Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
‘Brainfeeder makes music that's equal parts for the club and those headphones that clasp around your ear and drive bass into your skull. Their signature sound is a psychedelic collision of jazz, electronic, and beat music, and it could be said to be the most modern in the world… "I guess it all started in 2005," [Steven Ellison (Flying Lotus)] says, taking a break from his massive Apple Mac to discuss the beginnings of Brainfeeder. "It was the MySpace era and a lot of musicians started to connect." That digital connection soon spilled over into real life: "We would all post up at various shows across town and we'd gather around our cars, bring out our boomboxes and start playing each other the beats we'd just made in the week." These gatherings inspired a scene that finally allowed LA's beatmakers to emerge from under the gangsta sound that had dominated people's perception of the city… When Flying Lotus signed to Warp, things began to gather pace. Ellison moved into a San Fernando valley artists' complex called Das Bauhaus. There he was joined by two future Brainfeeder artists, Samiyam and Teebs, and Adam Stover, who would go on to manage the label. "It just seemed like we had the operation right there ready to go," says Ellison. "There were all these shitty little labels trying to cap off the LA sound and I thought if anyone should do this, it's got to be us. We should do it ourselves, because we make this. It should be that a lot more people don't feel bad about being in the avant garde."
-The Guardian
Flying Lotus
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
1983 (2006)
‘Reviewing various tracks on 1983 in my opinion seems pointless. It's a plodding soundscape for its entirety and all of the songs seem to work off each other furthering the previous ideas. When discussing [Flying Lotus´] music, it'd be important to note that it seems he likes to experiment with the bare minimal. Synths, drums, and samples are all that is found on this album and most of the time, they're very sparse in their delivery. The layering and sequencing on 1983 isn't cluttered in the least; every gorgeous tone [Flying Lotus] has crafted in this album comes out perfectly, and that's really the main strength of 1983...’
-Sputnik Music
Los Angeles (2008)
‘Los Angeles is filled with the crackle of static, but there's something about this ambient noise-- a nuisance to audiophiles, a sign of weakness in radio signals-- that feels oddly comforting. Rather than audio damage or interference, this deceptively entrancing record (stick with it, it's a grower) feels like nature; it's almost as though Ellison went out of his way to digitize and filter the sound of rain hitting a sidewalk to accompany its beats.’
-Pitchfork
Cosmogram (2010)
‘Cosmogramma is an intricate, challenging record that fuses his loves-- jazz, hip-hop, videogame sounds, IDM-- into something unique. It's an album in the truest sense. Even on Los Angeles, which hung together well as a full-length, there were moments you could pick out as singles or highlights-- the distorted pop of "Camel" or the maniacal electro-house of "Parisian Goldfish". But Cosmogramma is conceived as a movement-- bits of one song spill into the next, and its individual tracks make the most sense in the context of what surrounds them. In this sense, it feels almost like an avant-garde jazz piece, and so it takes more than a few listens to sink in-- one or two spins and you're still at the tip of the iceberg.’
-Pitchfork
Until the Quiet Comes (2012)
‘An electronic jazz album, Until the Quiet Comes features free jazz elements, varying musical tones, contracting scale, and shifts in feel. Its songs are sequenced together and characterized by ghostly vocal production, irregular drum beats, pulsating percussive textures, trembling basslines, trilled synthesizers, and fluctuating samples. The album has a journey-like concept and dreamy musical narrative, which Flying Lotus conceived through astral projection and felt could be interpreted uniquely by listeners. Music writers interpret it as a musical accompaniment to dreams, as well as emotional introspection by Flying Lotus.’
-Wikipedia
You’re Dead! (2014)
‘You're Dead! is [Flying Lotus´] most overt homage to jazz giants of the past—never before has [Flying Lotus´] family tree (his aunt is Alice Coltrane—yes, that Coltrane) been so deeply felt. Nowhere is this more apparent than on "Tesla," featuring the legendary Herbie Hancock. That improvisational interplay carries through the album, whether it's between a piano line and a skittering snare on the Kendrick Lamar-featuring "Never Catch Me" or between the shadowy sax and cascading synth on "Moment of Hesitation." Even on songs with a less obvious jazz lineage (the druggy "Obligatory Cadence," the blissed-out "Ready Err Not" and "Eyes Above"), there's still that sense of experiment and adventure, which makes sense for a semi-concept album about death and the afterlife.’
