Listen to Black Gold, a new collaboration between Flying Lotus and Thundercat
The new collaboration arrives with a second Flying Lotus song featuring Niki Randa, both taken from the soundtrack of an upcoming Netflix anime series..
Header image by Tim Saccenti.
There's no denying that Flying Lotus and Thundercat are one of the best collaborative partnerships in electronic music, with the two having a fruitful history of making music together that often breaks boundaries and keeps things moving forward. Take - for example - their dual collaboration with BADBADNOTGOOD from the Brainfeeder compilation a while back; Descent Into Madness from FlyLo's Your Dead record; The Climb from FlyLo's latest album Flamagra or - of course - MmmHmm, from the breakthrough Cosmogramma album a decade ago now (!).
Whenever the pairing get together, you know some kind of magic is going to be made - and that's something that continues to ring true even in a new decade, as the pairing come together again for Black Gold, a new single being unveiled today. It's a song that features the pairing at yet another collaborative peak, with Thundercat's infamous vocal weaselling amongst a fluttering blend of keys and heavy-handed percussion that's over before you know it (the track finishes up a touch over minute-30, which is way too short).
There's a second new Flying Lotus song coming along with it as well, with Between Memories being another short-yet-sweet display of FlyLo's brilliance, this time featuring Niki Randa. Between Memories is the slightly more subtle of the two, with Niki's angelic vocal dancing amongst a more gentle production that once again, is full of Flying Lotus' production craft - something that has only become stronger amongst the last decade or two.
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The two tracks are the opening and closing credits - respectively - of Netflix's new anime series Yasuke, which Flying Lotus worked on as an executive producer alongside renowned anime creators MAPPA Studios. The series is born from the mind of director LeSean Thomas (Cannon Busters, Children of Ether, The Boondocks), and is a bit of a dream project for FlyLo (and Thundercat), who as fans know, have been long inspired by anime.
"[LeSean] and I talked about being outsiders in anime," says Flying Lotus on the project, which is out on April 29th. "I was like, ‘Why aren't more Black kids trying to do this? Why is it so out of the ordinary?' He was saying that it's because they don't have examples."
Dive into the two new singles below:
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