Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma (Warp/Inertia)

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Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma

This CD has been on high rotation at home, in the car, just about everywhere with a sound source, and on initial listens it was obvious the tapestry of Cosmogramma was woven tight, and it was going to take many listens to shake the feeling of being overloaded with sounds seemingly from another universe. (It’s also taken some time to navigate through the promo, eradicated of track markers, allowing me to listen to it as one track, which in a way is a brutal test of how the album sounds as a whole, the complete journey). Flying Lotus has built a name around his wonky Dilla-esque beats, twirling ambience, jazz room chaos and twisted synthesizers. While many have copied, or taken inspiration from his sound, he still stands alone, solely carrying the torch with his desire to inject a new jazz standard, creating an astral soundscape of monstrous depth.

Cosmogramma drops with “Clock Catcher”, a frenetic run of beats, propelling one into a sea of harp and treated strings, barely taking a breath before lunging into more break beats and a crazed Squarepusher style bass lick of “Pickled!”. “A Cosmic Drama” brings things down again with lush ambience and sweeping harp. “Zodiac Shit” borrows from the ambience and a sea of strings sits comfortably above while “…And The World Laughs With You” brings back the breaks, with funked out synths consuming almost everything, breaking down into a micro-edited glitch stepper featuring Thom Yorke, fed through the Flying Lotus blender. “Arkestry” obviously nods toward the Sun Ra influence in the way Flying Lotus constructs his freeform space jazz experiments, while “Satelllliiiiitee” injects a healthy dose of latin rhythms into his jazz, with screwed R’n’B rap, “German Haircut” breaking things down again with a jazz guitar led jam. The next few tracks carry on with a thread of jazz, but really reaching forward to something much more cosmic, reintroducing the much loved harp with “Drips/Auntie’ Harp”. Being related to Alice Coltrane has been great training in all the finer things of Jazz, the cosmos engulfing Sun Ra, the joys of spiritual jazz, and of course the amazing body of work by Alice Coltrane, both on piano and harp. “Table Tennis” plays with the obvious use of beat creation here, featuring Laura Darlington with a heavenly voice atop something you may expect Herbert to produce. Rounding out the album with more straight up beats and p-funk, Cosmogramma leaves you feeling breathless, a headiness of blissful tones and rampant experimentation.

My only criticism, and its not even that, but it may sound “crowded’ by some, and discarded for this initial observation, but that would be a mortal sin, as you’d be missing out on one of the records of the year. Cosmogramma needs to be absorbed over time, for the sounds will take a little while to reveal themselves, it’s a music you have to get up close to, to really appreciate the woven tapestry. A lush, cosmic, psychedelic head trip; so musical, yet so radical. Essential listening.

Wayne Stronell

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2 Comments

  1. I think two of the best tracks went unmentioned here “Do the Astral Plane” is an absolute headphone/club crossover funk injected monster with really beautiful sub-themes sitting over the main groove, while “Galaxy in Janaki” is an appropriate bookend to the album, kind of takes the entire album, distilling it into a single track. Great album.

  2. Incredible album – one of this year’s best. Dense, hypnotic and there’s always something new to discover each time you listen.