Flying Lotus – Yasuke – Vinyl Record

Description

Flying Lotus – Yasuke – Vinyl Record

Flying Lotus created Yasuke for an animated world that mixes feudal Japan with fantasy and futuristic imagery. His 2021 soundtrack to LeSean Thomas' Netflix series follows that combination with synthesizers, percussion, jazz-influenced textures, and a small number of guest vocals. The twenty-six pieces often move quickly, but they share a distinctive musical atmosphere. Steven Ellison, the musician behind Flying Lotus, was also an executive producer and consultant on the series, giving him a relationship with its world that went beyond supplying a score after the animation was finished.

The title character is drawn from the historical African samurai who served Oda Nobunaga, while the series adds its own supernatural and science-fiction elements. Flying Lotus' music has room for all of those layers. Electronic tones can establish a strange landscape, a rhythmic figure can give a scene urgency, and Japanese percussion colors can connect the score to its setting. The result is recognizably his work without having to reproduce the shape of one of his earlier studio albums. The story gives him a reason to move between short, sharply drawn cues and pieces with a more developed melodic presence.

Thundercat appears on Black Gold, lending a high, expressive vocal to one of the soundtrack's most immediately identifiable songs. Denzel Curry brings a different energy to African Samurai, while Niki Randa contributes to Hiding in the Shadows and Between Memories. Their appearances provide human voices inside a score largely concerned with instrumental color and atmosphere. The collaborations also connect Yasuke to Flying Lotus' wider musical circle. Familiar partners enter an unfamiliar fictional world, and their individual sounds become part of what makes that world feel particular.

Crust gives the record a clear connection to Flying Lotus' jazz and beat-making interests, while titles such as War at the Door, Fighting Without Honor, and Kurosaka Strikes! reflect the action that the music was written to accompany. Quieter and more suspended passages have an equally important place. Your Armour, Mind Flight, and This Cursed Life belong to a program that can suggest tension without always relying on force. The short running times encourage Ellison to establish an idea quickly, then move on once that sound has done its work.

Yasuke is an appealing listen for followers of Flying Lotus' instrumental work because it gives his production ideas a different structure. The synth-led passages, percussion, and guest songs share the score's setting, while individual cues retain enough character to be heard away from the series. Between Memories closes a program that has moved through conflict, uncertainty, and moments of calm. Rather than treating the soundtrack as a collection of disconnected background pieces, Flying Lotus gives it a musical identity that reflects both the show's unusual world and the collaborators who helped him describe it.

Brand new, never played and still sealed in the factory plastic

Release Details

Artist

Flying Lotus

Album

Yasuke

Format

Vinyl Record

Number of vinyl records

1

Original album release

2021

Label

Warp Records

Track Listing

War at the Door

Black Gold (feat. Thundercat)

Your Lord

Shoreline Sus

Hiding in the Shadows (feat. Niki Randa)

Crust

Fighting Without Honor

Pain and Blood

War Lords

Sachi

Your Screams

Using What You Got

African Samurai (feat. Denzel Curry)

Where's the Girl?

Kurosaka Strikes!

This Cursed Life

RoBomb

Taiko Time // Sacrifice

Your Day Off

Your Armour

Enchanted

Mind Flight

Survivors

Your Head // We Won

The Eyes of Vengeance

Between Memories (feat. Niki Randa)