-Under the Radar Magazine
Assorted EP Selections:
Bonus Flying Lotus Remix:
Captain Murphy
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
website:
www.captainmurphy.xxx
'Captain Murphy first appeared over the summer of 2012 on the Flying Lotus-produced track "Between Friends" for the 2012 Adult Swim Singles Program. The track also featured Odd Future's Earl Sweatshirt trading verses with Murphy. Speculation began to arise that Murphy was either Tyler, The Creator, Earl Sweatshirt, Flying Lotus, or a combination of the three due to the frequent pitch shifts in vocals. Between July and September 2012, Murphy released several music videos on YouTube that featured animation by lilfuchs. Over the months, Captain Murphy began hinting towards his debut project Duality, which was scheduled to be released in November 2012.
‘On November 15, 2012, Captain Murphy started a website and posted a 34-minute video titled "Duality" that featured his music as well as archived cult footage and lilfuchs-produced animation. He then began hinting at a deluxe version with separated tracks, bonus tracks and instrumentals. On November 28, Murphy released the deluxe version for download, along with the launch of a merch line. The mixtape was released with separate artwork for each track, created by lilfuchs.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Cpt Murphy on stage with Earl Sweatshirt at Low End Theory
‘On the night of the deluxe version release, Murphy played his first show at the Low End Theory in Los Angeles, California. He performed his set in a cloak to conceal his identity, but towards the end of the show, he revealed himself to be Flying Lotus.'
-Wikipedia
Du∆lity (Full Debut Video Album)
Recommended Songs:
8:53 “Between Friends”
17:30 “The Killing Joke”
Gaslamp Killer
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
'[Gaslamp Killer] grew up in San Diego, California, where he became a DJ in the Gaslamp district. His unique sets often ruined the music vibe in the clubs, earning him the nickname "The Gaslamp Killer." After moving to Los Angeles in 2006, he helped found Low End Theory, "L.A.'s monolithic weekly showcase for uncut beat-driven tracks".'
-Wikipedia
GLK on how he developed his style:
‘I ran with battle DJs. We were digging, but for shit to do routines with. So we'd look for drum breaks to juggle, and everyone was using two scratch records to do their routine. My friend DJ 10shun was like, "I'm going to do the opposite." He was the first one I saw doing whole routines with old records.
I had seen how the X-Executioners used hip-hop 12-inches—that's the O.G. shit, but once the battle records came out, that's how everyone started doing their routines. I was like, "No dude, that's cheating." Basically, it made routines more complex, but less creative. My friend Tension was so ahead of the curve, so I begged him to let me come over to his house everyday, and I'd be like "teach me." And he did.’
-Resident Advisor Interview with GLK
Bonus Article:
Gas Lamp Killer's near death scooter accident--LA Weekly
TOKiMONSTA
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
‘Having dabbled in beat-making after picking up production skills while a student at UC Irvine, [TOKiMONSTA] decided to focus on music as a career. She spent the first year of the venture broke and living at home with her mom in Torrance, where she grew up. Her work gained traction via play on BBC Radio, and she capitalized on the momentum with a self-coordinated European tour, hitting up promoters and the like via social media and ultimately playing dates in England, Greece, Ireland, Switzerland and Belgium… Her 2009 debut EP, Cosmic Intoxication, came out via London's Ramp Recording, and the following year Japanese imprint Listen Up released Midnight Menu. Shortly thereafter, Steven Ellison (that's Flying Lotus) asked her on iChat if she wanted to release something on Brainfeeder, which she did with her 2011 debut LP, Creature Dreams. Lee's work FIT squarely in the spacey, experimental electronic music defining the Brainfeeder ethos. Lee's music possessed a certain surrealist quality, stemming at least partially from her nocturnal tendencies.´
-LA Weekly
Teebs
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
‘Teebs is the alias for Mtendere Mandowa. Born in New York, Teebs now hails from Los Angeles and is a electronic musician and visual artist. Signed to Flying Lotus’s imprint Brainfeeder alongside other notable producers and musicians such as Thundercat, Teebs is a young guy but has long been making a name for himself in the LA beat scene. After being a part of the Red Bull Music Academy back in 2008, and interning at web radio collective dublab, 2010 saw Teebs release Ardour through Brainfeeder. He then followed this up with a compilation album Collections 01 in 2011. He also has other EPs such as Why Like This? and The Tropics.
