FLYING LOW

IF YOU HAD A GREAT AUNT LIKE ALICE COLTRANE, IF YOUR PREDECESSORS HAD CONTRIBUTED AS MUCH TO MUSIC AS SHE DID, THEN I GUESS YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH MUSIC COULD GO EITHER ONE OF TWO WAYS...

Like a younger brother living in the shade of an elder sibling’s success, you might avoid a musical path through life for fear of being constantly compared to someone else. The desire to emulate or surpass their achievements becomes a burden you’re not willing to bear. Or, alternatively, your musical heritage provides the inspiration for your own musical explorations. You won’t waste the rhythm genes dutifully passed down by your predecessors. Music is in your blood, you say, and nothing else will do... Steven Ellison, aka Flying Lotus, is clearly of the second group. Much has been made of his ties to Alice Coltrane, so let’s put that to one side for a moment. Fly Lo is his own man now, with his own style, his own ideas, his own indomitable take on hip hop, wonk, funk and bass. Nothing sounds quite like a Flying Lotus tune, and to have that kind of musical identity, even at his age (he seems relatively young!), would make even the most celebrated relation swell with pride. His live shows are similarly brilliant, like nothing else I’ve seen; designed to get people moving, they don’t always reflect the occasionally contemplative tone of his albums (the latest of which, Los Angeles, was released on Warp last week), but the energy and enthusiasm he exudes mark him out as one of music’s great performers, as well as one of its most original and exciting young artists.
 
If you haven’t heard his stuff, get the new album. And for a taster, with a little look inside the mind of the man, check the video below.