Flying Lotus Bring Audio-Visual Specatucar to SXSW

Posted on Mar 18th 2010 12:45PM by Mike Ayers
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Trust us -- you're going to be hearing a lot about Flying Lotus in the next several months. FlyLo capped off the Warp Records showcase by pulling out an unprecedented move: starting 10 minutes early, a SXSW record or miracle. But up close, you could tell he was excited to get going, as this was the first time he was debuting visuals to go along with his set, at least in the United States.

All we can say is do not look directly into the visuals if you experience any form of seizures. While FlyLo's forthcoming release 'Cosmogramma' showcases an intense layering of high and low-range sounds, his SXSW set honed more into the low ranges, with beats taken on a fast yet shifting tone throughout. At many points, while flashes of strippers and body parts and kaleidoscope style squares and rectangles showered viewers' eyes, Flying Lotus himself was simulating the part of mad scientist onstage, literally.

At dramatic points where shifts were about to happen, he'd arch his back, raise his hands towards the ceiling, then finally dropping quickly onto his knob machine, where the song's structure would melt into something else, something new and usually something more dark and twisted than before.

Flying Lotus recently grabbed the ear of Thom Yorke, so much that the Radiohead frontman booked the California solo act as an opener for his forthcoming, cross-country trek starting on April 5 in New York. Should you be going to any of those shows, it wouldn't be crazy to think that Yorke could sit in with Flying Lotus on the song '...And the World Laughs With You,' which Yorke lent his vocal talents to.

'Cosmogramma' is out May 4 on Warp.