Flying Lotus - BIG MOMMA Review, and Thoughts on AI and Creativity
This Essay Comes First
Before I can even begin to review Steve Ellison's new music, we have to get a very important topic out of the way. Unfortunately, Ellison decided to become the subject and the question on everyone's minds: Now that AI is traveling at lightning speed, what is its place in our world, human creativity, and integrity? This is a question that needs to be discussed at this point in our collective consciousness. AI is taking over, fooling almost everyone, making all of us give a universal sigh at its ability to fake what many of us might have thought to be genuine, authentic, human moments. This is quite literally the matrix being created before our eyes.
For this reason, it seems to be, at least for a large portion of people, the natural human response to reject, call out, or voice disgust at the overuse of AI or AI in general. AI is getting very, very advanced and at a quickening pace. It is, however, still "learning", which is why AI data annotation jobs are the latest trend, with organizations all vying to have their own flagship model and are willing to pay top dollar to those of us who are willing to analyze data and correct, or feed data, to train multiple AI models.
The term “AI slop” has come about to describe obvious or lazy attempts to create using AI, or to put it more eloquently, sloppy AI. The term has expanded to include anyone’s disdain for the use of AI, and it’s understandable given that fake AI viral videos are making rounds, which makes users’ own feelings for what the video sets out to do feel cheapened or inauthentic.
But what does all of this AI talk have to do with Flying Lotus, you may find yourself asking?
What Did FlyLo Do?
Steve Ellison announced a few weeks ago his next mainline release, his upcoming EP, BIG MOMMA, much to the surprise and delight of fans, including myself, who were waiting in eager anticipation for the next FlyLo release of futuristic, groundbreaking sounds. A week ago, Ellison dropped a promo video for BIG MOMMA on his Instagram. It was a scene from EP’s cover artwork, featuring the big momma bomb raining destruction and havoc on the city. A floating hand ufo in the distance sucking people up. All of this done in a super clay-like Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs CG aesthetic.
It seemed pretty crazy, this whole scenario, playing alongside FlyLo’s electronic bleeps and bloops as he teased beats from the new release. Except something didn’t feel right. Maybe it was the Fortnite style skin over everything. Maybe it was the janky and slightly discombobulating action, maybe it was the frenetic editing. For what it’s worth, it did seem to match the aesthetic of his cover artwork, but it still felt like something was missing from it all. That something was a single human hand, or creative touch, being involved in any part of this video. The only human that had anything to do in its creation was its prompter, which was likely Ellison himself.
The backlash was swift and the negative. A Reddit thread pointed out that Ellison disabled comments on the video, which was as users pointed out uncharacteristic of him. Presumably, he was aware of this possible negative reception, but still chose to release it. A lot of fans felt disappointed in him, and maybe this rush response was a little bit over-dramatic, but some of the points are actually valid. It was only a day later, or maybe even the same day depending on the timestamp, that Ellison deleted his goofy bomb lady BIG MOMMA promo video. This brings me to the next section and explanation of why this all matters…
The Context Surrounding His Decision And Why This All Matters
From FLotus's recent interview with The Fader, after being asked about how he balances filmmaking and music making, Ellison responded, saying "It’s hard to do both things. You still gotta pay bills, right? I actually have to carve out time from music to be able to do films because no one’s really paying me to make movies like that. So I have to do music and then I've earned some time to go make some movies."
But hold up Steve, nobody is paying you? What about the visual artists and animators that you have collaborated with for decades, who have been a part of your creative process making some of the most visually arresting music videos and artwork? Did they get paid for BIG MOMMA's video?
The reason I bring up this issue is because Ellison would seem to be the least likely AI hype man and the biggest holdout from using AI technology in his art, at least on a major or all-encompassing scale. This is however, not the case, since Ellison is a big proponent of AI. But still it stands that the derivative nature of AI artwork is that which is trained on previous data sets and pattern recognition and that which lacks the neural sparks of imagination that makes art uniquely human.
The reason I bring up this issue is because Ellison would seem to be the least likely AI hype man and the biggest holdout from using AI technology in his art, at least on a major or all-encompassing scale. This is however, not the case, since Ellison is a big proponent of AI. But still it stands that the derivative nature of AI artwork is that which is trained on previous data sets and pattern recognition and that which lacks the neural sparks of imagination that makes art uniquely human.
Ellison states that AI can be used as a tool, which I am not going to argue that point. AI is just another technology that a growing number of professionals are using for their own productivity. It stands to reason that they will upend industries. As far as AI as an art form though, prompting the algorithm to make a whole piece of "art" is very different from using it as a tool to enhance workflow and creativity.
Where Do We Go From Here?
