Words and Photos by Andrew Parks
The Artist: Warp’s most promising beat conductor since the halcyon days of Aphex Twin and Autechre
His Latest Release: LA EP 3×3 (Warp)
Who He Opened For: Battles and !!! @ Terminal 5, 9.4.09
Why the Bill Should Have Been the Other Way Around: Given his early time slot in last night’s Warp anniversary show–8 p.m., right before the disco-punk delirium of !!!–we expected Flying Lotus to ease into his set with laid-back downtempo loops and hazy hip-hop sketches, as explored on last year’s excellent Los Angeles LP and his Dabyre-like debut album, 1983. Maybe even something as sleepy as this remix.
Man, were we wrong. Possibly hinting at the direction of his next disc, FlyLo dove into an hour-long meditation on the speaker-imploding brilliance of “Amen” breaks and unfiltered drum & bass. That’s right: despite random releases on Tectonic and Ramp, the next logical step for his ever-evolving productions is dubstep’s manic, mallet-wielding godfather. Either that, or FlyLo simply felt like getting his Grooverider on last night, along with snippets of Saturday morning cartoons, Radiohead and WarGames.
Whatever the reason, we were floored by FlyLo’s laptop/controller skills and just how much he owned a room as cavernous as Terminal 5. Suddenly the Coltrane connection makes perfect sense.
Here are some Flying Lotus videos. We’re uploading a couple of free mixes and streaming songs right now, and will share those in a little bit as well.
