Flying Lotus fans rejoice, today the famed electronic auteur announces ‘BIG MAMA’, a brand new EP coming out on 6th of March. It marks the long-overdue debut release from the producer – otherwise known as Steve Ellison – on his own Brainfeeder imprint: the Los Angeles based record label he founded almost two decades ago, which has gone on to release records from acclaimed artists like Thundercat, Hiatus Kaiyote, Kamasi Washington and many more.
‘BIG MAMA’ captures Ellison in a moment of spontaneous, unbridled momentum. Densely packed with disparate sounds, rhythms, and effects, the EP delivers what he describes as “experimental, maximalist, hyperfast, electronic burst of energy”, packing seven dynamic tracks into a single continuous composition in which every bar is unique, containing no loops throughout.
“I wanted it to feel like being shot out of a cannon, just explosive, unpredictable energy,” he explains. “Like a fuckin’ computer gone awry. Like a machine that had just lost its mind.”
The ‘BIG MAMA’ EP was created in the wake of a period of isolation spent directing and scoring his latest feature film, Ash, a process that saw him going back-to-basics in New Zealand with just his laptop and a controller. “It was like being in this hyperbolic time chamber, having to make a whole soundtrack alone. I felt like right after that I wanted to do anything but what I was just doing. So I started this project, and it felt like such a release to be able to have this place where I could just vent out some of my inner chaos.”
Completed over two-months, the release sees Ellison take a markedly different approach to his production. Rather than sit down and work on individual tracks, he loaded up his studio with a host of new tricks and toys – using software synths to explore FM, wavetable and granular synthesis, alongside second-hand drum machines – and spent the first month creating a sketchbook of individual sounds for the next phase of the process. From there he began building the meticulous details of the ‘BIG MAMA’ world, completing just 10-15 seconds of music a day, before stitching the fragments together into their final form: a thirteen-plus-minute stream-of-consciousness outpouring, unconstrained by tempo or style.
“I wanted it to be free and feel alive. I think that was a big intention of mine with this record, just to think about it more like sound design and make something that felt unpredictable and maximal” he says. “As we get into a place where tracks are becoming more ‘perfect’ and things are becoming more sterile, I want to try to keep it interesting and try to keep bringing in things that are uniquely human to electronic music, which is, you know, becoming harder I guess.”
The release features artwork by Christopher Ian Macfarlane, with whom Ellison found a kindred spirit through a shared love of the cartoons he grew up with: “that kind of Ren and Stimpy, Spümcø, SNICK (Saturday Night Nickelodeon) style… If you’re my age, you know” he laughs. “He’s just this super talented dude,” he continues, “I really wanted an excuse to work with him, and this was that. I think I drove him crazy a little bit because I’m a little bit of a stickler on some things, but I hope that he’s happy with the final product. It was a lot of fun.”
That mischievous cartoon-aesthetic – which Ellison also attributes to his love of The Simpsons: “I’ve just accepted that they are my extended family, you know? I watch that shit all the time. It’s just like my background in my life. So, I’m sure that they’re in there somewhere” – makes ‘BIG MAMA‘ something of spiritual successor to 2010’s ‘Pattern+Grid World’ EP. Like that release it showcases the playful, dancier side to Flying Lotus, combining breakcore and IDM in a way only he can.
‘BIG MAMA’ is also a milestone as the first full Flying Lotus release on his own Brainfeeder imprint. Explaining the move he says: “I think it was just time at this point to work with the label that I built and work more closely with the team that’s around me more. You know, we’ve been able to compete with some pretty big records in the world, we’ve been at the Grammys several times, and I think we’ve built a nice situation for ourselves, so why not? It’s about time, I think!”
Flying Lotus ‘BIG MAMA’ EP
Tracklist
1. BIG MAMA
2. CAPTAIN KERNEL
3. ANTELOPE ONIGIRI
4. IN THE FOREST – DAY
5. BROBOBASHER
6. HORSE NUKE
7. PINK DREAM
When is Flying Lotus’ BIG MAMA’, EP released?
BIG MAMA’ will be released on March 6th and is available to pre-order now.
About Flying Lotus
For two decades now, Los Angeles’ Steve Ellison, better known as Flying Lotus and Captain Murphy, has helped form and influence the shape of 21st century music. Growing up in LA, Ellison was immersed in a rich environment of artistic inspiration – with musical legends, Marilyn McLeod and Alice Coltrane in his family, and his interests spanned everything from beat-making to anime. By the late 2000s, his ability to incorporate jazz, hip-hop, and nebulous, futuristic elements had established him within LA’s famed Low End Theory and beyond. His albums on Warp Records feature names like David Lynch and Erykah Badu, and he’s produced on seminal records including Kendrick Lamar’s ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’. While he himself signed to the famous Warp Records label, Ellison began a label of his own, Brainfeeder, putting out music by Grammy-recognized artists such as Thundercat, George Clinton, Kamasi Washington, and Hiatus Kaiyote. A visual creative as much as a sonic one, FlyLo draws equal praise for his live performances with their sophisticated visual projections, 3D animations, and avant-garde light displays. Naturally, that vision translates to a flair for the cinematic arts as well. In recent years, Ellison’s creative output has expanded beyond releasing records and touring, establishing him as a true polymath. In addition to his iconic musical output, Ellison co-wrote, directed and scored a segment for the renowned found footage horror anthology V/H/S 99. His film Ash, starring Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) and Eiza González (3 Body Problem) in which he served as both Director and Composer, was released earlier this year. He also composed music for and executive produced the Netflix anime series Yasuke and created the theme for Apple’s Magic Johnson doc They Call Me Magic. In fall 2024 he delivered a musical surprise to fans with the upbeat, house-inspired Spirit Box EP featuring Dawn Richard and Sid Sriram, a pivot that proves Ellison is unconstrained by expectations, genre, or medium, and as a creative, remains impossible to predict.
Photo credit: Parker Day
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