Flying Lotus
(Warp)
Oh, you didn't think Cosmogramma was all you were gonna hear from Flying Lotus in 2010, did you?
As fans are well aware from the trio of EPs that succeeded 2008's Los Angeles, the man who is helping to usher the Coltrane family legacy into the 21st century is not one to waste his creative runoff. Pattern + Grid World is not so much an extension of Steve Ellison's jazz-imbued second Warp offering as it is an aural homage to LA's Low End Theory movement that helped spawn his ascension.
And as his great Uncle John's spirit moved through the grooves of Cosmogramma, one can clearly ascertain the soul of J. Dilla breeze across this brief but fulfilling seven-song set that serves as the finest showcase of FlyLo's hip-hop roots since his debut album, 1983, particularly in the way he flips electro-shocked tribal drum loops on "Jurassic Notion" and then eases into an abstract swagger reminiscent of classic Stones Throw break science on "M Theory."
Just make sure you get a copy of Pattern + Grid World on wax so you can dig on that mesmerizing cover art, created by acclaimed artist Theo Ellsworth's Thought Cloud Factory, that you'll be staring at for days (as it stares back at you!).
DOWNLOAD: "Jurassic Notion," "PieFace," "M Theory" RON HART











