”
Despite a punishing international tour schedule, Ellison has managed to remain grounded in the Cali scene, thanks in large part to his Brainfeeder label. When he plays in Tokyo next month, he’ll be sharing a bill with fellow ’Feeders Samiyam and The Gaslamp Killer. They’re joined by Japanese beat merchants including Quarta 330—who performed at an ad hoc birthday party for Ellison when he was in town a couple of years ago—and O.N.O. of Tha Blue Herb.
“I just want it to be honest, man,” he says of the label. “I don’t want to do anything because it’s fashionable or whatever. I wanna keep putting out stuff that I love, and keep supporting music that I think is real, and comes from another place.”
Whether he’s talking about this planet or a different one isn’t immediately clear.
May 28 @Eleven Brainfeeder. Hip-hop, psychedelic: Flying Lotus, Samiyam, The Gaslamp Killer, etc. May 28, from 10pm, ¥4,500 w/1d (adv)/¥5,000 w/1d (door). Nishi-Azabu. Tel: Beatink 03-3768-1277. www.go-to-eleven.com
Cosmogramma is available on Warp Records/Beat Records.
