Why review this album?
Flying Lotus is an artist that has always intrigued me. I’m familiar with his collaborations with Kendrick Lamar, MF Doom, and others but I never really thought to look for an album by him. Lo and behold, Cosmogramma gets mentioned in one of the random lists of albums I found on the internet (you know how much the internet loves random lists) as an amazingly well-produced hip hop album. Naturally, I had to review it!
Clock Catcher
Wow what a wild start to the album! I think at least 30 instruments had to have been sampled or used in this barely minute long intro to the album. It definitely evokes a sense of cosmic wonder. Looking forward to more.
7 out of 10
Pickled!
I think Thundercat may be on more of these songs than Spotify credits him? There’s an interesting breakbeat, shakers, Thundercat-esque bass runs up and down the neck and sounds galore. It’s kind of like sensory overload but in the best possible way. There’s some interesting delayed bass licks near the end which create a call and response kind of thing. Fun stuff!
8 out of 10
Nose Art
‘Nose Art’ has the first vocal samples of the album. They are distorted and hard to distinguish (artistically so) but present nonetheless. There’s sawtooth synths and an interesting almost industrial beat going on here. This track is a bit rougher than the previous ones but I’m not sure I like it.
5 out of 10
Intro//A Cosmic Drama
This song could be a cinematic opening which is exactly what Flying Lotus seems to have intended with the title. A little strange to have an “Intro” track 4 songs in but Flying Lotus is a weird dude. I want to see where this song leads us artistically.
6 out of 10
Zodiac Shit
Melodic beeps with a bit of quaver evokes stellar travel a la old sci-fi tv shows and movies. Or I could have just been playing a bit too much FTL recently. Either way, I like this soundscape—makes me feel like I’m cozy inside a starship going light speed to some far off planet.
Okay then it all changes for the second half of the song. I don’t hate this part, it’s still chill, but I liked the beginning a lot more. Have to take a point off unfortunately.
7 out of 10
Computer Face//Pure Being
Flying Lotus is clearly terrific at making unorthodox beats that sound like assembly lines or well-oiled machines and does so again on this track. Triangle wave synths take over the majority of the remaining sonic content in the tune while always allowing the beat to shine.
7 out of 10
…And The World Laughs With You
Thom Yorke makes his presence felt almost immediately with Radiohead-esque crackles and pops and high-pass filtered drums. Then he starts singing on the track and crushes it. I like this jam with its abstract, almost ad-hoc nature.
9 out 0f 10
Arkestry
This one is a bit weird. Definitely a lot more noise and cacophony held together by a vintage-sounding snare drum roll. It’s a bit jazzy, especially when you hear a few saxophone notes mixed in the back with reverb. This track grew on me and I was really not expecting it to. Well done Flying Lotus.
7 out of 10
MmmHmm
I really like this song. Smooth guitars with spacey reverbs (though I guess it may be bass, not guitar, since Thundercat is on this track.) Very calm and chill vibes with this song. I think it also has more of a traditional structure compared to some of the other tracks on this album which makes it more approachable.
This is also another song where Flying Lotus does what I can only refer to as a b-side where the last minute segues into the next song. There’s some scatting here that kicks off ‘Do The Astral Plane’…
9 out of 10
Do The Astral Plane
If ‘MmmHmm’ is a fully-fledged song, ‘Do The Astral Plane’ takes us back to hip-hop beats with synths on top. This is not a bad thing, on the contrary, Flying Lotus is very good at this. Think of this is a Flying Lotus beat that is so good that he wanted it to stand on its own. And guess what: it does.
8 out of 10
Satelllliiiiiiiteee
Most of this song is fine and in line with the other tracks on the album. Except the vocals; I really don’t like how distorted and modulated they are and I feel like the really take away a lot of the enjoyment for me unfortunately. Especially the end—there’s a lovely little jazzy groove. Why do they have to be in the same song??
7 out of 10
German Haircut
We get another jazzy interlude; you know the drill. I liked the track for what it is and it serves as a good change-of-pace for the album.
7 out of 10
Recoiled
Also another very intricately assembled beat with reverb saturated spacey guitars and buzzy synths. I think this would be a good time to point out that every track on here is immaculately mixed and produced. It’s really quite amazing to hear how all the various sounds and samples come together to make the track.
7 out of 10
Dance Of The Pseudo Nymph
Just like ‘Pickled!’, this song has Thundercat’s fingerprints everywhere; I think he is a great fit with Flying Lotus and I love that they are such frequent collaborators. Dance Of The Pseudo Nymph really captures the dueling rhythmic nature of the bass guitar and the percussion with puts and takes throughout the piece. It’s still certainly ‘experimental’ but accessible.
8 out of 10
Dripps//Auntie’s Harp
I don’t dislike this song but it’s hard to tell where it’s taking us. It’s a lot of the same without any of the twists or featured appearances to elevate the game to the next level. This is just more of the same old. It’s still good but trite near the end of the album.
6 out of 10
Table Tennis
What a cool concept! ‘Table Tennis’ uses actual table tennis gameplay recordings to help comprise the beat. This serves as a backdrop, or perhaps a frame in places, for Laura Darlington’s vocals. She sounds fine enough but melodically, there’s a lot of discordant content here and it just doesn’t work for me. Points for novelty though!
7 out of 10
Galaxy In Janaki
A fitting end to an interesting album. Flying Lotus takes all of the elements of the album and brings them together; ‘Galaxy In Janaki’ is this work on display. Each piece of percussion is perfectly in place and the end makes you want to start the album over. A very strong end.
8 out of 10
Summary
Cosmogramma was definitely worth the hype. Even when I was listening to songs that I didn’t particularly enjoy, I was still always awestruck at how well produced the album was. I can’t stress this enough: each song used dozens of samples to make the drums. I have no idea how he made 17 songs. Some of the songs were all over the place but overall I did like this album!