If all of this AI talk is starting to make you dizzy, I don’t blame you. It is overwhelming. A person can’t be faulted for being intrigued by this technology. But could a FlyLo AI replace Ellison's own vision of the future? It most certainly could. When it comes to AI and visual artwork, it's all a brand new frontier that is being toyed with, and sometimes used to completely replace otherwise hard-working and very talented visual artists. Music comes next. Gigs that Ellison may be able to get this year may be otherwise unavailable to him in the coming years when anyone can prompt an AI to clone Flying Lotus beats. In a recent interview with The Guardian, Ellison shows his frustration about how the whole lo-fi beat aesthetic has been copied by major conglomerates like Starbucks, for example, or as a whole elevator music generation of music listeners. These are certainly crazy times we are living in, so before things really go south, I just recommend that all of us stay vigilant, don't hesitate to call out misfires or goofs by artists who should know better, and try to treasure the uniquely human art that is still being released today.
Enough AI Talk, Let's Review BIG MOMMA!
BIG MOMMA, for a 13-minute composition, split into 7 parts, is the shortest Flying Lotus release thus far, and it is pretty cool to smash so many sound waves and electronic bits into such a short runtime. This seemingly doesn't give much room for analysis despite the super short runtime. But over its 7 tracks, there are some impressions that can be made.
BIG MOMMA, the title track, starts things off just right with a very Clock Catcher-esque intro. This intro is actually insane and it's amazing how much Flying Lotus fits into just a 36 second intro. It makes the entire composition super promising, and it becomes a question of whether FlyLo can keep up this momentum. CAPTAIN KERNEL jumpstarts from the title track with a smooth atmospheric open. Naturally, this reminded me of FlyLo's 4th album Until The Quiet Comes, a rich LP and a personal favorite of mine. It's not too long before a slow synth build-up leads to a very IDM electronic synthesis full of synth soloing. ANTELOPE ONIGIRI keeps the speed and is very much like an Aphex Twin song. It has those signature acid synths, warped vocal samples, and ends with a synth-y call and response.
IN THE FOREST - DAY sounds like the filename of a video game, and it makes sense. This is a very NES flavored track, full of muffled drums, synth-y repetition, and overall a nostalgic type of song for any millennial. BROBOBASHER has deeper sound experiments than any of the previous tracks. It will put listeners in a pretty interesting head space with the way it is mixed, and I'm a pretty big fan of what music and sound can generally do if executed with this purpose in mind. Just like how over-compressed songs as a product of the loudness war can feel fatiguing, this can have the opposite effect where it pulls listeners into a whole other world of aural pleasures.
HORSE NUKE has another atmospheric intro like CAPTAIN KERNEL, but this time it has a ghostly, ethereal quality. When I first heard it, it reminded me a bit of that dark and gritty style of Venetian Snares, a jungle and breakcore producer that I can't get enough of. It comes complete with stabbing synths and creepy guttural vocal samples. PINK DREAM is the final (but not technically) cut of the EP. It is video-gamey as if reaching the end of a very intense retro adventure. The synth has a downward melody throughout, which has a somewhat sinister vibe.
Even though PINK DREAM concludes the EP, Flying Lotus decided to include BIG MAMA [EP CONTINUOUS MIX] as the final 8th track, but it's simply a replay of the entire EP. It's a nice decision given that it allows fans to include this edit into their own playlists without having to divide up or re-sequence the tracks, and overall it's a nice second playthrough, since the 13 minutes fly by so fast.
Final Thoughts
BIG MOMMA is music for the laptop generation, and it's a tight recording project by Steve Ellison. It is not unlike many of the IDM and jungle producers of this century, like Squarepusher or Aphex Twin, and therein lies the problem. Given the incredible track record of all that Flying Lotus has accomplished in his 20 year music career, it’s hard to distinguish this electronic music from that of these other pioneering artists. I love that Ellison did something that sounds as frenetic as the opening minutes of Cosmogramma, but after the title track, BIG MOMMA doesn’t quite live up to the promise of its title, despite having a couple more standout tracks.
When it comes to short electronic EPs that are bursts of creativity, Flying Lotus has his otherworldly and vibe-setting Pattern+Grid World, which is certainly its own trip. It also reminds me of another highly regarded EP that I like, Collapse EP by Aphex Twin, which is another short form release that fits SO MUCH music and samples and sounds into just 5 tracks. If I had to choose, I would honestly prefer to give it to Aphex Twin's EP, because not only does it have the same maximalist quality, I just simply think that Richard D. James does it better when it comes to this kind of complex electronic production. Overall, for all FlyLo fans and electronic heads out there, this is just another sweet electronic beat and IDM release to add to the collection.
BIG MOMMA: 7.5/10
Recommended Tracks: BIG MOMMA, CAPTAIN KERNEL, HORSE NUKE
You can support FlyLo and purchase BIG MOMMA on his Bandcamp page, as streaming links do not seem available at this time
Me, cheesin' with Steve, Brooklyn NY, June 2011 (and I can't believe it's been that long)
