FLYING LOTUS - BIG MAMA FLYING LOTUS

In a homecoming for the LA native, 2026 heralds Steven Ellison aka Flying Lotus’ debut release on his own label Brainfeeder – an explosive and utterly unique 7-track EP titled BIG MAMA encompassing the boundary-exploding approach to music and storytelling that has cemented his status as one of the most influential and creative voices in modern experimental music.

A creative of many mediums, the GRAMMY-nominated FlyLo is just as likely to appear at Sundance with a film as he is to headline a music festival. Thanks to his passion for animation, experimental films, and the future, his visual output has been equally as expansive, provocative, and avant-garde as that of his genre-defying music.

Following two genre-shaping albums that helped to establish and define the LA Beat Scene, Flying Lotus’ 2010 breakthrough Cosmogramma- which heralded the start of a run of critically-adored albums- landed at #60 on the UK Official Albums Chart, with the follow up Until The Quiet Comes landing at #34. You’re Dead! then scored FlyLo’s highest chart success in the UK, sitting on the top 75 for two weeks after entering at #24, with his last studio album Flamagra also hitting #25 in the Official Albums Chart.

FlyLo has collaborated with a diverse range of esteemed artists across electronic, hip-hop and jazz: You’re Dead! featured Kendrick Lamar (on the huge “Never Catch Me”- and for whom FlyLo produced the opening track of To Pimp A Butterfly), Snoop Dogg, FKA twigs, Earl Sweatshirt, Herbie Hancock and more, with Flamagra listing features from Denzel Curry, George Clinton, Solange and David Lynch. Many collaborators have appeared on more than one of FlyLo’s releases, most notably seen in his career-spanning work with Thundercat (for whom Ellison regularly produces, and whose bass and vocals can be heard across Flying Lotus’ catalogue), but also in features from Erykah Badu, Anderson .Paak, Thom Yorke, Shabazz Palaces, Niki Randa, Laura Darlington, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and more.

Flying Lotus’ captivating live shows have drawn huge audiences across the world, selling out headline shows at Brixton Academy (5K) - where he brought his incredible ‘Hypercube’ A/V show, a collaboration with TimeBoy, The Roundhouse (3K), and HERE at Outernet (2K), with recent festival performances at MIRA (ES), Newport Jazz Festival (US) and Shambhala (CA) as well as an upcoming set for the Big Ears Festival 2026 (US).

His curated FlyLo FM has been a fan-favourite radio station of GTA V, with Ellison also branching out into film with his directorial debut short film Royal, and the following body-horror feature Kuso, which premiered at Sundance 2017. He acted as executive producer on ONA Yasuke for which he also produced the OST. In 2025 he directed and produced the OST for the science-fiction-horror film Ash, which premiered that year at SXSW.

RECOMMENDED IF YOU LIKE: APHEX TWIN, ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER, THUNDERCAT, DANNY BROWN

"The musical polymath who flits so lightly between jazz, electronica, hip-hop and funk as to render the boundaries indeterminable” - THE GUARDIAN

"Exceptionally progressive, stirring, and eternal” - ALLMUSIC

"Flying Lotus’ foreign and colorful arrangements entice even the most casual listener” - BILLBOARD

SIDE A
1. BIG MAMA
2. CAPTAIN KERNEL
3. ANTELOPE ONIGIRI
4. IN THE FOREST - DAY
5. BROBOBASHER
6. HORSE NUKE
7. PINK DREAM