Flying Lotus is finished his acclaimed masterpiece and is ready to share it with the rest of us. This album is apparently one seamless piece of music, an opus, a journey through an astral landscape. It’s been described as a “space opera” amongst other things – an appropriate tittle that suggests the perplexing scale of this cosmic body of unearthly music. I’m not quite sure how he’s done it, one can only guess and make assumptions as to how he has crafted cosmogramma into a single entity, having also curated many guest appearances, including a collaboration with Thom York on the track “And The World Laughs With You.”

I have an inkling that there will be at least a few new surprises on this album in addition to the signature Dilla-inspired beat work we’ve come to associate with his music. 3×3 featured tracks from Lotus that didn’t even have beats, and personally, I found that refreshing. Lotus recently did an interview with Gilles Peterson on Radio One where he showcased some of the new materials from the album; unfortunately, that show is no longer up on the BBC player, but someone’s taken the time to edit the tracks from that broadcast into a mini cosmogramma preview. There are more rips floating about but I didn’t want to spoil all the fun.

Tracklist:

01. Clock Catcher
02. Pickled!
03. Nose Art
04. Intro//A Cosmic Drama
05. Zodiac Shit
06. Computer Face//Pure Being
07. And The World Laughs With You ft. Thom Yorke
08. Arkestry
09. Mmmhmm ft.Thundercat
10. Do The Astral Plane
11. Satelllliiiiiteee
12. German Haircut
13. Recoiled
14. Dance Of The Pseudo Nymph
15. Drips//Auntie’s Harp
16. Table Tennis ft. Laura Darlington
17. Galaxy In Janaki

Cosmogramma marks my second “must have” albums of 2010 and will be released in early May through Warp records. Speaking of which, Pre-orders for the first edition CD’s or gatefold vinyl are avaiable now through Bleep. These limited edition copies come with some extra fancy packaging and maybe some other stuff. Read more and order it here.

Flying Lotus – Quakes
[audio:0310/04 Quakes.mp3]
Gonjasufi – Ancestors (Produced by Flying Lotus)
[audio:0310/03 Ancestors.mp3]

Aphex Twin has done some legendary live performances in the past, so when we were asked to produce his stage show for the Traffic festival in Turin (with 20,000 people turning up), we wanted to do something a little out of the ordinary

Aphex Twin, Cabaret from Flat-e on Vimeo.