Burial has been quite ever since the mercury awards last year, well at least he hasn’t been in the public eye since then. But my god he has been busy where it counts most: in the studio if the rumours are right anyway.
First of all I read in an interview some time ago on ukhh with Flying Lotus where he mentioned after being asked about any Anglo-American collaborations he said, ‘I’ve also been working on something long term with Burial’ read it for your self here. This got my foaming at the mouth at the prospect, yet it was quite some time ago now and nothing has surfaced and there has hardly been a whisper since.
Then from the deep dark dance FWD>> comes news about people hearing a track that sounded like Burial from dBridge and low and behold confirmation comes from dubstepforum. Someone bumped into dBridge and he confirmed it.
There have been rumours a plenty for some time about Burial and D’n’B legend and Metalheadz owner Goldie hooking up but again nothing has surfaced and I once spent a good few hours locked into a sup-par Goldie hosted radio show on 1Xtra that promised a some sort of Burial action that never came.
Now for the real mouth watering part just a few weeks ago word came from a distributor that a Burial & Four Tet 12” was ready to drop at any moment. The tracks ‘Moth’ and ‘Wolf Cub’ are said to feature and I really don’t think any one but the lucky few have heard it, until clips appeared on Juno just yesterday. It sounds like business as usual from Burial but with a real tropical vibe and a four to the floor effort on the flip. I’m really not sure if it’s a collaboration or a split, but we will see next week.
Then once again out of nowhere, well I say nowhere I mean Blackdown’s wicked Pitchfork column in an interview about Loefah’s new label Swamp 81 came word of Loe and Burial hooking up to remix Kryptic Minds for a 12” after the album drops.
I can almost hear these collaborations in my head when I think of the artists involved. Just imagine FlyLo’s organic flowing grooves playing off the sharp crackle of Burial’s ghostly garage or the D’n’B stylings of dBridge and Goldie bringing back the spirit of jungle together with a new pioneer. Then there is the subtle electronica of Four Tet with his crisp layers of atmospherics along side Burial’s vision. The deep half-stepping dark vision of Loefah with its massive bass and minimalist approach will be one hell of a juxtaposition to Burial’s riddims and Kryptic Minds vision of dubstep. Who knows when we will get to hear any of them mind but the mere speculation is pretty tantalising.
All pretty interesting stuff, and who says the mystery of Burial is now gone since the fuckers at The Sun ‘unmasked’ him. The music is doing the talking and that’s the way we like it.
Parts of LA came to Leeds to night the Brainfeeder and Low End Theory and fuck me they delivered. But on with that in a moment, the night was warmed up nicely buy some locals the first thing I heard was Caspa’s abusive cockney-step anthem where’s my money! Which was well abusive for such an early hour but soon enough after a quick dose of Rustie’s Zigzag P45 came on and played a wicked set of bleeped out electronica and plenty of bits from The Bug. The only mishaps on being the complete fuckin’ bell end on the door that wouldn’t let anyone out and if you did leave you had to buy another ticket to get in. Ridicules rules, and he was a complete fucker, so some sweet talking was done with another door staffer and he was well up for the re-entry, bonus.
Then The Mother Fuckin’ Gaslamp Killer came on the scene and tore the shit out of the place playing a mad set full of big time dubstep wobblers all the way to sublime wonk from the likes of Bullion and Computer Jay, even some Terkish funk from 1969 and Ethiopian shit as he called it made an appearance. The majority of his set was fucked up wobblers like 16 Bits’s Chainsaw Calligraphy and really insane electro tinged off-killter hip-hop. The guy can mix as tight as hell and is a real party starting live wire. Getting on the mic and hyping the crowed like a mad man possessed and throwing together some real big bangers. The bas was big and the vibe was right, tracks from Harmonic 313 and Heralds of Change killed it, and there was far to much stuff I didn’t know the name of that really got the floor moving. By the end of the hyper set even Gaslamp looked tired until he turned all evil on us and dropped Aphex Twin’s Come To Daddy and shot the crowd down with gun fingers.
