Steven Ellison’s fifth album saw him finally embrace his aunt Alice Coltrane’s passion for jazz, but with a twist that explored the genre’s intersection with hip-hop
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One fact almost always mentioned when someone writes about Flying Lotus, aka Steven Ellison, is that his aunt is astral jazz pioneer Alice Coltrane. That family connection may have led Ellison down a similarly experimental path: in the eight years since his debut album, 1983, he’s melded scattergun breakbeats with abstract noise, using electronica, hip-hop and even jungle as his building blocks. But rarely in that mix would you find him explicitly delving into the world of jazz. That is until You’re Dead!, the first record of Ellison’s to fully engage with the genre.
Originally planned as a straight-up jazz record featuring Ellison alongside fellow Brainfeeder signee Thundercat on bass, it slowly morphed into an even more ambitious, wide-ranging album with guest appearances from the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg and Herbie Hancock. This meeting of jazz and hip-hop is what the album excels at exploring, with Lamar’s verse on Never Catch Me sitting on top of what you could safely describe as virtuoso bass playing, plus soaring synths and boom-bap percussion. It’s bold, ambitious and, most importantly, it works.
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by Lanre Bakare via Electronic music | The Guardian
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