Sold Date:
October 22, 2015
Start Date:
October 12, 2015
Final Price:
$19.99
(USD)
Seller Feedback:
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Buyer Feedback:
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Album Notes
An
early form of You're Dead! was the length of a double album -- a large
mass of brief tracks that, for Steven Ellison, possibly signified
nothing more than his fifth Flying Lotus album. As the producer and
keyboardist spent more time absorbing and shaping the recordings, the
title, initially comic in meaning, gained emotional weight while he was
provoked to consider his mortality and the losses he has been dealt,
including the deaths of his father and mother, his grandmother, his
great aunt Alice Coltrane, and creative collaborator Austin Peralta. The
completed You're Dead! consists of 19 tracks averaging two minutes in
length that are intended to be heard in sequence from front to back. Its
flow is even more liquid than that of Until the Quiet Comes, though the
sounds are more jagged and free, with roots deeper in jazz. Ellison
once again works extensively beside longtime comrades and pulls new
collaborators into his sphere. All of them -- bassist and vocalist
Thundercat, drummer Deantoni Parks, saxophonist Kamasi Washington, and
many others worthy of mention -- help him push jazz, R&B, rap, and
electronic music forward at once. Most striking and powerful of all is
"Never Catch Me," easily the longest cut. An album's worth of ideas and a
whirlwind guest appearance from rapper Kendrick Lamar are condensed
into its four sonically rich minutes. The tone dramatically shifts with
the following "Dead Man's Tetris," a sinister concoction of melodic
bleeps and gunshot effects involving Ellison as Captain Murphy, and also
Snoop Dogg, in which J Dilla, Freddie Mercury, and Peralta are all part
of the afterlife fantasy. Previous Flying Lotus releases have their
bleak and elegiac moments, but they're central here, highlighted by
"Coronus, the Terminator" (an Ellison/Niki Randa duet), "Siren Song"
(fronted by Dirty Projectors' Angel Deradoorian), and "Obligatory
Cadence." The instrumentals range from playful, as reflected in titles
like "Turkey Dog Coma" and "Turtles," to the distressed likes of "Tesla"
and "Moment of Hesitation," with the latter two both anchored by Gene
Coye's feverish percussion and Herbie Hancock's glimmering/flickering
piano. It all plays out in a kind of elegantly careening fashion. It
concludes with "The Protest," where Laura Darlington and Kimbra softly
sing "We will live on forever" like a defiant mantra. Like his great
aunt, and his great uncle John Coltrane, Ellison has created
exceptionally progressive, stirring, and eternal art. ~ Andy Kellman