Will Schube swiped right on the lady in the elevator.
Flying Lotus hasn’t released an album in five years. He’s directed a film, appeared on various tracks, done a few scores, pretty much everything but actually produce a new Flying Lotus record. So of course it makes sense that the first glimpse into his forthcoming LP, Flamagra, is a quasi-interlude featuring David Lynch that feels more like an accompaniment to a Kuso deleted scene than anything Flying Lotus has ever released on record. If you’re looking for this first single, “Fire is Coming,” to give you any indication to Flamagra’s sound, you better look elsewhere. [ed. note: the album is great and this is but a bright warning shot, etc]
Fly Lo has always gone against the grain and it’s served him well. When others started mimicking the beat-scene skitter he pioneered with Cosmogramma, he began toying with downtempo beats heavy on melody with Until The Quiet Comes, before turning his focus to a producer-helmed jazz band on You’re Dead! All this to say, it makes sense the producer born Steven Ellison is keeping it cryptic.
How many musicians can flex so hard that their first track in five years is a spoken word monologue by David Lynch, in which the director’s face is superimposed onto the stomach of a fuzzy creature? It’s truly too far out to write about accurately, which is the essential brilliance of Lotus’ music.
By the time the track ends, some handclaps and DJ scratches have entered the equation, but it ends so abruptly it’s hard to think of anything aside from the fact that Flying Lotus released this as his album’s first single. It’s the ultimate power stance, a true ‘fuck with me or don’t’ moment. Flying Lotus has built his entire career off of these grand gestures. He’s earned our trust just enough to tolerate and even grow excited for what this represents. While it’s better than five more years of quiet, hopefully this was worth the wait.