The main even was upon us and FlyLo took the stage easing us in with sublime beat after beat chopped in clashed into each other in a collage of percussion, made up of so many familiar tracks from his album and beyond. The sound of these tracks on a big system is something else, the bass is HUGE and the beats are like liquid. Shit really started to kick off when he dropped his refix of A Milli, it went down well and from then on he went from beat of his own to the odd inclusion of beats from all over. He took the mood down mellow for the smokers before really fuckin’ it up with his mix of Mr Ozio that really got everyone going. It got pitched up into more electro and I thought I riot was going to ensue at one point. He can flip the mood in an instant mind, and mellow passages melted into full throttle funk and dance floor bombs.
Just some of the tracks I remember him playing are: Kode 9’s killer smudged funky track Black Sun, Burial done FlyLo style, Martyn, Joker’s incredible Re-Up, A little Zomby, a mad wonky re-interpretation of Aphex Twin’s Windowlicker by FlyLo again. He even dropped some new material from a forthcoming album, which is wicked news. Some other highlights were the epic sublime builds that dropped into some of the most liquid funk fuled bass and feet moving beats I’ve heard, I have no idea what the hell the track I’m thinkin’ of is called but it killed it. FlyLo spun it back a few time and raised his hands in the air ready for the drop each time, which sounded like angels singin before a filthy funked up drop. He finished with some roots wobbler style dubstep before dropping some mad bleep-core hyper rave beats as his encore that morfed into what sounded like a Kode 9 FlyLo collaboration with warped synths hip-hop beats and huge bass but I could be really wrong about that.
Everyone killed if the Brainfeeder / Low End Theory crew know how to do things and fuck me their shit is tight! Go see Fling Lotus, go see The Mother Fucking Gaslamp Killer at any chance you get.
I wrote this originaly for DiS so go and check it out over there, this is the DVD extra version before the edit. Here you go!
This year has been dominated by beats and bass for me, it’s come in many different shapes and forms from dubstep to hip-hop through a bit of minimal and back again. Warp’s Flying Lotus kind of fits somewhere between the dubstep and hip-hop, he has been firmly embraced by the two anyway.
Flying Lotus AKA Steven Ellison comes from a musical dynasty that has spawned the likes of Jazz legends Alice Coltrane and John Coltrane. He continues this legacy in fine style but in his own way of course. By melting together J Dilla style off kilter hip-hop instrumentals, some deep bass and the sampling skills of one top class crate digger, some people like to call it ‘Wonky’ others ‘Aquacrunk’ I kind of like the latter.
He is not alone in making this ‘Aquacrunk’ either there is a young and talent scene emerging with the likes of Glasgow’s Rustie, London’s Bullion and LA’s Samiyam who is singed to FlyLo’s Brainfeeder label. Hell this strange music is even breaking out of it’s BPM shackles and infecting dubstep, people like Joker, Peverelist and Kode 9 are showing signs of this sound in their own work. Kode is even working with FlyLo on some tracks on his own album, but I digress…
On with the album! Los Angeles is a delight to listen to as a whole the pieces surge into one another in a crackly soup of liquid beats and soulful vibes. Off-kilter synths play off the wonky beats to make an organic and warm sounding piece of work.
Some people may find it all quite ambient and relaxing but if your lucky enough to have caught him live on a big soundsystem then it’s very likely you have felt the full sonic force of his work and then been compelled to dance in strange new shapes that you didn’t quite know you could do.
You can’t really contain his sound in mere youtube form though to be fair, but you get the idea.
Highlights from Los Angeles include the little opener Brainfeeder which comes at you like a warm crackle drenched Burial remix of something from Kid A. Beginners Falafel is a dreamy bass ridden larva lamp of a track with a subtle and gloopy groove. Others are more beat driven like the eastern jangle of Melt! Or Camel, which also layers strings and vocal snippets to great effect. His use of drum samples really are inspired, you get electro booms offset with organic djembe or other percussion that creates a world of it’s own. GNG BNG sounds like a old school gangster film soundtrack mixed with a more subtle version of Public Enemy’s wall of noise approach. Parisian Goldfish continues in this vain too. If I had to choose one track though and only one it would be the beautiful Robertaflak, which features the vocal talents of Dolly in a moving slice of laidback jazz reminiscent of his family’s past and his hip-hop present.
