Head-to-Head Round 3
Flying Lotus: Cosmogramma David Pickart vs. Ian Mercer
I’ll cut to the chase: Cosmogramma is already As an ethereal voice floats over the sound a classic album. The word “essential” comes to mind. of ricocheting ping pong balls, a throbbing kick drum intermingles with the sound of a backmasked If you’ve already heard the album, feel free to read guitar and a noise that can best be described as a this column in order to remind yourself of its greatness robot gasping for air. No, it’s not a bad acid trip- it’s before you promptly revisit it. If you’ve never heard it just “Table Tennis”, one track off of Flying Lotus’s before, it goes without saying: you know what to do. The album is dense: dozens of instruments third album effort, Cosmogramma. The hypnotic, controlled sloppiness of this track typifies the pro- pile upon one another in oceans of sound (check out duction aesthetic of Flying Lotus, who uses Cosmo- “Galaxy in Janaki. It’s probably the densest piece of gramma to deliver a series of tracks as nuanced and music ever written that refrains from descending into outright madness). interesting as they are downright weird. The album is diverse: it features 8-Bit EDM, The music of Flying Lotus isn’t about strucMiddle Eastern strings, Thom Yorke’s wails, and Ravi ture or melody, but rather about memorable texColtrane’s free saxophone. tures and grooves that develop and intertwine The album is an album’s album: it may be in unpredictable ways. In terms of sheer musical activity, Flying Lotus truly delivers; there’s enough divided into separate tracks, but the borders are going on in each track that repeated listens are sure seamless and often unnoticeable. It is an effectively to reveal new details. Throughout the album, FlyLo through-composed piece of art. Of course the album is not without fault: the achieves a careful balance of live instruments and samples that can get overwhelming, but only when density and diversity could be a little bit excessive at it’s intended to. Although some of the synth sounds times, amounting to pieces of music that are almost are rather unpleasant, and the off-kilter rhythms fur- nonsensical. Additionally, and in my opinion most imther stretch the limits of accessibility, the resulting portantly, the sound quality isn’t exactly flawless (and I swear I bought a high quality copy). Grain and fuzz spaced-out vibe is truly unique. Although there’s undoubtedly some filler on permeate through several key moments that would be the album (I’m looking at you, “German Haircut”), far more effective if delivered via clean tone. Finally, the aforementioned strength of comost of these tracks comprise a dynamic and cohesion may not work well for all audience members. hesive whole. Individual songs are ever-changing and filled with fleeting moments that counteract the Those who are inclined to only listen to the “singles” stereotype of the cut-and-paste laptop musician. By will find that the tracks do not work especially well avoiding the pitfall of static repetition present in so when consumed separately. much electronic music, Flying Lotus guarantees an engaging listening experience with Cosmogramma, My Verdict: Humanity has yet to settle upon a single no matter how grating or strange each individual definition of unadulterated dopeness, but Steven Ellisection may be. My Verdict: I’m not sure exactly what genre this al- son may have achieved our closest approximation yet. bum is, but it certainly lies on the outer limits of my Cosmogramma is almost too maximalist, but there music taste. Nonetheless, Cosmogramma’s intricate really is no other album that can combine this many production and surprisingly varied sound make it styles and instruments together while maintaining 14 fascinating, if not entirely pleasant, listen. such a cohesive identity.
