A transcendent experience that seemed to take the audience on a – what I’d imagine to be – DMT fuelled trip through the realms of time and space, with the use of 3D graphics, trippy sounds and a gas mask that coloured the eyes a deep yellow.
FlyLo walked on the O2’s stage with a great deal of anticipation exuding from the crowd due to an ominous shield covering the decks and FlyLo himself. He came on in a black suit with a gas mask covering his face, where the plastic eye covers lit up a prominent yellow. He gave a hat tip to local Glaswegian Hudson Mohawke and proceeded to claim that despite the weather he still “fucks with Glasgow [because] Glasgow goes for it.”
He then proceeded to get behind the decks and begin his enthralling performance.
The screen suddenly lit up with an onslaught of colourful, geometric shapes, moving and changing eerily in keeping with the music, while a strobe light either side of the screen flashed intensely different colours. The shapes held the gaze of the audience throughout and the music created the story, the journey that we all seemed to go on, and it must be said that anyone using certain chemicals to enhance their evening may well have ‘broken through to the other side’, that or collapsed due to the sheer intensity of it.
From behind the screen you could see FlyLo doing his work, he appeared to be extremely confident and looked as though he was enjoying himself, as every now and then you saw him lean back, arms wide out as though the experience was running through him and he only seemed to want more from the music and the audience.
Around the half hour mark he was joined by regular collaborator and bassist Thundercat, and the pair went on to tear up the set laying down funky bass-lines in between and underneath the heavy tunes from FlyLo. Thundercat was instantly recognizable when he appeared wearing a Native American style, cheetah headdress. The pair worked comfortably together and you could tell they knew how to perform alongside each other to bring about the best sounds they could.
Altogether a spectacular show, because this was not just a gig, but instead an audio and visual performance that intertwined expertly to create an altered mind state in the audience member.
Flying Lotus has performances at a couple of this summer’s festival appearing at Glastonbury and Bestival, if you’re going to either, I strongly recommend you attend, and if you pick up his latest album release – ‘You’re Dead’, you will not be disappointed.
