Los Angeles producer Flying Lotus certainly hasn’t rested on his laurels one iota this year after the release of his wildly successful You’re Dead! LP in late 2014. He’s got a short film premiering at Sundance, he’s branched out as one of the faces of Apple Music as well as collaborating with people like Thundercat and some guy named Kendrick Lamar in between ongoing work on his next album under the Captain Murphy identity, his rap persona.

Today sees the first release from his brand new funk collective WOKE. Aside from FlyLo, the group features the aforementioned Thundercat and Seattle rap duo Shabazz Palaces. They’ve also outsourced some vocal assistance on their first cut from funk innovator and utter living legend George Clinton. The track in question is called The Lavishments Of Light Looking and was released yesterday via the Adult Swim Singles Series (Flying Lotus already well known for his work with the channel).

It’s already being described as a ‘funk odyssey’ and I certainly won’t disagree. Warped and sprawling, with bass just oozing funk and a handclap backbeat riding the waves of a spacey soundscape, Flying Lotus once again showing the rest of the world why he is one of its most talented young producers.

Clinton’s vocals kick in for the latter half of the track, adding yet another layer to such a dense jungle of a track. It’s not the first time George Clinton has hooked up with Flying Lotus or Thundercat before, he appeared on the Kendrick Lamar track Wesley’s Theory from his earth-shattering To Pimp A Butterfly album, with the track produced by the former and guested on by Clinton and the latter.

No word yet on how sporadic future releases from WOKE are going to be or who they might link up with next but it’s an interesting track from a supergroup that will turn more than a few heads.

No stranger to creativity of all forms and sizes, Flying Lotus has teamed up with budding indie director Eddie Alcazar, to create a new short film. The film is set to drop this Sunday at 8pm, as part of the Sundance Film Festival.

The film, entitled ‘FUCKKKYOUUU’, is a mash up of both parties expertise. It meets somewhere in the middle between visual experiment and music video, and considering FlyLo is involved, will most likely be more creative than we could bear to anticipate.

It was announced that FlyLo was writing a script mid January, and a mere seven months later we are days away from seeing the result.

The artist has released a brief synopsis of the plot:

With the ability to travel in time, a lonely girl finds love and comfort by connecting with her past self. Eventually faced with rejection she struggles with her identity and gender, and as time folds onto itself only one of them can remain.

It is yet to be ascertained when we will be able to lay our eyes on the film, but in the meantime you can check out it’s gallery here.

Flying Lotus was last in town for this year’s Laneway Festival. Read our review of the Sydney event here.

There’s been a big influx of Kendrick Lamar interviews over the past week or so, his first since the release of his earth-shattering album To Pimp A Butterfly. But I have a feeling that this one will take the cake. Flying Lotus himself brought Kendrick onto his BBC Radio 1 show for a live interview, and the resulting chat is, of course, magnificent.

The pair have collaborated their respective albums, and, as we recently found out via Twitter, there’s been a lot more than what we’ve heard.

Listen right here BBC. Following the interview is also a one-hour DJ set from Lapalux, also on FlyLo’s label Brainfeeder.

 

Well, the internet exploded for all the right reasons yesterday, with the early release of Kendrick Lamar’s new album To Pimp A Butterfly. Whether it was released accidentally or on purpose we’ll probably never know for sure, but I can definitely say that it is very brilliant. Complex, uncomfortable, angry and brilliant. I have so far listened to the whole thing twice over and am not yet in a position to detail a full review or opinion, so watch this this space over the next couple days.

Anyway, one of the first things we all noticed about the album (other than the immense focus on race) was the phenomenal list of featured guests, producers and so on. Kicking things into gear is the very first track, Wesley’s Theory, produced by Flying Lotus, featuring Thundercat and the legendary George Clinton. Snoop Dogg, Pharrell Williams, The Isley Brothers and Sufjan Stevens are also among the list of producers, writers, features and samples involved.

We’ve already seen what FLyLo and Kendrick can do together. K-dot featured on Never Catch Me, off the brilliant 2014 album You’re Dead! and it’s clear that they had a lot more up their sleeves… Now, we’re not normally a website keen on posting about tweets, but when it’s an extended series by Flying Lotus talking about his work with Kendrick, we’ll make an exception. I’ll let his words do the talking:

fly

 

The album seems to have been removed off iTunes, but for now you can stream the whole album off Spotify:

Words by Vince Lee

Just a week after tweeting that he’s working on a film script, Flying Lotus has released his latest set of visuals for Coronus, The Terminator, one of the most compelling offerings from last year’s album You’re Dead! The cinematic narrative finds FlyLo playing the role of an ominous grim reaper, eerily following a dying man who eventually meets his demise. Coupled with the track’s haunting bass line and vocals, it is a highly mesmerising piece, coherent with the dark themes behind You’re Dead!

FlyLo also gave his thoughts on the visuals through a statement on Google+, saying: “For me, Coronus is one of the most important moments on You’re Dead! and holds ideas I’m planning to explore in my future work. I’m happy that the visual encapsulates the meaning of the record and this ambition”

If the producer’s latest visuals are an indication of what to expect from the film he’s working on, safe to say it will be nothing short of amazing. Plus, it’s just making us even more excited about his upcoming Laneway appearances!