flying lotus ~ 1983

October 11, 2006

"We've been keeping an eye on Flying Lotus ever since hearing his awesome track on Plug Research Sound Of L.A. comps recently. His track really stood out and we were relishing the release of an album. With one foot in hip hop, he pulls all sorts of influences and sounds gracefully out of the sky, whilst clearly an electronic album, you can hear all kinds of influences being keenly twisted and blended into Flying Lotus' sound world, from Bernie Worrell's Parliament synths, to the ecstatic percussion of deep free jazz, Dilla's off kilter drums and Bossa Nova's stylish zest. This is true Afrofuturisim, and it's a wonderful album that like the best albums, might confuse you on first listen but let it unravel and you will love it." ---warpmart

http://www.warp-net.com/frameset.php?secti...s.php?cat=PLG76

"We all love a bit of Dabrye – and since the man's hiccupping electro-hop was used on a high-profile mobile phone advert, it seems the rest of the world does too. It was only a matter of time then before we heard other producers utilising the much-lauded producer's template for vintage synth sounds and booty-shakin' rhythms, but although Dabrye may be the first name to spring to mind when listening to Flying Lotus's debut album, further listening reveals something far deeper than you could imagine. Maybe that is in part due to the fact that Flying Lotus is a member of the Coltrane family… yep he was brought up around musicians, and not just any musicians – with John and Alice Coltrane as close family what more could you have asked for growing up? It's hardly surprising then that the man condenses a world of influences into his loose quasi-hiphop structures – I can hear funk, psychedelia, tropicalia, blues, electronica… it's breathtaking how much is distilled on '1983' and yet it never feels cluttered or overdone. Quite the opposite in fact, the album is a masterful show of restraint – in the same way that much 'instrumental hiphop' has got self-congratulatory and bogged down by it's own scene, '1983' seems to be honest, passionate and full of vibrant life. There are tracks to dance to ('Shifty', the typically insane Daedelus remix), tracks to get smoked out to ('Sao Paulo', '1983') and even a gorgeous slice of louge-pop for good measure ('Unexpected Delight'). I can't say enough good things about this album, maybe conjuring the sound of Madlib, Dabrye and Stereolab would have me in fits whatever the music was like, but Flying Lotus has done something truly beautiful with '1983'. Proof that instrumental hiphop can still be fun and hugely enjoyably, Flying Lotus has taken us back to the 1980s without any of the fashion faux-pas. Now all that's left for me to do is hear this played extremely loud indeed…" --- boomkat

http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=23963

"nice album 8.6/10" --- tidbit

Edited October 11, 2006 by tidbit