There is no Post J Dilla Filla here.
Check out that very wrong video of Parisian Goldfish by Tim & Eric of Adult Swim Fame, who coincidently FlyLo makes a lot of the music for can be found here (WARNING NOT SAFE FOR EYES LET ALONE WORK! May contain nuts):
http://www.dancefloordale.com/ If you have been enjoying Flying Lotus and need another fix you could do worse than check out his LA EP’s one to three. The first is a collection of the odd album track and new material and the second is a killer set of remixes highlights of which include Mike Slott’s wonky monster and Martyn’s sublime version of Robbertaflak. EP three will be out next year I would imagine and I have no idea what will be on it.
I've been a long time reader of Drowned in Sound and hang out on the boards probibly far to often. But the other day Editor and DiS Headhoncho Sean asked me to write an article on Flying Lotus for his Lost 8 or '08 feature. So I jumped at the chance, see what I wrote by clicking on the link bellow.
This is the self-released album from LA’s Samiyam and it comes with a unique hand made and doodled cover art for Sam him self. Mine is some porn with two girls that have been penned over in green on the mouths and nose, one has a moustache now and still looks hot… Then flip to the inside and you can see it’s cut out from a porn mag and he has highlighted the bit that says and I quote, ”Anal Cocksucking Whores 29” and put in a helpful pointer for me that says, ‘It’s the best 28 was shit’ so nice one Samiyam for that tip. Oh you can’t see any rude bits to titillate you he has drawn on those and will leave the music to float your boat…
Off kilter instrumental hip-hop beats are the name of the game on Rap Beats Vol.1 not unlike his LA scene buddy Flying Lotus he even makes beats with him under the name FLYamSAM you can find an example of this on a Ghostlyswim free compilation I posted about a while back now. He has also just released an EP on ace dubstep label Hyperdub but I will write about that in the not to distant future, back to the album anyhow.
Rap Beats Vol.1 is thirty odd minuets of pure wonky bass driven hip-hop, it’s mishmash as you can imagine, a bit cut’n’paste in places but overall a great listen. The ideas he has going are ace samples are freaked around with to make woozy grooves and slanted beats. The funk keeps coming and he never misses a beat. This will get your head nodding if you are a fan of FlyLo, slightly left of centre hip-hop or pretty much any bass and groove based music like funk, electro or dubstep. His style reminds me of some Mr Oizo with the heavy bass and quirky beats. Samiyam uses his electro influences more organically than Oizo though, there is a real deep warmth to Rap Beats Vol.1.
He is up their with Flying Lotus in making this kind of hip-hop right now I can’t get enough of both of them. FlyLo brings a more organic underwater vibe to his productions and Samiyam goes for a slightly more digital sound. Rap Beats Vol.1 comes highly recommended by me it’s addictive. Check out a couple of free downloads here.
I have a lot of love for FlyLo, as you may know if you read my blog regular (yep that’s you mum). I have also been playing Lil’ Wayne’s Tha Carter III a hell of a lot since it dropped recently, it’s my biggest surprise of the year so far I thought I would hate it but it turns out he is brilliant in his own lil’ way. Pitchfork have stuck up a FlyLo meets Weezy F Baby mash-up which is done by Flying Lotus him self I think any way. It uses some fresh beats and a nice slice of one of the stand out Tha Carter III cuts A Milli. FlyLo makes it into a quirky off kilter wonky hip hop freak beat with the sense of humour of Wayne and deep underwater vibe of his own productions, it works damn well. Check it out for your self right now by clicking on the link bellow.
