Flying Lotus Samples Ping-Pong Game for 'Cosmogramma'

Posted on May 4th 2010 3:00PM by Mike Ayers
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Towards the end of Flying Lotus' new album 'Cosmogramma,' there's a curious song called 'Table Tennis.' That FlyLo reteamed with vocalist Laura Darlington, who he's worked with in the past, isn't so curious; it's the percussion sample that sticks out, as it sounds like someone playing ping-pong. And that's exactly what it is.

"I lived in a building that had a ping-pong table and everyone was down there, every day," Flying Lotus tells Spinner. "You'd have to wait two hours to get in the game. I was the worst in the building, but I sure did record the s--- out of them."

After a two-minute harpsichord sound, 'Table Tennis' abruptly kicks in with Darlington's vocals. A stuttering washing sound dominates the foreground of the track while the distinctive back-and-forth of a mellow game of ping-pong acts as a percussion element. Even though FlyLo admits his table skills weren't on par with the rest of the building, he utilized their abilities in a stealth mode to capture what normal people probably don't consider music.

"That was actually the first track that was done," he says. "They were just playing and I didn't even tell them I was recording. All of a sudden I said, 'I gotta go.'"

That being said, this pong moment is a rarity for FlyLo as it's not like he's going out with a mic taped to his hat, recording everything he encounters. "I'm not the type of person that records everything, all day, field recordings all day," he says. "But sometimes you hear things, and you're like, 'Wait a minute.'"

'Cosmogramma' is out now on Warp Records.