Flying Lotus Soars Out Of Obscurity

By Jake Guidry in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 6, 2010 8:20PM

For many, familiarity with Flying Lotus' music exists out of obscurity. This is expected--when most of your exposure is limited to five-second, uncredited clips between Adult Swim programming, the path to fame is indeed a difficult one. But when FlyLo opens for Thom Yorke in less than a week at Aragon Ballroom, he's begun to transcend those lines. And when his second third LP Cosmogramma drops in a month on Warp, he'll have transcended even more. But first, last Friday night the electronic/hip-hop/dub/unclassifiable mastermind had a gig at Double Door--perhaps one of the last shows he'll play in the murky waters of the underground.

Born Steve Ellison, Flying Lotus adopts an on-stage persona similar to his music. As soon as he took the stage following Hyperdub leader Kode9, FlyLo steered the show in a chaotic direction like any beat geek would. Playful and unpredictable, he danced around his mixer, twisting and turning knobs, smile from ear to ear. Beats dropped in and out of groove and bass lines invaded the venue as our conductor buried his face in his hands as if it were the first time he'd heard the tune he so meticulously crafted. The crowd fed off this energy, moving like a telepathically networked organism. "Camel" dropped and a choreographed dance routine was uploaded to our brains. Perhaps it's the power of Flying Lotus. Perhaps it was the contact high. Perhaps both. He threw us everything he's got, old and new and unreleased. He amazed with an unfathomable "Fostercare" (by Burial) into "Idioteque" mix that felt borderline spiritual. The night wound down with his sinister remix of Mr. Oizo and we felt the release of an ending performance. If this is the end of the line for Flying Lotus' obscurity, so be it. But we pray and hope that he maintains that power.