This wonderful 12” dropped through my door today, and I’m pretty excited to hear it that I can tell you for sure. It’s the first EP in a set of three and FlyLo has limited them to 2000 worldwide so it’s pretty damn exclusive. The artwork is in the same vain as the Los Angeles album with the big freaky metallic stuff. And I got the coolest purple Warp Records pin badge in with the package. Put the needle on the record baby…
L.A. EP 1 starts with Sleepy Dinosaur from the Los Angeles LP on the A side. Each side of the 12” starts with a familiar track off L.A. then whacks us with exclusive new material. Sleepy Dinosaur is a treat with skippy beats and jazz chords all warped up in that unmistakable FlyLo aquatic hip-hop way. Rickshaw is the first exclusive slab on this here wax, it loops Indian sitars and vocals over the top of a low slung dirty as hell bassline, and beats. This can be heard on The Do-Over mix FlyLo did and I posted the other day. The last track on side A is My Chippy its got a 8-bit blip to it like someone playing a dancehall, crunk version of space invaders, underwater of course this is FlyLo we are talking about. Flip it…
Side B kicks off with Los Angeles slab Robertaflack (Feat. Dolly) the sweet soul vocal and jazz sampling wonky bass freak banger. I love this tune its one of my favourite from L.A. and sets off side B nicely. Paper Crane Gang is next up and brings the third exclusive to the 12”. The beats are wicked on this one real leaning low slung and dirty with the most melancholic filtered synth line on top, it’s a beautiful track that reminds me of Warp records of the past. Interference is the final tune and it’s another excellent one, full of more skipping beats and massive bass sounds. A creaky vocal snippet from some kind of computer obviously not handling the underwater conditions very well sounds pretty cool. As does the booming dancehall vibe mixed with windy tones, excellent, not unlike the sound I imagine drowning Mr Ozio would sound like, I don’t recommend finding out mind.
That concludes the listening of L.A. EP 1 x 3 and FlyLo has done it again with yet more excellent instrumental hip-hop with that of kilter vibe to it he does so well. The tracks compliment the Los Angeles LP very well indeed and could have easily made the cut if FlyLo so wished. Another slice for the heads then as he trailblazes the underground dance scene. Warp has done well in signing this talent and I wait with baited breath, not unlike having to hold my head under water, for the next instalment of EP’s.
There have been some live mixes knocking about from the excellent FlyLo one from a place called The Do-Over from May 25th 2008 and another from way back on Radio One. He did a mix recently for Brainfeeder but I can’t seem to find that one just yet, I’m sure some time someone will have recorded it and put it online, fingers crossed anyway. Flying Lotus has his album Los Angeles out right now and its amazing I can’t stop spinning it. There are also 3 EP’s one of which is out now and highly limited, with new material and tracks from Los Angeles. Expect up front wonky aquatic instrumental hip-hop and bass music from these live sets.
FlyLo is incredible I am looking forward to Los Angeles on Warp records, which is released next month. The artwork looks brilliant as always from Warp and their artists. The music is something else it, it’s a cross between hip-hop, dubstep, IDM, crunk, jazz, and well allsorts really. The drums are off kilter and the groves wonky, see more about getting your wonk on, on posts bellow. The music isn’t far removed from other Warp artists such as Prefuse 73 and other releases that verge on the hip-hop. This is a classic sounding Warp record in all its glory, not the indie band kind like Born Ruffians and Maximo Park, but the good old pushing the boundaries electronic freakouts. FlyLo is the nephew of Alice Coltrain the jazz composer and wife of the famous John Coltrain, so it seems pushing musical boundaries are in his blood. There are echoes of the hip-hop producers Madlib in FlyLo’s work you could almost imagine MF Doom riding these beats with ease. Los Angeles is a instrumental album however, a superb underwater some may even say aquacrunk album. FlyLo is re-affirming my love of the excellent dance music spectrum.
Music reviews and words. No leaks. Feel free to comment.
Miss Marple? No Dot Cotton...
Other projects include Sonic Router and the mess around news feed Xpldr and the occasional contribution to Always Everything. Check out the links and RSS bellow for the low down.
'jimi is the apex from which everyone else fans out of' NFR Blog
'so here's to jimitheexploder. The only name to trust' Worriedaboutsatan
'Jimi - whose enthusiasam for this remarkable genre is humbling - he say's "Now that's a single!" And let's face it, I know who I should be more inclined to take my dubstep recommendations from' Wendy Roby of DiS
Burial has been quite ever since the mercury awards last year, well at least he hasn’t been in the public eye since then. But my god he has been busy where it counts most: in the studio if the rumours are right anyway.
Posts
