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I was hooked from the moment I first heard FlyLo’s sound, and everything that’s followed only confirms that Steven Ellison is a highly imaginative and intuitive talent. His stuff just works on the most fundamental level, and even with his increasingly complex constructions, he never loses sight of each track’s heart.

I have always felt that his music had a cinematic quality to it, a vastness encapsulated into such endlessly satisfying bite-size vignettes. Perhaps it’s no surprise that Ellison studied film in school, or that his aunt is Alice Coltrane, married to the great John Coltrane. Oh, and, he’s signed to Warp Records, home of Squarepusher, Autechre, Aphex, Plaid, and more. The man has pedigree in spades!

I could point you to any one of the 17 tracks on his new album Los Angeles, but for me the one that truly stands above and beyond all others is “RobertaFlack (feat. Dolly).” The sparsely spaced rhythm track shines on its own, but that gives Ellison plenty of room to add Dolly’s beautiful voice for color and depth. And then he tops it off with the most unexpected breakdown at the end, so ridiculously sultry and seductive I could listen to those last 52 seconds on repeat for the rest of my life and die a very happy man:

And if you like that, you won’t want to miss the exquisite video for “Parisian Goldfish” — Dance Floor Dale — co-directed by none other than one of my old favorites Eric Fensler. Be warned, it’s not for the faint of heart.

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