‘Much like his music, Teebs’ artwork has also been well received. He first started painting in 2005 and has since had art shows all over the world, from the States to Japan and Europe. He creates his own album covers and he talks with XLR8R about how the decision on that particular piece for Ardour came about,
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Album Art for Ardour (2010)
‘“I was at this 420/dublab/Cosmogramma radio party. There were a lot of friends, like 20 musicians there, and I drew it just for the hell of it. I had made this other piece that I originally wanted to be the cover, but it’s actually on the inside of the gatefold now. It’s a lot more obscure. So, I was talking to Steve [Ellison a.k.a. Flying Lotus] and a few other people, not telling them what it was for, but asking them which they liked out of those two. A lot more people gravitated towards the painting on the cover now”
‘Teebs began painting before making music... Interpolated throughout his music are layerings of field recordings e.g. the sound of loose change. It’s nice to hear electronic, beat music created from analog sources because it still retains an organic feel despite being made on a computer. While inputs may not always be field recordings, his inclination to layering still comes through, “let’s say some guy has a guitar and he’s playing a song in a certain chord progression. I record that, dump it into my sampler, chop out the cool parts, and put it into Fruity Loops. Then, I like to layer different keys of the same chord progression, just so it gets all funky. Then you can do all kinds of weird shit. It’s easy, but it’s really nice.” It seems as though, his artwork is created in a similar way, building up an image using found images and his own personal input. At the risk of sounding snobby (I don’t know what I’m talking about, I just know what I like) the result in both instances (his music and art) is a blooming and dreamlike body of work. FlyLo calls his art “minimalist soundscapes on canvas”.
‘Distinctive in his work are what he calls “floaters,” the circular masses that often appear in his work and can be seen on the Ardour cover. Teebs uses mixed media in his work; charcoal, spray paint, collage, stencil, and various applications of paint. A proportion of his work is based on vinyl records or the 12 inch square format, and he has been known to paint onto old records or vinyl sleeves, sometimes even using records as medium for a piece. He also works at a larger-scale on wood.’
-Art for Music
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Daedelus
Daedelus released the album, Invention, on Plug Research in 2002. The Household EP was released on Eastern Developments in 2003. He also released The Weather, a collaborative album with Busdriver and Radioinactive, on Mush Records that year.
He released the third solo album, Of Snowdonia, on Plug Research in 2004. It was followed by another solo album, A Gent Agent, on Laboratory Instinct that year.
His 2005 album, Exquisite Corpse, featured guest appearances from MF Doom, Mike Ladd, and TTC. In the following year, he released Denies the Day's Demise on Mush Records.
His 2008 album, Love to Make Music To, and 2011 album, Bespoke, were both released on Ninja Tune. He released the Righteous Fists of Harmony EP on Brainfeeder in 2010. His studio album, Drown Out, was released on Anticon in 2013.
-Wikipedia
“KEXP Live DJ Set”
*
p.s. Hey. I'm super happy and proud to send the blog off on its short vacation with this last blast of newness from my awesome and brilliant nephew, the writer and d.l. who enters here under the tag gucciCODYprada. Learn about or co-celebrate the great Brainfeeder roster with and courtesy of him, yes? Thanks! And Cody, dude, my thanks are massive! Right, so, as I've been saying, due to my about-to-start trip west (of Paris), you'll be seeing rerun posts here through the 3rd, and then the blog will become a freeze frame until the 17th. ** Wolf, Wolf! I'm really glad that I happened to check the comments early yesterday and see your guide-like one because I hadn't sort of gotten it into my thick head how cold it's going to be there until you triggered me to check the Icelandic weather reports. Yikes. I now have a second bag stuffed with heavy winter stuff. Luckily, Zac and I did that epic trip to Antarctica a while back, so we have what we'll need, courtesy, yes, of the Vieux Campeur shops. I never thought I would ever use that stuff again, so that's cool. According tour itinerary -- it's a set-up tour where you get a rental car and nightly hotel reservations and reservations for activities here and there (snowmobiling, cave exploring, volcano visiting, etc.) and then you're on your own -- we are going to Myvatn! Nice! I'm not sure about Thinvellir, but I'll keep my eyes peeled. That tip on the health food is store is a lifesaver, thanks, and ditto probably on the Grapevine site. Thanks oh thanks! Yeah, we're really excited! Work hunting, fuck! Pal, I'll hope you've gotten that sorted out like a reward before I get back here. Cool, stay great, and let's compare Big I. visits when I'm in the saddle again. Love, me. ** David Ehrenstein, If memory serves, that's Buster Keaton chasing that spinning house, so I guess it's from one of his flicks? ** James, Hi. Thanks! James, honestly, her films are so incredibly hard to see in the States outside of the few lodged onto youtube that you should basically watch whichever one you can find. They'll all