Artist: Flying Lotus

Title: Until The Quiet Comes

Record Label: Warp Records

Rating: 7.0

Flying Lotus, otherwise known as Steven Ellison, is a modern day cosmic soul brother. His latest effort entitled Until The Quiet Comes is regarded by it’s author as “A collage of mystical states, dreams, sleep and lullabies”. During the inception of Ellison’s fourth LP, he had lucid dreams and mystifying out of body experiences which permeated into the fabric that makes up Until The Quiet Comes.

With a record that is born out the nocturnal, I decided I would review Until The Quiet Comes on a 5am early morning drive to fully immerse myself in the records twilight aesthetic. As I set off on a cold, dark and wet morning the album slowly unravelled a hotchpotch fabric of skittering beats, eerie electronics and disembodied vocals making my early start a soothing yet tense experience. Mr Lotus’ new effort is something of a fluid affair, almost like a lava lamp, as soon as one nuance appears it slowly morphs into the next without pausing, creating an ever evolving soundtrack of bleeps and ticks.

The rain began to lash at my windshield when the album takes a dip into a darker territory, with the inclusion of scuzzed up synths adding a nightmarish bent to the otherwise dream-like state Until The Quiet Comes possesses. It’s at this point during the ebb and flow of jazz like patterns to more restrained noise you can feel the lucid vibes Ellison mentions when describing his latest work.

Adding their own unique vocal styles to Until The Quiet Comes’ lethargic audio trip is Erykah Badu and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke on ‘See Thru to U’ and ‘Electric Candyman’ respectively. Luckily for Ellison, the inclusion of some A-List talent doesn’t detract from his new album’s mesmerizing textures. Taking Yorke’s track for example, the Radiohead frontman is almost unrecognizable when his electronically treated vocals briefly appear towards the end of the LP.

As the sun begins to rise I pull up at my final destination having experienced Until The Quiet Comes in it’s natural state, in the time of when the moon is king, ghostly and otherworldly Until The Quiet Comes is the sound of your dreams coming to life.

Words and Thoughts of Adam Williams