• Mr. Oizo – The Church

    November 18, 2014 - By 

    Mr. Oizo, the alias of French electro-extraordinaire and director Quentin Dupieux, has come a long way from providing the soundtrack for small-time, petty criminal puppet Flat Eric and his Levi jeans thieving shenanigans. Well known to those who came of age in the late nineties and early millennium, the track ‘Flat Beat’ and its fluffy, yellow mascot, represented a crossover of cultural motifs and fused a relationship between image and sound that is still instantly recognisable over a decade later. More importantly, with ‘Flat Beat,’ Dupieux created a track that was flat-out immense; one that was able to transcend the…

  • Flying Lotus – You’re Dead!

    October 15, 2014 - By 

    L.A.’s Flying Lotus (Steven Ellison) has had a somewhat circuitous musical journey since releasing his debut LP in 2006. Taking its title from his birth year, 1983 saw the beginning of a series of full-length releases that harked back to concepts and ideas – memories even of life and place – that were intrinsic to the beatsmith’s musical identity. These sonic origins, as heard on 1983 and Los Angeles, compounded the variety of deep and melodic hip hop instrumentals that J Dilla and Madlib had long been well known for, but Ellison’s interpretation of the mix-tape style was unique. It…

  • Taylor McFerrin – Early Riser

    July 9, 2014 - By 

    As the oldest son of legendary vocalist and composer Bobby ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’ McFerrin, Taylor McFerrin has presumably had ample time to soak up as much of the unorthodox, richly diverse musicianship that the family crest must surely represent. Taylor, following in the footsteps of his father, puts on the captain’s hat for Early Riser, his debut LP courtesy of Flying Lotus’s and Ninjatune’s off-shoot label, Brainfeeder, and as a consequence, helms the production, instrumental and compositional responsibilities. Considering also that the album has been around five years in the making, it suggests that the multi-talented McFerrin – in…