worthy. Thanks for the trip best wishes. I send you best wishes for your mysterious (to me) upcoming roughly two and a half weeks! ** Zach, Hi. Thanks a lot, man! They're very hard and very time consuming to make, yeah. That last one especially. Zac, for whom the novella was made, just finished playing 'Luigi's Mansion' so that was part of the magical ingredient. I just got the most serious envy that you're lost in a water temple in 'Zelda'. I really miss 'Zelda'. Especially the ones up to and including 'Windwaker'. When is a new one coming, I wonder? Happy Monday to you and have an awesome next couple of weeks! ** Kier, Oh, no, a doubleheader! I'm not even awake yet today 'cos I'm having to do this early and rushily so I won't miss my flight, so you'll have just be good old Kier for now. The two chocolate McCarthy things were, I would say, not scary expensive but, you know, pricey. Semi-luxury items. You should live in Paris. I'll keep my eyes out for your pumpkin! Wow, another so beautiful day. I feel like setting a novel in your daily reports. Hey, maybe I will. I am dreading that public talk thing big time, but, oh well, it'll happen. I'll take pix in Iceland, and Zac will no doubt take a ton, and I'll see if I can pry some of them out of him and show you. Yesterday was pretty uninteresting, no surprise. I just ran pre-trip errands and packed and stuff like that. I can't think of anything colorful enough to tell you about. Just imagine me with a dedicated and sometimes consternated look on my face with Paris in the background, and that was it, ha ha. Okay, if I don't get the chance to pop in here while I'm away, have an amazing time, and we'll have so much tell each other about the next time I see you either way! Yay! Tons of love, me. ** Thomas Moronic, Thanks a lot, man. Me too. I daydream all the time about the day when you'll be able to print animated gifs and about the glory that will ensue. _Black_Acrylic, Thanks a bunch, Ben. Yeah, I'll try to get enough shots for a trip slideshow and not wuss out like I did re: Antarctica. Have a great time! ** Etc etc etc, Hi, C. You saw Ira do his thing and you said hi and stuff. Cool! We're working on a documentary about the Japanese 'fog artist' Fujiko Nakaya, and she has a piece up at the Philip Johnson House upstate, so we'll be there documenting it and maybe interviewing people. Yeah, I'll be a stress-wreck from the q & a, but it would be great to see you anyway. The gif novella is the final form. That's its beginning and end unless they invent a way to print them or something. ** Steve, Hi. Thanks for the report on the Araki. I was planning to probably skip it, and I think I'll stick to that plan. ** Sickly, Hey. Thanks, man. Your thoughts on the novella are really fucking cogent. Thank you for attending to its machinations. Black Dice played at Laura's studio? That's cool, wow. I haven't seen 'Son nom de Venise'. That's a hole in my Duras. Huh, I'll definitely track it down. Thanks a lot for the pass along. Arcadia! I haven't been there since my mom sold my old childhood home there, like, twenty years ago. Unless driving through it on the 210 counts. A recipe being not much of a self-portrait is exactly why I like the idea. It feels kind of Oulipian or something. I will enjoy my vacation, and you must do the same! ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hi, Jeff. There is no original source. The gif novella adaptation is the form. It determines everything, and the source is what happens to my imagination and bent when they're asked to work in the space created by the idea of a gif novella. Oh, yeah, I get the overcommitted problem a lot. Right now, for instance. But it's too late to cut anything in my case. But, yeah, if you can edit your commitments without bringing wrath upon your head from somewhere, do it. Excited to hear how it goes with the agent and the mss.! Try not to stress it too much! ** Damien Ark, Porcupine Tree, cool. Thanks for the good words about the novella, man. I know, planes are sickness fascists, and I'll try to keep washing my hands or something. Really, really best of luck with finishing the book. That's very exciting, and I hope your exhaustion lifts, obviously. ** Mark Gluth, Hi, Mark! The tour sounds like a blast! Great! And that's very intriguing about the new Greer. I wasn't sure if he was wholly dedicated to the band right now and avoiding his writing as a result. Cool. I hope Ken and Jim come to an agreement. Dude, you simply must video-record that you/MANCY event, seriously. Make sure. Wow. Thank you about the novella! Take care! ** Rewritedept, Hi. Bene? Oh, you mean Wolf? Two different amazing people. Too many onions in that O'brien for me, unfortunately. I had to swear off onions a million years ago when my stomach started freaking out about that kind of thing permanently. Doubt I'll have time to see a band. 'Ktl' plays every night, so, if I'm in NYC on a night, I'll kind of need to be there. Yeah, don't go crazy. Would not be good. Xerox transfer sounds cool. Huh. Nice. I support that approach. I head stateside in a couple of hours from now. I'll aim for a total blast, and it seems awfully likely that my aim will be true in that regard, and you aim similarly, okay? ** With that, I redirect you to my nephew's shebang up above. Enjoy. If I can slip in here and do a p.s. while I'm in the States portion of my trip, I will. You guys take care and feel very free to hang out here while I'm gone in any case. See you soonish!