1: FLYONG LOTUS - COSMOGRAMMA
What you ain’t know? What else could it be? Few songs and no album matched the breadth, scope and vision of Cosmogramma in terms of ambition and execution. Where Los Angeles was a terrestrial tribue to the city, using his shards of sound to mimic the technocratic environs that subsume our lives, Cosmogramma is that same spirit with it’s eye towards the cosmos. Flying Lotus’ third full length moved beyond the “post-Dillaism” and interpretations of genres like Bossa Nova, jungle and IDM into his own miasma of celestial rhythms.
Much like Lotus’ late aunt Alice Coltrane and her late husband John Coltrane, Cosmogramma is an aim and expression of contemporary spirit music. As scholar Robin DG Kelley wrote about in his seminol book Freedom Dreams, the Black Radical tradition has a history of its workers, thinkers, and artist creating products concerned with life beyond the natural world and its current circumstances. Cosmogramma falls into that lineage and expands the narrative. From the moment the perfectly titled “Clock Catcher” begins our spaceships are turned on and we begin the out-world journey. Whether the frenetic techno-jungle of “Pickled”, the ethereal boom-bap of “Zodiac Shit”, the Detriot house-boogie of “Do The Astral Plane”, or the galactic inner demon expulsions of “Drips / Auntie’s Harp”, Flying Lotus weaves the varying tempos, grooves and moods on the ablum like a seasoned maestro.
Yes, its hip hop, jazz, experimental electronic and every other adjective we can conjure up, but it’s more about expressing the human spirit and moments of personal transformation. Flying Lotus at the young age of 26 is a wizard, magician and sonic treasure. Along with his work with Andreya Triana, Gonja Sufi, Jose James, his EP, and his touring live band, Lotus traveled, explored and communicated a unique and inspiring sonic vision through the whole year. I have no problem with Cosmogramma not being YOUR favorite album, but if it’s no where to be found on ur list of favorites in 2010, ur a Cyborg fascist crippling the Dance of the Psuedo Nymph and should not be trusted :)
Click the pic to see the psychedelic visuals for “MmmHmm”
