Flying Lotus is of the rare breed of musicians in that the awareness of their output is not constricted to the confines of their genre. Like Richard D. James with IDM and Metallica with heavy metal – it’s not just music for the typical fans- everyone can like it, and seemingly, everyone does like it, as the reviews and listening charts reveal. Whether or not you agree – there’s something very special about the California native, and I’m sure fast forwarding ten years from now is going to show you a very varied and brilliant career that he’ll make for himself. If he’s able to match the 90s Warp big boys is unknown, but personally, I think he has a shot.
His skill is shown in its most developed form yet in last year’s brilliant Los AngelesL.A. EP series, and in it are the most epically remixed songs of all of the series. Previous releases certainly gave you remixes, but they were still of the same mold – the beats, feels and rhythm remained. Here, its not entirely the case, and we even get two new songs. Opening track “Infinitum (Dimlites Re-Infinitum)” transforms the once steady, well, ballad, and turns it into a jittery techno circus. “Comet (Mathew David)” is a segue track made out of one of the poppier songs on Los Angeles, and “Testament (Breakage’s Bill’s Suit Mix)” is almost a Queens of the Stone Age / Flaming Lips joint cover. The two originals, “Endless White” and “Spin Cycles”, are quite different to anything the man has done before – both virtually beat-less, ambient and the perfect soundtrack to come out of a coma to, fuzzy, cold and distant. The songs dance back and forth between going back and forwards, shimmering and coming in and out of focus. (If this is a new direction, I look forward to it, because they’re the best part of the EP – This is the new, melancholic FlyLo). The level of cohesion is also astounding here, each song complements each other, and this might as well be a release of new material – and such is the level of twisted remixing that it’s not entirely obvious that it is a remix EP at all.
The remaining tracks are “Parisian Goldfish (Take Remix)”, one of the more standard remixes but still a remarkable tune, as dance-y as it is ever evolving, and a clear future dance floor favorite, and “Auntie’s Harp (Rebekah Raff Remix)”, a six minute re-imagining of a fifty-nine second song. You might have already guessed – it doesn’t sound much like the original.
This is a fine collection of remixes, and certainly better than the output of other recent dance artists, it’s rewarding, engaging and always evolving, much like FlyLo himself. For someone who puts out a remix EP (usually a rather dull affair, if I may say so myself) as good as this, I await with open arms his future original material, which is certain to surprise us all.
