Flying Lotus / YOU’RE DEAD

Flying Lotus flexes his most earnest jazz muscles on this fifth solo album, his 4th for Warp. Star-lit with guest appearances by Herbie Hancock, Kendrick Lamar, Captain Murphy, Snoop Dogg, Angel Deradoorian, Thundercat, Niki Randa, it’s the work of heightened, enlightened minds projecting into spheres beyond this mortal coil. Funny then that it all sounds so familiar; the references to Alice Coltrane’s celestial jazz legacy, the kinetic percussion, the intensely “vintage” sounding production all paint an almost objectively “psychedelic” vision that leaves little room for ambiguity or interpretation. It’s a dense vortex of virtuosos being virtuosic and spectacular, with some necessary acknowledgement of modern footwork rhythms buried in there somewhere. Ultimately it all feels very mature and sophisticated, and undoubtedly super-accomplished – just a bit too busy and sprawling to really make an impact.