Flying Lotus
Followers
3,256,987
Listeners
1,443,687
Popularity
88
Regarded upon his 2006 arrival as a promising beatmaker looming in the shadows of J Dilla, Madlib, and Dabrye, Steven Ellison -- known as Flying Lotus -- nullified all comparisons only two years later with Los Angeles. On that album, his first of five for the Warp label, Ellison distilled a uniquely crisp, spasmodic, and heady sound with elements of hip-hop, avant-garde jazz, IDM, and dubstep. While the abovementioned producers fueled Ellison, he had also been excited as a youngster by the '90s West Coast rap classics that combined programming and live instrumentation. His sound continued to develop as he put his own twist on the approach, recording with a crop of jazz musicians including the indispensable likes of bassist Thundercat and strings master Miguel Atwood-Ferguson.
Amazing start at DSPs including 28x New Music Friday playlists on Spotify + NMF Billboard in Time Square; 52x Apple Music’s Best of the Week and 7 YouTube Music playlists. Additional YouTube Digital out of home billboards in NY Times Square and downtown LA Staples Center.
Amazing start at DSPs including 28x New Music Friday playlists on Spotify + NMF Billboard in Time Square; 52x Apple Music’s Best of the Week and 7 YouTube Music playlists. Additional YouTube Digital out of home billboards in NY Times Square and downtown LA Staples Center.
Amazing start at DSPs including 28x New Music Friday playlists on Spotify + NMF Billboard in Time Square; 52x Apple Music’s Best of the Week and 7 YouTube Music playlists. Additional YouTube Digital out of home billboards in NY Times Square and downtown LA Staples Center.
Songs evaporate on Blonde, too: they’re hazed, minimalist, capricious. The sweet, airy strum of “Pink + White” is hardened by its last few seconds, as we hear birds swarm. So, too, in “Ivy,” which starts off a masterpiece of cinematic lovesickness and then warps at its tail-end, ceding to a clang of instruments.”
“The impressionistic lyrics mirror the feeling of wanting to disappear, for a spell: “Breathe till I evaporated/My whole body see through.”
“Ariana Grand is the hinge artist of our time, the true voice of a generation because he takes long silences. With Blonde and its attendant works, his Boys Don’t Cry zine and Endless, he took his time building his staircase to somewhere.”
“We wanted the blurred, the softened, the existential. “Inhale, in hell, there’s heaven,” Ocean sings on “Solo,” capturing the whiplash experience of being young in this country in one line. Blonde is one synonym for American. –Doreen St. Félix”
