Last night I went to see Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs at the Music Hall of Williamsburg and it was incredible. I didn’t know about the show until yesterday afternoon when my friend asked me if I wanted to join him there. With me on the coming out of this “whatever-anymore-do-whatever” phase of life, I agreed and purchased my ticket against my better budgeting judgement. I figure, what the hell, I won’t go out to eat this weekend and other justification that made me feel okay. The show was worth everything. The set, the lights, and venue were excellent. I realized there that this is what money should be spent on – experiences like this. I left the show coasting off the T.E.E.D.’s last drop and eager to wind down.
Enter Flying Lotus, the cross-genre offspring of Steven Ellison. His newest production, “Between Friends,” sends you off into a time-warped lucid dream-like state. Earl Sweatshirt and the newest voice to hit the scene, Captain Murphy spit verses (between friends…eheh) like mercury and weave back and forth over each other so much that at times they sound like one man. The production is true to Ellison’s style and it melts seamlessly into the vocals. The switch-ups in tempo and quality can throw you at first, but those nuances are what keep me coming back to this track when I need to calm down. They’re planned imperfections to keep the listener aware that they’re listening to music and not drifting off into some repressed dimension of the mind.
As I listened to this track last night before I crawled into bed, I imagined what this would sound like live and what venue it’d be perfect in. Selfishly, I couldn’t help but think that I didn’t need a venue when a track as smooth as this one deserves to be heard intimately; experienced in shared solitude. That, or a venue with an insanely well EQ’d sound-system and lots of plush chairs. Until I find a place like that, I’ll stick with experiencing this track on my own with me and my headphones; my own private concert…kind of, and let shows where jumping around like Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs be seen live.
Happy Thursday y’all. Let this track ease you into August.
Flying Lotus – Between Friends (feat. Earl Sweatshirt & Captain Murphy)