Cosmogramma, the new album from left-field beat-making producer Flying Lotus, drops next week on Warp, and he's not taking anything for granted. When the man also known as Steven Ellison releases music, he doesn't want to waste a single note.
In a recent interview with Exclaim!, Ellison observes, in his typically big-picture fashion: "I just feel like every release is an opportunity I might never have again. You don't have too many chances. You have to make your best work out of these chances you get because people won't care forever. I try to remember that.
"You get, I'd say, five chances. If you don't do a dope record by the fifth one, you're done. You might need to go back to the old drawing board. I don't flood the market. Even though I make a lot of tunes, I just want it to be a true and honest statement of where I've been, to be some kind of documentation of my past, my life."
Cosmogramma was a snapshot of Ellison's life last year, in which the mushrooming momentum of his career was unfortunately punctuated by the death of his mother. Accordingly, he doesn't know what's next, because that chapter in his life has yet to be written.
"I'm going to redo my whole approach. That's how I work" he declares. "Every time I do a record I've got to stop, cause I hate all my music! Then I start over [and ask myself] 'What shall we say now? What needs to be said at this point?' So I don't know right now... I try to make sure each experience is different, that I don't repeat myself. At the end of the day I'll have this body of work and I want to be proud of it."
Cosmogramma arrives on Tuesday (May 4), but Flying Lotus is currently streaming the entire album on his MySpace here.
To read Exclaim!'s recently published feature on Flying Lotus in our May issue, click here.
In a recent interview with Exclaim!, Ellison observes, in his typically big-picture fashion: "I just feel like every release is an opportunity I might never have again. You don't have too many chances. You have to make your best work out of these chances you get because people won't care forever. I try to remember that.
"You get, I'd say, five chances. If you don't do a dope record by the fifth one, you're done. You might need to go back to the old drawing board. I don't flood the market. Even though I make a lot of tunes, I just want it to be a true and honest statement of where I've been, to be some kind of documentation of my past, my life."
Cosmogramma was a snapshot of Ellison's life last year, in which the mushrooming momentum of his career was unfortunately punctuated by the death of his mother. Accordingly, he doesn't know what's next, because that chapter in his life has yet to be written.
"I'm going to redo my whole approach. That's how I work" he declares. "Every time I do a record I've got to stop, cause I hate all my music! Then I start over [and ask myself] 'What shall we say now? What needs to be said at this point?' So I don't know right now... I try to make sure each experience is different, that I don't repeat myself. At the end of the day I'll have this body of work and I want to be proud of it."
Cosmogramma arrives on Tuesday (May 4), but Flying Lotus is currently streaming the entire album on his MySpace here.
To read Exclaim!'s recently published feature on Flying Lotus in our May issue, click here.
