Twitter Exile Update #1 + Artist Of The Minute #8

Click me to access my new album!

Happy new year everyone! Just thought I’d give you all a quick update on how my self-exile from the land of Twitter is going: it’s tough. I’ve been on “breaks” before and they’ve been pretty easy compared to this one. I even opened one of my Twitter apps out of habit. Fortunately, I had deleted my account settings therefore not breaking my own rules. I also accidentally “tweeted” last night due to automated tweet settings on Soundcloud when I favourited a song. As I didn’t actually log on and tweet that directly, I won’t count that as a rule break. As you can see, I’m finding this harder than it should be but that’s the price I’ve paid for going cold turkey. I reckon if I can do a week, the others should be easier. The main thing I’ve missed about it at the moment is the chance to publicise the album. I’ve not had many hits since I left as I was the only one sending the link out, but in spite of that, I’ve accrued 14 downloads in the 3 days so thanks to everyone who has supported. For anyone who hasn’t checked it out yet, click the album cover at the top of this post.

Onto the main feature. My artist of the minute today is Flying Lotus. Born Steven Ellison, he is the great-nephew of the late Alice Coltrane, which serves as no surprise when you hear his music. He’s been a huge inspiration for me, ever since I was first sent his debut album 1983 back in 2008. I remember the first time I heard Tea Leaf Dancers, it was like I was tripping. Since then, I’ve always been fascinated by his sound and how he creates it. He’s been somewhat pigeonholed into genres like “experimental hip hop” and “trip hop” but I think his music is beyond those sorts of labels (without sounding “hipster” or pretentious). You can hear how he tries to create soundscapes, filling every silence with some form of noise without it being unnecessary or overbearing. His second album Los Angeles is the one that really hit me. The cohesion of each track is superb and even though all but two of the tracks are instrumental, you don’t feel like there’s anything missing.

From here, he moved onto Cosmogramma. While I have a fondness in my musical heart for Los Angeles, Cosmogramma is *that* album. Everyone has an album from one of their favourite artist where it really cements their place in your own little hall of fame and this is it for FlyLo. It’s good enough not to warrant a genre as it traverses a myriad of sonic concepts (I’m beginning to sound REALLY pretentious now, but bare with me). Without doubt, my favourite track has to be Do The Astral Plane and something that I look to when I’m running out of ideas for my own tracks. It’s a stream of musical elements and you don’t even notice when one goes and until it reappears again. Anyway, judge for yourself:

With talks of Ellison working with Erykah Badu on a new release, it seems the only way is up for the Los Angeles producer and I couldn’t wish it for a better musician.