Review: "Until The Quiet Comes" - Flying Lotus

Flying Lotus’ latest album is a jumbled experience, and fans of his 2010 near-masterpiece "Cosmogramma" might be initially disappointed. But “Until the Quiet” plays its own soupy game, one possibly more akin to the artist’s debut, "1983." The album’s heavily textured beginning gives way to a dueling, harmonized synthesizer line on "All The Secrets," a short-lived shift that has the weight of a dubstep bass drop, given its similarly toned-down context. The following track, "Sultan’s Request," is the collection’s heart, a much-needed hip-hop beat that falls into the album’s jazzy-backdrifts. These parts can seem slow, but they reveal layers with repeated listens. No one in electronic music uses a jazz bassline as effectively as Flying Lotus. Nor would any producer insert a vocal part by Thom Yorke as naturally — while the Radiohead singer’s contribution to "Cosmogramma" revealed an eventual emotional weight reminiscent of his regular band, Yorke’s part on “Until the Quiet” is a tense contrast of sound and words, as he repeats the mantra "Say my name" over a backing track too grim for even Radiohead (not to mention Destiny’s Child). This all makes for a persistently interesting listen, and one that might seem better than interesting—even eminently enjoyable—for those with an open mind.