Although Los Angeleno Steven Ellison aka Flying Lotus released his trip-hop leaning debut in 2006, it wasn’t until 2008’s landmark beat-driven Los Angeles that he truly established himself as a forward-thinking, genre-pushing electronic artist.

Following up in 2010 with the wide-screen, high-concept jazz-oriented Cosmogramma, he was able to produce his most frenetic work. 2012 saw a paring-back, with arguably his most complete and consistent album Until the Quiet Comes – still with his experimental glitch and beat-driven sound but containing pockets of laid-back, warm electronic textures and insular ambient passages.

In many ways Flying Lotus’s fifth LP You’re Dead! feels like an encapsulation of all this that has come before it – evidenced by the appearance even of Ellison’s hip-hop alter-ego, Captain Murphy.

Complete with a psychedelic cover that recalls fusion-era Miles Davis and an album title that celebrates the cyclical nature of life, it’s clear that Ellison had his sights set high in the making of the album, and was more serious than ever about embracing his family’s jazz history.

Making these jazz influences even more obvious than they have been in the past and seamlessly melding these with his signature electronic sounds, it is perhaps the best-sounding album he has released, production-wise.

Beginning with ‘Theme’, the albums starts with a heavy drone, sounding like an orchestra tuning up – this evolves quickly into bursts of space-age jazz and heavy bass. ‘Tesla’ contains restless, distorted brush drumming, and impossibly fast bass fret work with warm keyboards – this all works to maintain the frenetic pace, as does the jittery prog-guitar and horn work of ‘Cold Dead’.

The Kendrick Lamar-featuring ‘Never Catch Me’ is perhaps the highlight on an album full of them. With a sly piano motif in the background, Lamar’s delivery matches the disjointed and hyperactive programmed percussion. Ellison turns the song on its head halfway through though, switching it into a technicolour beat-heavy celebration. With bass improvisations and handclaps, FlyLo aims straight for the pleasure centre and succeeds.

Elsewhere, the computerized, stuttering ‘Dead Man’s Tetris’ allows Ellison to trade verses with Snoop Dogg, of all people and it’s testament to his confidence and creative vision that he doesn’t let these big names influence him too much – this is a Flying Lotus record first and foremost.

Switching things up, the Angel Deradoorian-featuring ‘Siren Song’ and ‘Turtles’ are the most sumptuous slow-jams FlyLo has ever produced, the former with some stunning cascading vocal samples and sensuous wah-guitar, the latter with tribal drumming and winding bass lines.

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Ellison has said he feels he owes it to his fans to constantly experiment and push the envelope – indeed, You’re Dead!’s second half comedown demonstrates him doing just that. A minimal, lonely, winding synth melody punctuated with eerie, globular chords characterise the haunting ‘Ready err Not’.

Thundercat takes lead vocals on the almost cartoony ‘Descent Into Madness’, and is backed with some unsettling string work, and ‘The Boys Who Died In Their Sleep’, with guttural, warped vocals from Ellison, evokes a truly twisted atmosphere.

The album does finish on a decidedly more calm note, with ‘Your Potential….The Beyond’ and ‘The Protest’ featuring gentle, ethereal female vocals and laid back, restrained bass work. What’s more, the album peters out with a quiet, stuttering beat backing that FlyLo has become infamous for.

Simply put, You’re Dead! sounds incredible, production-wise. The live players on the record –of which there are quite a few – imbue the record with a sense of space that hasn’t always been found on Ellison’s previous releases.

And while some might find the warm textures on Until the Quiet Comes more listenable or Cosmogramma more innovative, You’re Dead! is arguably the most confident and comfortable he’s ever sounded. Acting as a summary of sorts for the genre-bending auteur’s career, it is an exciting and endlessly positive addition to his already stellar discography.

With You’re Dead!, Flying Lotus has further cemented himself as one of the most interesting and singular figures in contemporary electronic music.

You’re Dead! is out now via Inertia.

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