Until The Quiet Comes

This is a cool album. Full of sounds and beats with some great tracks. One of my favourites is Putty Boy Strut. Probably not as good as his earlier more hip-hop based stuff though but still well worth a listen.

AAAAHHHHH!!! i've just annoyingly deleted a relatively indepth, four paragraph review of this LP by accidentally restarting my computer a minute ago. This has forced me to be way more laconic than i usually am here, which may turn out to be a blessing in disguise as i do have a tendancy to go on a bit with these things ... Anyways on to the album. FlyLo ambitiously stitches together a diverse array of musical styles on Until The Quiet Comes to produce a mesmeric lattice-work of psychedelic wonderment; with winding basslines, stuttering drum beats, bright keyboards and pitch shifted vocals featuring heavily throughout this albums duration. Although that might sound like an unpenetrable and potentially alienating concoction on paper, Mr Ellison's consumate compositional skills bring all these disparate elements together, by filtering them through his unique lens of jazzy electronica much like he did on his previous opus "Cosmogramma". "UTQC" is an all together more apporachable work than it's predecessor though, with FlyLo choosing to create a lush soundscape of mind altering mood pieces with the aforementioned elements, rather than densely packing everything together to produce something as abstract and otherwordly as "Cosmogramma". Fans of electronic music in general should find plenty on "UTQC" to drool over, but those of you who have a penchant particularly for Amon Tobin's brand of Jazz infused breakbeat and/or Matthew Herbert's soulful microhouse will be especially taken by this albums three dimensional fusion of experimental jazz and multifarious electronica.

Flying Lotus (Steven Ellison) returns with a new album `Until the Quiet Comes'. Packed with 18 tracks, Flying Lotus is never short on ideas and this album will certainly keep you enthralled. As soon as `All in' starts you know that `Until the Quiet Comes' is not the overwhelming experience that the epic `Cosmogramma' was, this album is much more subtle and measured.

Apart from the OTT space-funk of `The Night Caller', there really isn't a bad track on `Until the Quiet Comes'. Highlights include `Getting There' with Niki Randa, an effortlessly cool mixture of creamy vocals, hazy chimes, sultry synths and lazy hip-hop beats. Its the snuggest piece of bliss i've heard in 2012. New directions come in the form of `Putty Boy Strut', a groovy head-nodding clapper of a tune, part playful part-nostalgic, busy and childlike and very addictive. `Electric Candyman' features a barely recognisable Thom Yorke, a dreamy trip of a track where he provides croaky vocals over some twitching RnB beats and deeper than Atlantis bass. The faltering bass stomp at the end of the track certainly wasn't expected, Flying Lotus never fails to keep you on your toes throughout this album.

Working with so many collaborators, Ellison has avoided the temptation to overindulge and has allowed all to work in equilibrium. The atmospheric `Hunger' has Niki Randa back on vocals again with another sweeping song with beautiful melodies and gorgeous guitar that whisks you away to another of Flying Lotus's delicious realms. The penultimate `me Yesterday// Corded' is another triumph, steel drum melodies underpin some ghostly vocals, the tempo slows down before a dizzying synth movement kicks in and just totally floors you with its upbeat mood. This track and many others are emblematic of some of the many emotional changes that Flying Lotus takes you through.

`Cosmogramma' was Flying Lotus's statement to the world of his talent, and boy did he deliver. `Until The Quiet Comes' is him saying `You've listened to what i can do, now for something different'. Flying Lotus harnesses so much of a varied musical arsenal that he can take things whichever way he wants to. It's a unique and fascinating sound, but its evident and to his credit that all his albums are different, `Until the Quiet Comes' is no exception with its soulful and languid celestial compositions.

`Until The Quiet Comes' is another hugely confident and inventive album, as complex and detailed as all his releases but definitely Flying Lotus's most accessible album to date and certainly his most intimate. Considering what he's achieved already, `Until The Quiet Comes' is quite some feat.

Rating 9/10