Flamagra

by Flying Lotus

Overview

Innumerable artists cite David Lynch as an inspiration, but Steven Ellison is the only one to have had a serendipitous encounter with the filmmaker that affirmed an album's theme and led to a collaboration on its central track. At a party some point after the release of 2014's You're Dead, Ellison, who had been considering the thematic potential of fire, heard Lynch spin a characteristically outre tale about an inferno threatening to engulf a neighborhood. This developed into "Fire Is Coming," a kind of radio drama vignette placed in the middle of Flamagra, the sixth Flying Lotus album. After Lynch delivers the warning, normalcy by Ellison's standard resumes with a jouncing beat, a tangly Thundercat bass line, and a frightful chant about the element's destructive power. Fire's positive and negative associations are referenced by many of Ellison's other collaborators here. For Little Dragon on the dizzied "Spontaneous" -- Ellison's closest brush with pop yet -- it represents new love. George Clinton sounds a little devilish on "Burning Down the House" (an original), shuffling funk that puts pyromaniac twists on his "Atomic Dog" and "Aqua Boogie." While the album begins with a crackle and ends with a poetic epilogue about its lasting effects, fire's role in the album elsewhere is either nonexistent or negligible. It's somewhat obscured by a straggling sequence that runs beyond an hour -- over 20 minutes longer than any previous Flying Lotus LP. The spluttery, helter-skelter thrash-fusion instrumentals are overabundant -- duly animated and spirited, yet infrequently as riveting as they are on Ellison's preceding sessions with welcomed holdovers such as strings master Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, keyboardist Brandon Coleman, and two thirds of the Bruner brigade, aka Thundercat and drumming sibling Ronald Jr. Most moving are "Thank U Malcolm," a skyward Mac Miller tribute, and "Takashi," a high-velocity belter that sounds like an update of an imagined 1976 collision between Stevie Wonder and Return to Forever. As for the vocal numbers, the highlights -- the whirling, whomping Anderson .Paak jam "More" and the sublime, Thundercat-fronted "The Climb" -- spread clear and generous messages about love and resolve. Also involved are Solange, Shabazz Palaces, Denzel Curry, Tierra Whack, and Toro y Moi, whose appearances veer from wraithlike to comically perverse, and vary to muddling effect. Somewhere in here is a 40-minute program with greater impact. Getting to know the whole thing well enough to make a custom-contracted edition is worth the time. ~ Andy Kellman

Product Details

Release Date:	05/24/2019
Label:	Warp
UPC:	0801061029128

Tracks

1. Heroes
2. Post Requisite
3. Heroes in a Half Shell
4. More
5. Capillaries
6. Burning Down the House
7. Spontaneous
8. Takashi
9. Pilgrim Side Eye
10. All Spies
11. Yellow Belly
12. Black Balloons Reprise
13. Fire Is Coming
14. Inside Your Home
15. Actually Virtual
16. Andromeda
17. Remind U
18. Say Something
19. Debbie Is Depressed
20. Find Your Own Way Home
21. The Climb
22. Pygmy
23. 9 Carrots
24. FF4
25. Land of Honey
26. Thank U Malcolm
27. Hot Oct.

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Flying Lotus   Primary Artist
Niki Randa   Vocals (Background)
Toro y Moi   Featured Artist
Thundercat   Featured Artist
Shabazz Palaces   Featured Artist
Denzel Curry   Featured Artist
Anderson .Paak   Featured Artist
Tierra Whack   Featured Artist
Solange   Featured Artist
Ronald Bruner, Jr.   Drums,Vocals (Background)
Norelle   Vocals (Background)
George Clinton   Featured Artist
Stephen Bruner   Vocals (Background)
Miguel Atwood-Ferguson   Strings
Little Dragon   Featured Artist
Taylor Graves   Keyboards
David Lynch   Featured Artist
Deantoni Parks   Drums

Technical Credits

Dennis Hamm   Writer,Composer
Erik Bodin   Composer
Robert Glasper   Writer,Composer
Fredrik Wallin   Composer
Brandon Coleman   Writer,Composer
Steven Ellison   Writer,Composer
Hakan Wirenstrand   Composer
Toro y Moi   Composer
Justin Brown   Writer,Composer
Denzel Curry   Composer
Anderson .Paak   Composer
Tierra Whack   Composer
Winston Hacking   Artwork
Echelon Color   Retouching
Syunsuke Ono   Writer,Composer
Joph   Portraits
Solange   Writer,Composer
David Lynch   Composer
George Clinton   Composer
Yukimi Nagano   Composer
Flying Lotus   Mixing
Stephen Bruner   Writer,Composer
Ishmael Butler   Composer
Miguel Atwood-Ferguson   Writer,Composer
Daddy Kev   Mixing,Mastering
Herbie Hancock   Writer,Composer
Taylor Graves   Writer,Composer