Flying Lotus (dancing, electronic, dance, hip-hop, jazz)

[Neil Loots]

As is well known, it is difficult these days to determine what exactly a genre of music "is" or "authentically consists in". I have been listening rather incessantly to the recent(ish) Flying Lotus album, and it struck me that I couldn't figure out exactly where this music fits into the grander scheme of all things musical. I suppose it may be considered to be "experimental hip hop", since it exploits "the hip hop beat". On the other hand, it does not inhabit "the hip hop idiom", which, although it can probably not be reduced to any one thing, traditionally seems to have dealt thematically, for lack of a better phrase, with "the social reality/milieu of (American) hip hop artists and MCs". Flying Lotus's album certainly evinces an "aural landscape", but not also, or not also explicitly, a particular "social landscape" since Flying Lotus does not to any large extent present himself as a "personality" within the music. Similarly, Massive Attack, and "trip hop" in general, exploited, amongst other things, the hip hop beat without being "hip hop" in the traditional or "strict" or "genealogical" sense of the term.

So what this rambling amounts to is the following question: Can there be such thing as "experimental hip hop", or would this "form" rather be subsumed under the more "catch all" term "electronica"?

[sidewinder]

I think Flying Lotus' latest album Los Angeles is more electronic than it is hip-hop, but it still definitely includes some elements of hip-hop beats. It's just more distorted than his first one, 1983. His style is definitely hard to classify, but what I'm saying is if I had to pick hip-hop or electronic, it would be electronic. Trip-hop is what I generally categorize things that fall between those 2 genres.

Great stuff, by the way. His recent EPs are worth checking out too, especially Shhh!.

[Sneer]

Los Angeles is all kinds of good, i would agree with it being more electro, though it does use hip hop beats as a central part of the album. Either way, pretty awesome stuff.

[jackhammer]

Los Angeles bored me senseless. No variation in the beats at all. He is usually labelled as a Laptop Musician I think.

[Sneer]

I thinks its exquisitely textured, atmospheric electronica, with boredom being the last word to spring to mind, but different dtrokes for different folks.

[Kamikazi Kat]

I remember discovering this man from Adult Swim. Everytime that little bump that played message situation came on, I would always have to stop whatever I'm doing and listen. I was so glad when I actually found out the name (Adult Swim doesn't credit him when they use his music, its a shame, it was almost half a year before I figured out the name was Flying Lotus).

I'm really not sure what to classify his music as, I personally don't care. I tend to just describe the music and influences instead of trying to throw a pointless label on an artist. Flying Lotus definately has alot of jazz, electronic, maybe even free jazz (some tracks such as Sleepy Dinosaur have a complex, loose and free feel). A hip-hop and trip-hop influence is also definately there.

[jsscka]

I haven't posted enough on this forum to post the link, but has anyone seen that INSANE 'Parisian Goldfish' by Flying Lotus video? It's totally NSFW, so be careful.

www dot dancefloorfale dot com

sorry, haven't posted enough on this forum for url posting capabilities.

[sidewinder]

Is it the one with the 2 people dancing and the wild colors? If so, it's pretty hilarious.

[Luby]

i would say there's a lot of hip hop in Los Angeles. hip hop doesn't need to have lyrics or standard basslines to be hip hop. the beat in almost every track on that record screams 'hip hop'. it's like hip hop with a chill-out/ambient/electronica feel. i see how it could get boring to some people, but to me it's more of an ambient album, back-ground music. it's great when you take a walk, or just take a nap. there are a lot of inspirational ideas on some of the tracks.

[Engine]

Originally Posted by Luby

i would say there's a lot of hip hop in Los Angeles. hip hop doesn't need to have lyrics or standard basslines to be hip hop. the beat in almost every track on that record screams 'hip hop'. it's like hip hop with a chill-out/ambient/electronica feel. i see how it could get boring to some people, but to me it's more of an ambient album, back-ground music. it's great when you take a walk, or just take a nap. there are a lot of inspirational ideas on some of the tracks.

I agree with just about every word.
If I had to label it - I'd say he makes hip-hop or at least "trip-hop" /downtempo.