[Warp Records, 2010]
words// david haddad
“Cosmic”. It is impossible to describe this album without that word. Where previous FlyLo material may have felt grounded, this release does not. It’s as though we have escaped Los Angeles and entered into a new atmosphere. This is a new environment and there are new possibilities to be explored. Steven Ellison has traded in his old ride, and he has traded up. Not that his previous album, Los Angeles, could be accused of being bland; it just feels more singular after hearing the lush Cosmogramma.
In my experience, electronic/instrumental hip-hop can become quickly redundant, but Ellison keeps his sound anything-but. “Cinematic” is the first thing I wrote down on my virgin listen. This is not surprising since Ellison was a film student at one point, and he has previously revealed that he draws a good deal of inspiration from film; but this album truly feels like a different experience. Its not only the cosmic-jazz-dive-bar-lounge sound, or the middle-eastern-classic-film-feeling strings, but the guest artists. This album flies above new terrain with help from bassist Thundercat, (most notably on the tracks “Mmmhmm” and “Pickled!”), and the vocal aid of Thom Yorke on the stunning “…And the World Laughs With You”. Most every track feels like something different yet fits into the same dramatic envelope. It’s akin to taking a trip around a country, and noticing each region as being distinct but always aligning under the same allegiance.
There are some segue tracks on this album, transitioning the listener from what feels like one chapter to the next. On most mainstream hip-hop albums, these are often throw-away tracks, usually just a couple guys talking or trying to be funny. Ellison gives us strings, making it feel as though the listener is watching the curtain drop at the end of an act. “Intro//A Cosmic Drama” is seventy-five seconds long, but is one of my favorite tracks. It arrives after the opening banger tracks, and segues into the fantastic introductory strings of “Zodiac Shit”, which is the first big highlight. It is the first of several tracks that appears to be going one way and then becomes something entirely different in the second half/ending. The very next track is another big highlight in “Computer Face//Pure Being”. On this song, Ellison moves into DJ mode by giving us a hustling-morphing flow of a track. Following immediately is the previously mentioned “…And the World Laughs With You” , which sounds like early millennium Yorke traveling amid the sneering hi-hat fuzz and solar bass-flares of planet FlyLo. The second half of the album is even more rife with hits. Particularly the over-confident and hyper opening minute of “Satelllliiiiiiiteee”.
There is a lot of instrumentation on this nearly four-minute gem, and I highly recommend a good set of headphones. “Recoiled” delves into a dirty little groove with a ticklish corkscrew-bass synth line, but gives us enough little alien sounds/samples to keep things pretty before we get too down-n-dirty. Best use of a sampled sound goes to the aptly titled “Table Tennis”, and you should be able to guess why. Lastly we hit the closer, “Galaxy in Janaki”, which is quite possibly the best thing Ellison has ever done. Its such an incredible closer that it makes me want to start again from the top, just to experience the ride again, and then to hit the peak of an ending once more.
This album is dense and luxurious, and to my ears it only gets better with each subsequent listen. If Los Angeles feels like a cohesive party banger, then Cosmogramma is a trip through an uncharted galaxy.
