Just the beats! Stephen Ellison, aka Flying Lotus, is in a musical sphere of his own. Expanding and blurring the line between genres, his music - and his general creative output - is bar none otherwordly, heady, and epic in scope. From his 2006 full-length debut 1983 to his immersive multimedia live shows; from his Brainfeeder imprint signing new-jazz heavyweights Thundercat and Kamasi Washington to his foray into film directing and scoring, Ellison has crafted his own creative empire that has somehow all been channeled into this sixth studio album Flamagra. It's an album that "sweeps up every quantum advance and creative leap of the last dozen years of Flying Lotus’ career and takes them even further" as Warp Records rightly describes it. It's a masterpiece of cosmic jazz, gloopy funk, boom-bap slap, and atmospheric headiness. From the opening track "Heroes", with it's eerie swirling layers of synthesis, frenetic, running bass (Thundercat plays on 22 of the albums 27 tracks), and strings (contributed by the multi-instrumentalist and heavyweight Miguel Atwood Ferguson), you know this is gonna be special. This revelatory new instrumental version strips away the album's vocal contributions from David Lynch, George Clinton, Denzel Curry et al, leaving behind just the cosmic dust for new mental and spiritual excursions. Features phenakistoscope slipmat with custom zoetrope animation by Drew Tetz (peep the new center labels too), with updated artwork and printed inner sleeves. Recommended! 

• black double vinyl pressing
• includes custom animated zoetrope slipmat + center labels
• printed inner sleeves
• limited edition
• music label: Warp Records 2020

reviewed by Ricky Fleece 05/2019