Incredibly well put

Fly Lo unfortunately suffers bad reviews from people expecting him to deliver music that sits in the relatively celestial yet still hip hop tainted realm that was Los Angeles, Flyamsam and 1983, plus the stuff in between you hear him banging out like a machine.

Here he is travelling down an avenue of thought that is distinctly untainted, crafted, honest, direct and cerebral as he may possibly be able to go without turning in to a fully blown orchestra and live performance.

A masterpiece of electronic music, an artist who truly knows how to automatically reference his tools and his palette. His most interesting, challenging and complete work to date, and it does still draw on the history of his birthplace, roots and experimentation - although its its presence is minimal.

Do not miss this album, and do not listen to it on the bus in headphones - at least for the first time.

I had high hopes for Fly-Lo. A few years ago, I went around telling anybody who would listen that he was the future of black electronic music. And, whilst I believe he still has that capacity, his last two albums (this one included) have failed to live up to expectations. Some of his music is brilliant but...I have to say this...some of it is also downright boring and over experimental. Electronic artists can often have too many knobs to twiddle and faders to slide. What gave Flying Lotus his career was his booming off kilter sonic hip hop beats blended with futuristic layers of synthezier and exotic samples. His live sets are legendary as you can actually dance to his club sound. The Flying Lotus studio sound has become self indulgent, surrounding himself with avent-garde notions of musical metamorphism and neo-jazz pomposity. I rate Flying Lotus, highly but it is a shame that his remixes are becoming more sought after than his own, original music.

Until the quiet comes is a quite different album from LA and Cosmogramma, and I stress the word album- Previous outings were more a collection of songs, singles dare I say, with UTQC there really are only two or three singles whereas the rest a medley of strange seductive beats. It has all the earmarks of quality flylo but you really need to listen to the whole 45 mins uninteruppted to truly appreciate the album. I wonder if this was done on purpose as there are at least three songs which start at the end of one track and lap into another, so there's no skipping to track 11 for your favourite tune, you have to listen to 10,11 and 12. If this is intentional I applaud flylo for trying to 'bring back the album', but considering alot of flylo's stuff is fluff(in a good way) you have to put in the effort to get the most out of his music.

However make no doubt about it this is likely flylo's crispest, most well executed album to date. This is not LA with it's harder hip hop tunes ala Roberta Flack, but a more jazzy electronic journey. Perhaps credit is due for the evolution of his sound. I daren't use the word mainstream, it is far from it, but it will appeal to a larger audience and without compromising his trademark style too much this album is a notable accomplishment. Put in the effort and this is a top quality album, albeit for its impracticality. Still prefer Cosmogramma though!

How do you follow up Cosmogramma? Tough ask. Well, UTQC is a magnificent example of getting the balance right between trying to emulate previous successes and reinventing the wheel. It's different enough to sound new but it embraces what FlyLo has always done so well: thoughtful, experimental electronica with hip hop and jazz influences. This album doesn't work on shuffle or if you isolate one track, you really have listen to it from start to finish & if you do you will certainly get something from it each time you listen to it. This is undoubtedly a very strong follow up to what is arguably my favourite electronic album of all time. Well done sir!!

i'm really really unsure on this album. I feel for me this is like the star wars prequel trilogy. i first saw episode 2 (cosmgramma) which i loved and is one of my all time favourite film/albums. It made me watch episode one (la) which i also enjoyed but for me it wasn't episode 2, but anyway, when i watched episode 2 for the first time, episode 3 wasnt out yet, so i waited and waited until it came out and when it finally did; heartbreak.

seriously.

I'll start off with the negativesand get them out the way:

all these songs from this album go under three titles, they are either boring, good or plain nonsence

i'll go through the nonsence songs first:

The title song - first impressions are amazing, you are jamming, saying to yourself "YES, THIS IS WHY I LOVE YOU FLYING LOTUS". Then a minute or so in, you have an encounter with a humming, a humming which clashes like nothing else, a humming which is unneccessary, a horrible attempt of being "quirky".

I'm sorry FlyLo its not jazzy, it's ridiculous. If mayonnaise was a humming sound, this would be it.

It put me in a horrible mood.

Electric Candyman - is this a joke.

Hunger - if suicide was a song

The Nightcaller - so much potential of being a lovely dancey song ruined by quirky scale changes

The boring list (in order of good to bad) :

All The Secrets, Heave(n), me Yesterday//Corded, Dream To Me and finally Sultans Request, Sultans Request is so amatuer and a joke coming from Flying Lotus

Now the good points of this album

All In - a beautiful intro which sets the mark high to start off with, it's very very good

Getting There - A classic example of why everyone loves Flying Lotus, flawless beat music (although I found that in the short film he released that its pitch is 0.5 of semitone higher than in the album and leads to better listening if edited)

Putty Boy Strut - Wonderful chopping vocal samples, a good all-rounder and watch out for when Thundercat comes in, the full songs feel changes (in the good, typical Flying Lotus way, no "quirkiness")

See Thru To U - Grows on you a hell of a lot, quite bliss when in the mood for it.

Only If You Wanna - My favourite on the album I think, completely chilled and beautiful. (Thundercat helps out for lots of that, as usual)

Phantasm - The first ever Flying Lotus beat I heard and bought under the name of Caravan Of Delight on the Ed Banger - Let The Children Techno (R.I.P. DJ Mehdi), wonderful then, wonderful now. One of my all time favourites and typical FlyLo.

On a whole, this album is not up to Flying Lotus's standards and far too many silly antics that are extremely unneccisary. I get the impression that FlyLo wanted a chilled feel to this album, but chilled shouldn't and doesn't have to be boring and if anyone can define that it would be the man himself

I feel this album has great points and mediocre points, I get the impression this album was rushed aswell (due to the fact that a handfull of these songs were around way before this album).

6/10,too quirky at times, too boring the next. He can do SOOOOOOOOOOO much better, there are some good songs on this album, don't get me wrong.

but nothing on Cosmogramma.

This is probably one of my favourite electronic albums - it's just fantastic! The haunting vocals on Electric Candyman, the clicking beats on Tiny Tortures, the jazzy, rocky feel of See Thru to U - it sounds amazing! The best Flying Lotus album ever in my opinion.