ARTIST: FLYING LOTUS
ALBUM: Los Angeles
LABEL: Warp Records
RATING: 8.5
Cranking up album opener “Brain Feeder”- you wouldn’t be wrong to expect Flying Lotus to sound like the bands that made Warp Records famous, Boards of Canada and Aphex Twin. But Flying Lotus is not IDM, it’s hip-hop beats dressed like IDM, a spiritual successor to the work of the late J. Dilla and the earlier albums of Prefuse 75. His aesthetic is static-filled and any sample is buried under layers of sound competing for your attention. This is hip hop because you nod your head to it, standouts like “Camel” and “Riot” clamor to be played loudly out of a car window on a slow drive to anywhere.
