Since 1998, Red Bull Music Academy has seen over 500 lecturers and 600 emerging music makers walk through its doors, studios and stages, with past annual editions landing in culturally rich cities such as Berlin, Dublin, New York, London, Sao Paulo, Cape Town, Rome, Seattle, Melbourne, Toronto and Barcelona. As a participant of the 2006 edition in Melbourne, Flying Lotus serves as a shining example of what Red Bull Music Academy hopes to achieve.
A work of bass-driven metaphysics, Flying Lotus’ Los Angeles could have been regarded as a lone dispatch from a distant musical plane. Instead it has struck an ultimately resonant chord with everyone from the indie pack to Massive Attack, soul heads and Portishead, as well as music critics across the globe as well as Radiohead, who tapped Flying Lotus to remix “Reckoner” from In Rainbows.
Of course, the album’s wide appeal isn’t such a surprise. Never pledging allegiance to a single genre or sound, Los Angeles stays true to its name by presenting itself as Lotus’ vision of his hometown, much the way Burial’s equally striking Untrue portrays London. From the opening analog shimmer of “Brainfeeder” to the last echoes of “Infinitum”, the album covers a dizzying amount of musical landscape, but manages to stay amazingly cohesive by anchoring itself with earth quaking percussion. It’s this combination of panoramic sounds and knocking drums that prompted Portishead’s Geoff Barrow to proclaim “For me it's Public Enemy, Marley Marl, EPMD, Flying Lotus and Madlib. That is pure mad music…”
With praise coming from every direction it would seem easy for Flying Lotus to rest on the strength of his accomplishments, however he’s doing no such thing. In the wake of Los Angeles release, he was hard at work in the lab putting the finishing touches on a series of LA EPs as well as remixes for Stereolab, Blank Blue and the aforementioned Radiohead. LA EP 1X3 reprised a pair of album tracks alongside mind-blowing new jams like “Rickshaw” and “Paper Crane Gang” while LA EP 2X3 sees tracks being remixed by Martyn, Samiyam, Nosaj Thing, Ras G and others. The third EP in the series remains a mystery, but rest assured it will be an excellent prelude to Flying Lotus’ installment in the seminal DJ-Kicks mix series next year.
Quite a busy year to follow the release of one of 2008’s most groundbreaking albums, and that is without even mentioning the groundbreaking Brainfeeder festival held in London in June. Bringing together what Flying Lotus likes to call “the fucking United Nations of big bass music”, the epic rave saw him top a bill that included Kode 9, Gaslamp Killer, Digital Mystikz, Rustie, Hudson Mohawke, Danny Breaks and more. In November, Flying Lotus brings his low-end delegates to his home turf for a two-date Brainfeeder run in Los Angeles and San Francisco, after which the party-smasher with the big smile sets off on a European journey that promises to be anything but sedate. No rest for Flying Lotus it would seem…not as long as there are fresh brains to feast on.
ABOUT RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY
The Red Bull Music Academy is a musical workshop that travels the world, and the next edition will touch down in one of the world’s greatest cities: London. Somewhere in the heart of that sprawling metropolis, a fantastic complex full of studios and instruments will be built, where the most original and creative minds in music will come together in February and March 2010 to share ideas and work on tunes. Musical legends as well as brand new talents will take the inspiration they gain there and run with it, performing every night at showcases in the best vibe-filled venues London has to offer.
RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY LONDON 2010
Workshop Term 1: February 7 – February 19, 2010
Workshop Term 2: February 28 – March 12, 2010
Application Phase: May 11 – July 27, 2009
www.redbullmusicacademy.com
www.redbullmusicacademyradio.com
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