It’s been five years since we heard Flying Lotus’ last album You’re Dead! While he hasn’t been releasing music during that time, he certainly kept busy. The beloved artist spent his time focusing on his Brainfeeder label in addition to creating his first feature length film Kuso and scoring movies. Now the wait is over as he’s shared the 27-track album Flamagra picking up right where he left off. The new LP brings on collaborations from artists like Anderson .Paak, Denzel Curry, Tierra Whack, Toro Y Moi, Little Dragon, George Clinton and more.
His last LP was a Grammy-nominated effort so there’s a lot of attention on Flylo for his follow-up project. As expected, he’s returned to form on Flamagra. His jazzy tendencies are as on-point as ever. There’s something about the layers in Flying Lotus’ production that are unpredictable in the most perfect way. You never know where his melodies will take you or what instrument will pop up or fall out next.
The collaborators were perfectly picked for each track while allowing his pristine instrumentation shine on several songs without vocals.
In an interview with Billboard, the Brainfeeder founder touched on the theme of the album revolving around fire, saying “It was just a lot of imagery and a lot of stories I would hear after awhile, and I think it got into my head. You know, a really close friend of mine — two of them, actually — had their homes burned down at different points of their lives, and I would hear stories about that and how it affected them. The past few years, there’s been really crazy fires in L.A. A lot of that imagery has been in my head. The things that [fire] does, and how much we need fire and how much we hate fire, is all important.”
Check out the full album below and enjoy!