Flying Lotus - Los Angeles

Flying Lotus, aka Californian Steven Ellison, creates sounds you wish you could live in. On his second album, Ellison has continued to take Hip Hop and Electro and bend these genres into strange, sometimes alluring, sometimes forbidding, shapes. Like label mates Boards of Canada, his music often conjures images of sci-fi weirdness, as on acid bleeding opener 'Brainfeeder'. On Los Angeles, however, it feels like he is most at home, like an outcast kid, creating his own universe in the dirty allies and graffiti-pocked street corners ignored by other city dwellers.

On this album, Ellison takes us on a tour of a Los Angeles which may only exist in own his dilated mind: from the neon overload of 'GNG BNG to the creeping nocturnal misadventures of 'Testament' and 'RobertaFlack'; the smoggy culture clash of 'Melt!' to the sunny day bustle of 'Aunties Harp'.

What's more, this is an album which rewards repeated listens. Just like in a city, you can pass by the same street so many times before suddenly you notice something unusual and utterly captivating. This is the world of Flying Lotus - the urban space cadet.

Best Tracks: 'RobertaFlack', 'GNG BNG', 'Testament'

Richard Morris