$39.00
Under his Flying Lotus codename, Steven Ellison continues to push his distinctive strain of abstract hip-hop into the direction paved by his Great Aunt Alice and Great Uncle John. You could hear the family history coursing through the interstellar spaces he explored with his cousin Ravi on 2010's Cosmogramma and that Herbie Hancock jam on last year's You're Dead!. But Ellison's advancement of creative jazz has been more crucial as curator of the Brainfeeder label, which he founded in 2008 as an outlet for himself and his buddies down at Low End Theory in Los Angeles.
Kamasi Washington's The Epic hinted at FlyLo's A&R prowess, and Kneedelus puts an exclamation point on the imprint's new direction. The relationship between exploratory, Grammy-nominated funk-jazz outfit Kneebody and pioneering Cali beat scientist Daedelus (born Alfred Darlington) goes back almost a decade, evidenced by remixes on Bandcamp and a stage collaboration at the Jazz à Vienne Festival in 2009. Kneebody saxophonist Ben Wendel and Darlington are high school friends, while Darlington and Flying Lotus go back to 1983, Ellison's debut, and Darlington's indelible remix of the title track.
What all of this six-degrees business adds up to is this supernova of a record, rounded out by Adam Benjamin on keyboard, Shane Endsley on treated trumpet, bassist Kaveh Rastegar, and drummer Nate Wood. As a collaborative unit, the friendship between the parties undoubtedly lends itself to the fluidity of these 10 original compositions. In some cases, as on tracks like the rugged "The Hole" and the hypnotic "Move", you can't really even tell where Kneebody ends and Daedelus begins. Darlington's deft rhythmic impulses come to the fore on "Drum Battle", but in other moments, the invincible horn section of Kneebody runs the show. On "Loops", Endsley's trumpet is cat-like and cool, as the group takes the scrambled-signal breakbeat Daedelus delivers to the snapping point around the horn's calm center like a hurricane eye. On "Platforming", meanwhile, Wendel's fantastic Art Pepper-esque tenor work is transformed into a wild, distorted-violin sound. Elsewhere, its Benjamin who is leading the charge on the seven-minute *Mwandishi-*flavored space-out "Thought Not", and the haunting processed upright piano he plays on "Not Love". - Pitchfork
$39.00
"On his second solo album, Austrian producer and Flying Lotus associate Oliver Johnson puts his own eclectic spin on FlyLo’s brand of over-caffeinated astral jazz and hiccuping robo-breaks." - Pitchfork
Label: Brainfeeder – BF075 |
Format: Vinyl, LP |
Country: UK, Europe & US |
Released: 14 Sep 2018 |
Genre: Electronic |
Style: Leftfield |
$45.00
Lapalux will release his third album, “Ruinism”, on Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder imprint, 30th June 2017. His previous LP, “Lustmore” was partially inspired by the concept of hypnagogia, a suspension of consciousness occurring between wakefulness and sleep. Throughout “Ruinism” the British producer takes this exploration further, journeying onward to the more ominous limbo space between life and death. In this liminal space where the finite and infinite intermingle, Lapalux sounds more at home than ever.
Much of “Ruinism”’s inspiration was born out of a theatrical score Lapalux (aka Stuart Howard) wrote for the performance art piece “Depart” which was performed in an East London cemetery. The aptly named project served as genesis for a direction wrought with doom and melancholia. “Ruinism” is all sonic wreckage and rubble created using only hardware and real instruments. The sound simultaneously destroys and redeems itself across a tight and formidable forty-eight minutes. – Bandcamp
Though far less accessible than his previous material, Ruinism isn’t the clinical listen it could have turned into. Its performers are never spotlit and yet its textures never lack a human soul. It is the kind of album that tends to frustrate a fanbase while cementing its maker as an artist for that very willingness to alienate the faithful. You could say that Ruinism is Howard’s coming-out party as a composer, but even that incorrectly implies an adherence to tradition. With Ruinism, Howard sets out on a whole new path to conceiving his music. – Pitchfork
Item description:
Artist: |
Lapalux |
Title: |
Ruinism |
Label: |
Brainfeeder |
Format: |
2 × Vinyl, LP, Album |
Pressing: |
UK |
Release Date: |
28 Jul 2017 |
Genre: |
Electronic |
Style: |
Abstract, Experimental, IDM, Leftfield |
Catalog No: |
BF061 |
Condition: |
New |