While Flying Lotus is no stranger to vocal collaborations on his albums, the producer is best known for the prolific canvases he creates on his own. Sure, the Kendrick Lamar-featured “Never Catch Me” is considered by some as FlyLo’s magnum opus, but for some diehards, we’d love to hear more tunes like 2014’s “Your Potential//The Beyond,” where vocalist Niki Randa adds thick vocal textures to the tune. It seems as though FlyLo is indeed entering the point in his career where he’s leaning further into vocalists to help him bring new depths to his music. Look at his last album Flamagra, which featured notable collabs with vocalists in Anderson .Paak, George Clinton, Little Dragon’s Yukimi Nagano, Thundercat, and others. But those are all known commodities, which don’t have the same allure that someone like say, Randa, brought in the past, as perhaps his muse.
Enter Devin Tracy, a classically-trained future R&B vocalist, who released an EP in Soulection’s Black Label series in 2018 and last year’s Don’t Take It Personal EP, but is a relative unknown. Lotus discovered Tracy at a recent session and it seems as though a creative connection quickly blossomed between the pair. Now, FlyLo’s new singles, “The Room” and “You Don’t Know,” feature Tracy on vocals and the diehards will be pleased.
“The Room” kicks off the two movement release with those familiar FlyLo layered strings intertwined with snares, as Tracy ranges all over the map with his evocative delivery. “You Don’t Know” is definitely more drums focused, but Tracy is a revelation on both, going from high registers on down and back.
Flying Lotus will be performing at the Hollywood Bowl on August 21st, backed by the Bowl Orchestra, and this new release effectively whets the palate for more new tunes this year from the Grammy-winning producer.
Listen to “The Room” and “You Don’t Know” above.