Making music for those post-bong-hit moments where even the dust balls in your bedroom seem wholly resplendent, Steven "Flying Lotus" Ellison has a taste for 21st-century soul jazz with swarming high-end displays – a whirl of high-hats, static, hand claps and, quite possibly, subatomic-particle chatter. Meanwhile, his bass abstractions (check "Sultan's Request") turn dubstep into gallery art. It all adds up to something so captivating that vocal guests like Erykah Badu ("See Thru to U") can get a little lost. Although maybe that's the point: When Thom Yorke murmurs something about a mirror in "Electric Candyman," it conjures one that's been shattered into thousands of dazzling pieces.
Listen to "Putty Boy Strut":
