Flying Lotus – 1983 (Plug Research/Inertia)

LA’ Flying Lotus is a man for mixed messages. His nom de plume says psy trance, which is a long way from the sounds on this disc. His bio says Coltrane (his aunt is Alice) but Lotus isn’ cooking up soul jazz. Steven Ellison – that’s his real name – first appeared on a record showcasing LA’ new take on soul alongside Sa Ra Creative Partners and Georgia Anne Muldrow. That puts him in a slightly righter context. Debut LP 1983 is solidly in the Dabrye/Prefuse 73 camp. Jagged snare layered over jagged snare, bass synth stabs, modulating rhythms and long insistent grooves. In that sense Ellison has more in common with Madlib’ DJ Rells alter-ego, whose heavily repetitive broken beat filtered the London grooves through a dusty hip hop prism. 1983 is not a stunningly original album, and that is not necessarily a criticism. Ellison’ into an incremental development. You get the impression each beat, each sound, indeed each track was carefully placed, and considered in painful detail. 1983 takes a composer’ eye to instrumental hip hop, shaping a sonic architecture that reveals more with every listen.