Steven “Flying Lotus” Ellison represents a new wave of beat production. His style encompasses the French electro-house of Ed Banger Records, classic IDM-techno such as Autchre, the techno hip-hop of Prefuse 73, and the visionary funk of J Dilla. But like all good hybridists who grow into major, influential artists, Flying Lotus has developed a sound that is uniquely breathtaking and widely imitated.
Sometimes music critics fall prey to the same “auteur theory” that saddles film criticism. A style has many fathers (or, to be less misogynist, many mothers). It takes more than one person’s imagination to make it flourish. Many producers have fomented the beat renaissance sweeping through underground music, and it would be foolish to omit Dabrye, Ta’Raach, Dimlite, Kode 9 and countless others from any discussion about the roots of this new variation on the decades-old cross-currents of hip-hop and electronics.
However, with his new album Los Angeles, Flying Lotus has established himself at the forefront. It is not a masterpiece, but it comes pretty damn close. It draws from countless sources, and twists from darkly sexual dubstep blues to funky electronic breakbeat jams. Its songs pop off with laser beams and 8-bit melodies. His vision is kaleidoscopic but never cluttered, though, and he maintains a tone that is indistinguishable from any other.
When I spoke with Flying Lotus on May 9, he had just exited from a plane that brought him from L.A. to San Francisco International Airport. We tried to speak as a car took him into the city, where he was due to play a gig that night, but the phone connection was poor. I was able to catch up with him over an hour later.
Any casual visitor to Plug One during its brief existence has probably noticed I’m a major fan of Flying Lotus’ work. As a result, I glossed over some key details of his life: growing up in San Fernando Valley, being ushered into the L.A. underground through key friendships with Carlos Nino, Daedelus and others, and turning into an phenomenon by posting original beats on his MySpace page. Instead, I asked him about some of the minor controversies he’s dealt with since Plug Research – the same label that introduced Daedelus, Ammoncontact, Mia Doi Todd and other Left Coast thinkers – issued his 1983 debut in 2006. That album drew some criticism for being too derivative of J Dilla and Prefuse 73, as well as considerable praise for devising new configurations of those artists’ long-established tropes. Then there was his new label Brainfeeder and the benefits and problems of being a cult artist on the Internet.
Unfortunately, we didn’t discuss Los Angeles very much, which is ostensibly the reason why the interview happened in the first place. However, you can read more about Los Angeles in a separate review.
