It is an interesting album, to be sure, but if it is trip hop, or a kind of ambient hip-hop, how does it compare to, say, Massive Attack? (Certain of the stylistic traits on 'Los Angeles' seem to allude directly to an album like 'Protection', I think, so I feel that such a comparison is justified.)

i do agree that Los Angeles was a bit boring on the first listen. however, i like the way each song flows into the next, so the album has to be taken in AS A WHOLE. it's almost one really long song. i think that in and of itself separates it from the more traditional hip-hop/trip-hop aesthetics, while clearly borrowing from the two. it's very IDM-ish in it's approach and presentation. FL is more than a mere "Laptop Musician".

There are really two schools of thought when it comes to trip-hop. One is the Bristol-based stuff like Massive Attack and Portishead (that I'm not all that familiar with), and the other is a warmer feeling combination of electronic and hip-hop, or for lack of better words, instrumental hip-hop. I'm more into the later, and personally identify it producer-based hip-hop (often glitchy and IDM-influenced) that occasionally has guest hip-hop vocals or vocal samples. DJ Shadow, Prefuse 73, DJ Vadim, and the legions of artists that came after that. There was always glitch involved in the genre, at least in the second school I mentioned, but the term glitch-hop came about (talking of Flying Lotus, edIT, etc) as the glitches came more into focus rather than just being a detail of the sound. To me it's still trip-hop, as it was always there.

I am quite the opposite, since I am familiar with the Bristol-based version of "trip hop" rather than its "instrumental trip hop" counterpart in the United States. I am not too sure that Massive Attack, for example (although certainly not Portishead), doesn't evidence a "warmer" combination of electronica and hip-hop: "Unfinished Sympathy" would be an example of just such a combination.

Still, I think that Flying Lotus's "Los Angeles" is, in certain respects, highly indebted to Massive Attack. In fact, a few of the tracks could have come straight off a mid-nineties Massive Attack album like Protection, especially in terms of its "dub" effects (although it must be said that Flying Lotus's work is somewhat more up-tempo than the majority of MA's work).

Yeah like I said, I'm really not familiar with Bristol trip-hop. From what little I know, it feels cold.

Agreed, i thought the last Prefuse 73 album was dull as well.
1983 is better.

damn...i'm a n00b, but you kids must be n00bs to this style...
listen to : dabrye, caural, and dilla.

flylo elaborates on these styles, particularly the Detroit sound (Dabrye and Dilla, who inspired Dabrye), when it comes to beat structure. Trip-hop it is not. Massive Attack drew the blueprint for trip-hop (which isn't cold, it's soulful...it's a mix of dub, jazz, and hip-hop), elaborating on the Wild Bunch Sound System sound; Portishead soon followed. FlyLo's style isn't quite like it.

P.S., noobs ....it's called glitch-hop (although not nearly as out there as syndrone/machine drum)

Really? I listened to 1983 today for the first time after being virtually in love with Los Angeles for quite some time. My immediate reaction was that 1983 paled drastically in comparison to LA.

No need to come in here with a condescending attitude.

I agree with you on Dabrye and Dilla having influenced Flying Lotus to no end. I'd include Prefuse 73 in there too.

And the term glitch-hop is definitely appropriate for this stuff, but wasn't around (to my knowledge) in the early part of the decade...the only thing I could personally think to call this stuff was trip-hop (and I'm not the only one). Partly due to my lack of familiarity with the Bristol scene, and partly because the name really does fit the music, hip-hop beats that literally feel like they're tripping over each other. Hip-hop and IDM (the glitch and abstract element), basically. But ever since discovering Flying Lotus and even Dabrye before that, I've struggled to apply that same label (trip-hop) to them because it just didn't seem to fit like it did for Prefuse (to me). Glitch hop definitely works better and I think that's why the term has become more popular recently, many new artists have emerged following the footsteps of Dilla/Dabrye/Flying Lotus.

Anyway, life is a learning process. We don't all come out of the cannon knowing everything there is to know about everything.

As for Caural...never really got into him personally, seemed pretty boring.

I think Los Angeles is his best, definitely because he was able to find his own sound with that album. 1983 and Reset are the albums that make people compare him to Dilla (for better or worse) since it's so similar. Same with that demo that's floating about, Raw Cartoons...that Madlib/Dilla sound.

Jneiro Janel is another cat who has been doing this sound from time now.

but you can keep tracing this back to cats like pete rock, premier, marley marl if you wanted to. it all builds on each other I suppose