Flying Lotus
Los Angeles
Warp
Street: 06.10
Flying Lotus = Dabrye + RZA + Portishead
While making a documentary in Paris about his musical relatives, a taxi driver asked Steven Ellison aka Flying Lotus if he and his crew were musicians. He slumped down in his seat, but great aunt Alice Coltrane spoke up: “Yeah, this guy, he’s a musician too; he thinks he’s a filmmaker, though”. After a few listens to Los Angeles (and all of his stellar work, for that matter), you notice that Ellison’s music is the perfect mix of both, the album title, his hometown, providing the thematic element (something you’ll really notice if you’ve ever spent time in L.A.) to this extraordinary hypercompressed, claustrophobic mélange of samples, broken rhythms and analog loveliness. You hear spooky, foggy nighttime Malibu surf (“Camel”), experience whiffs of Little India’s spices and rhythms (“Melt!”), see red carpet traffic jams (“Golden Diva”), pull down the wrong street at the wrong time (“Riot”) and drowsily smile like a tourist in La Brea (“Sleepy Dinosaur”). –Dave Madden

Gentlemen Auction House
Alphabet Graveyard
Street: 08.18
Emergency Umbrella Records
Gentlemen Auction House= The Polyphonic Spree + Arcade Fire on SSRIs
These guys, and one girl (seven total), are as poppy as your nephew on Jolt cola. That being said, the songs aren’t that bad and do the job of exploring the multi-vocalist/instrumentalist wave of right now. The bridges are some of the best parts: well done, incorporating varied rhythms and plenty o’ organ. This band is pleasantly pleasing at everything they do. It was pleasing in the way that makes me want to wash myself bloody ‘til I'm cleansed of the pop-demons. Thank baby Jesus on a cross for pumice stones and Band-Aids. Somewhere a model binged on a bunch of indie and chamber-pop albums, then discreetly went to the powder room and made Gentlemen Auction House's latest. A label rep must have knocked on the door, perhaps expecting a rail of pearly decadence, only to discover his latest band in the sink and a passed-out bulimic. –Jon “JP” Paxton

GG Elvis and the TCP Band
Back From the Dead: A Punk Elvis Tribute
Mental Records
Street: 06.08
GG Elvis = Elvis + bands that the man himself would probably have hated
If I was a high profile movie critic, and this record a high profile movie, I would give it a sideways thumb. It’s just ok. Apparently, the “TCP” in the name stands for “Taking Care of Punk,” but if I didn’t know better and had to guess, I’d say that it stands for “Totally Crucifying Presley.” It’s not something that any self respecting Elvis fan would ever be caught dead listening to. Likewise, it’s not really something that many punks would listen to either. It was like they understood up front that the demographic this was going to be marketed to (pre pubescent punk rocker boys) wouldn’t have the interest and therefore, the attention span to listen to straight up Elvis covers. So, they basically sing Elvis lyrics to classic punk rock tracks. One song basically is Black Flag’s “Six Pack.” “Blue Suede Shoes” has a “Code Blue” breakdown, which is actually pretty entertaining. That could either be because it is actually funny, or because it is laughable. You decide. I wouldn’t be able to sleep comfortably tonight if I told you that this was worth buying. However, if you are often around pre pubescent punk rocker boys, borrow their copy and have a listen. –Aaron Day

Grave
Dominion VIII
Regain Records
Street: 06.10
Grave = Entombed (old) + Unleashed + Dismember
Swedish death metal fiends have strange timing, fellow Swedish death metal band Unleashed have released their latest Hammer Battalion on the same day as Grave’s Dominion VIII hit the stores here in the U.S. That said there are similarities in each bands music but Grave take a dirtier road with their trademark gritty down-tuned guitar tones, but like their peers the style hasn’t evolved or changed much from their early days or their last couple albums. The tempos are a still a mix of speedy and slow, guttural violent vocals shredding up the place. There is nothing wrong with keeping your sound in the same territory, that way the fans won’t be disappointed. Maybe Grave does this because when they did alter their sound a bit the fans got pissed, gotta give the fans what they want right? I like to call this process the Deicide syndrome, said band released record after record that sounded pretty much the same did they loose any fans, no, did they gain it’s pretty likely a few, but there is an inherent safeness in it. You could say well if a band doesn’t change then they are just rehashing the same thing over and over again, well then, how the hell did AC/DC become so damn famous. If you’ve got it right once and the fans are satisfied, why re-invent the wheel, it’s still brutal as death metal should be and it’s still a blast to listen too. –Bryer Wharton