This arrived today and it is beautiful. Echoing Akira (and Tetsuo) and some of the brilliant, creepy videos from Aphex Twin, it’s a dark, cinematic corkscrew in psychedelic miniature. There are few videos so evocative of their namesake, working as a perfect thematic foil to the song. Now watch, as Elijah Wood has a fucked up night.
Despite the fact that I haven’t done a full “album post” about Flying Lotus‘ latest opus, Until The Quiet Comes is easily one of my biggest repeat listens of the year. It’s the living, breathing incarnation of what I’d always kind of hoped his work was pointing towards. Its growth from 2010’s Cosmogramma is more organic and inevitable than the sudden leap that album made from its predecessor, breathrough lp Los Angeles; naturally, it’s less surprising how radically good this is. I feel like I took it for granted at first: “Of course this is good. Well there it goes in my car to stay in rotation for weeks.” Only a handful of albums have spent so much time as regular, near-daily listen this year, and if it weren’t for Kendrick Lamar’s new release, I could have, possibly, worn it out.
Thankfully this video came along today. Not only my favorite track, Tiny Tortures was due for some recognition. On an album crowded with standout moments between sublime guest vocals and dizzying synth work, its sparkling meditative cascade can be mistaken as a gentle interlude. It’s more like a brief exposure of Quiet‘s spiritual heartbeat. It reaches transcendence in the emotive dance of its guitar and bass (by second time MVP Thundercat) over a pulse hinting at great-aunt Alice Coltrane’s organ work on one of her masterpieces. If you haven’t listened to the album yet, here’s your chance to embrace one of the warmest electronic albums in years, a possible masterpiece of jazz and electronic music.
Optimistic Underground 
This is fantastic!!! I do need to get that album :(
LikeLike
Yes you do. The deluxe 2lp edition is super lush, one of the most detailed and grope-able presentations I’ve ever witnessed for an album. But get whichever way you can: knowing your tastes, you’d be addicted to this in no time.
LikeLike
First off the video is awesome (Dreamcast!), and Tiny Tortures is excellent. However, I still feel a bit torn about the album, and don’t quite share your exuberance. It is a damn good (even great) album, I’ll start there. That said, I much prefer the first half of the album (basically record 1 if we’re talking about the vinyl) and hoped that the first half would be the consistent sound of the album. While the second half is good (in it’s own way), it just doesn’t seem to fit in with the first half to me. Yes, it might be true that I like the more upbeat songs contained within the first half, but it’s not just that. The second half basically sounds like a different album, which I guess is fine if that was the intention. Part of it probably has to do with all of the guest vocalists in the second half. Songs often need to be tailored around vocals understandably, but even Cosmogramma had songs with vocals that slid right in with the album sound. I guess what I’m trying to say is that Until the Quiet Comes overall doesn’t feel consistent to me in terms of a cohesive sound like Cosmogramma did. Maybe it was just expectations, but this has been off putting for me since my first listen until today (many many many listens later). Like I said before this could be intentional and the title might even be pointing out that distinction between the two halves. It’s just a bit bothersome to me, and I though I would throw that out there.
LikeLike