Flying Lotus takes off to Warp Records.
Posted by: Dylan Garret on March 20, 2007 at 5:45 pm
Well, it’s finally happened. Flying Lotus has been signed to Warp Records.
Look, as a man who links all things Dublab (whose In The Loop series always seemed to be a precursor to the Sound of LA series that first introduced most of us to Flying Lotus with the stellar “Two Bottom Blues” – I’ve never been quite clear on the business relationship between Dublab and Plug Reasearch, but you can check the track here on this live DJ mixset I recorded last year in SoHo, NYC), a man who is also a staunch supporter of Plug Research, I’m not going to act like I’ve been on the edge of my seat waiting for this guy to move to greener pastures. I like Plug Research. I think Flying Lotus was the perfect fit there.
But hell, we’re talking about Warp here. Warp goddamned Records. Let’s be honest with ourselves; Warp has always been one of the most consistent independent labels regularly putting out music. They misstep here and there, but hell, I’m not going to act like I’ve never trainwrecked at a club in my life either. All in all, Warp is about as solid as a label in their position can be. They make pretty good on what’s expected from them. And it can’t be easy dealing with what’s expected from Warp goddamned Records.
I’m playing with the italics a bit there. You know, for tone.
Anyway, the point is, Flying Lotus’s debut album, 1983, was one of the best albums of 2006. Yes, the buzz was nearly louder than the album itself, louder than when you get to that really good part of “Pet Monster Shotglass” (you know that part with the chimes?) where you have to crank it the hell up. I mean, what can you do? Even Lotus’s aunt (sadly, recently departed) is the too-brilliant-for-adjectives Alice Coltrane. There’s some musical pedigree at work here. And his album deserved it. Hell, I’m still listening to the thing pretty regularly, and I may possibly have the shortest attention span for music in the history of ADDJs. The point being, I’m taking this move to Warp on good faith, and you probably should too. Good things will happen.
However, this is supposed to be setting up a news post, not an album review. But you know how we do. There’s gotta be some free beats involved. So let me toss this one out there first, Flying Lotus’s remix of Mia Doi Todd’s “My Room Is White”.
Mia Doi Todd – My Room Is White (Flying Lotus Remix)
Mia_Doi_Todd_-_My_Room_Is_White_(Flying_Lotus_Remix).mp3
And in case 3 minutes and 3 seconds of music isn’t enough, check this DJ set from Flying Lotus and Samiyam, otherwise known as FLYamSAM, recorded live on BTS Radio .
FLYamSAM – BTS Radio Recording, Feb 20th 2007.
flyamsam_special.mp3
You can grab the playlist and graphics for that set are up on Bridge & Causeway, or BTS Radio’s own site.
And, while you listen, you can catch the official, much more sterile press release below.
. . . via Warp Records:
We are delighted to announce the signing of L.A. based musician ‘Flying Lotus’.
We first heard Flying Lotus when he recorded the track ‘Two Bottom Blues’ for the Plug Research ‘Sound of L.A. Volume 2′ EP. This track immediately stood out head and shoulders above anything to us, we got rather excited.
Our instincts were further confirmed when other artists on Warp such as Mark Pritchard and Prefuse 73 also started enthusing about this young guy from L.A. making this fresh and unusual sound.
So we got in touch, and everything fell into place, it confirmed to us that Flying Lotus is a classic Warp artist, a confident talent who’s rapidly developing his own sound, pushing it out and experimenting with a strong idea of what he wants to do, but open minded and humble enough to know that where his music ends up might not be what he planned when he started.
Furthermore, it didn’t come as a surprise when we found out that Flying Lotus has strong family connections with two of the most revered Jazz musicians of the 20th century; his Aunt is Alice Coltrane, musical collaborator and wife of John Coltrane and keeper of a rich musical legacy.
We welcome Flying Lotus to Warp!
From Flying Lotus: “Warp is the absolute best home for my work. They know that there’s a lovely thing goin on in L.A. so by being their first L.A. artist… I got a lot of work to do.”
missyyhirons March 12th, 2008
Awesome!
