Flying Lotus rises above all else with genre bending show

by Patrick Cameron

Flying Lotus aka Flylo or Steven Ellison, to give him his full name, took to a Luxembourg stage for the first time on Thursday night at the Rockhal. It might have taken him five albums to finally get here but for the crowd it was worth the wait.

FlyLo transcended what is expected of your usual electro show. Yes, there was the usual laptop setup but it was masked behind a box-like structure with a screen which was used as a vehicle for the three dimensional projections, a simple but very effective use of lighting.

As he walked out to the side of the stage to give the crowd a wave before he moved behind the screen, you could see he was wearing what looked like a gasmask with bug eyes, which lit up.

It was straight into mind-melting experimental electro, which was perfectly captured with the trippy visuals. The show took on a almost horror movie like quality with only FlyLo’s silhouette visible from behind the screen and the bug like eyes glowing though the smoke and visuals.

Initially it was as if all genres where vying for position, from hip-hop, IDM, experimental electro to free jazz. Ellison being the grandnephew of the late Jazz pianist Alice Coltrane and her husband John Coltrane, you may say he had fitting influences from a young age.

As it was such a full on experience at the start it took some time for it to settle into a rhythm, the first fifteen minutes almost felt like folding on not knowing where he was taking us next. I suppose it was a true live reflection of his latest album You’re Dead shifting genre as each song goes by.

But as the show progressed there was a move further towards hip hop, which saw FlyLo coming out from behind the screen to interact with the audience and take to the MC duties with "Dead Man’s Tetris", before slinking back.

FlyLo has many production credits to his name and he pulled out one of his more recent tracks from his work with Kendrick Lamar, George Clinton and his long time collaborator Thundercat for "Wesley’s Theory" off Lamar’s lauded new album.

He finished on another Lamar collaboration - "Never Catch Me" off You’re Dead, which sent some of the crowd into a hip hop rapture with arms swaying in the air.

As the lights went up FlyLo jumped down off the stage to the photo pit and shook hands with the crowd at the front.

Although there might have been a screen between him and the crowd for most of the evening, this wasn’t about distancing himself from his fans. It was about giving them a total immersive experience and on Thursday night he certainly delivered that.