Sound Colour Vibration (Music | Art | Film | Technology | Science | Culture)

Flying Lotus (A.K.A. Steven Ellison) has dropped off a shamanistic, electronica jazz-infused hip-hop odyssey that makes a direct cut at what dreams in general are made of.

Instead of continuing where he left off on both Cosmogramma and beat heavy EP Pattern+Grid World, Lotus takes a less claustrophobic approach towards his seemingly minimal yet incredibly complicated showcase of sound engineering and musicianship. Besides his now more than two-year collaborator Thundercat (a ridiculous virtuoso on bass who released his first LP on Flylo’s Brainfeeder), there are many guests on Until the Quiet Comes. What do Niki Randa, Erykah Badu, Thom Yorke and Laura Darlington all have in common? Well, on Until The Quiet Comes, they all offer incredibly dreamscape vocals that reverberate around a spacious room where all children dwell.

Ellison found himself in the process of bringing to life older creations with programs and sequencers like Ableton along with analog equipment and acoustic instruments. He also took piano lessons and applied techniques such as parallel compression (along with his already stunning EQ knowledge) to squeeze juicy sounds into big, open spaces. All of this put together in two years, some of it things that didn’t land on Thundercat’s breakthrough album.

On Until the Quiet Comes, Flying Lotus shines like a crystal inside of a nightmare; everything is clear here. Mind is free, mind is easy and drifting. It’s strange to listen to because I found myself trying to focus on each part of the song but grew anxious. When I let go, when I let the album drift by, I felt an incredible washing relief sway throughout my body. I felt myself let go. And this, to me, is sort of what Until the Quiet Comes basically is. Just as we have an abundance of things inside of our unconscious, the first thing one learns when meditating is not to focus on any one thing in particular (this is practiced, although usually later in meditative treatments). Instead, we are forced to see the entirety, which is what brings about the awesome amount of peace and harmony of the Cosmo’s that has been digitally compressed and offered on his 2012 release.

Flying Lotus listened to a variety of African percussion music along with psychedelic/kraut bands Silver Apples and Can (who in themselves are incredibly percussive). It all comes together on this really sort of ephemeral odyssey, which I repeat, cannot be captured but can be let travel through ones system. Which I think is what is intended and executed masterfully. Also, having Daddy Kev at the board of mastering is also a bonus.

It rings true to Flying Lotus’s vision of not only the album but also of his opinions of the mysticism within Los Angeles. It rings true and therefore connects. This album is masterpiece exercise in letting go.

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