Flying Lotus releases new album 'Yasuke'

Featuring music from the Netflix Original anime series

Three years in the making, Netflix’s Yasuke is a six-episode anime series created by Bronx-bred and Japan-based television animation creator, producer, and director LeSean Thomas (Cannon Busters, Children of Ether, The Boondocks) and starring actor / executive producer LaKeith Stanfield (Atlanta, Sorry To Bother You) as the voice of the title character. Yasuke tells the story of a samurai warrior of African descent in a fantastical alternate universe version of feudal Japan full of magic, mechs, and of course, swordplay.

A dream project for the producer, Flying Lotus consulted on the story, working alongside renowned anime creators Studio MAPPA as an executive producer on the project. The skillset of the GRAMMY AWARD winning producer is on complete display on the album, hybridizing synth melodies, bass lines and machine generated drum patterns while exploring new sonic territory -- traditional Japanese percussion instruments like the taiko and hyƍshigi and west African percussion — a nod to the Afro-Japanese, feudal yet futuristic world Yasuke inhabits.

"You haven't really heard an anime score do a "Blade Runner" thing, he says, "I was like, ‘let me try and get into the headspace of that' but also there were several things that were part of the recipe for me. I thought about when Dilla would sample [Isao] Tomita and people like Vangelis, and how he had a [signature] sound when he did that sort of thing."

The music will be out digitally op April 30 and physically on September 24.

Tracklist Yasuke:
1. War at the Door
2. Black Gold (feat. Thundercat)
3. Your Lord
4. Shoreline Sus
5. Hiding in the Shadows (feat. Niki Randa) 
6. Crust     
7. Fighting Without Honor
8. Pain and Blood
9. War Lords
10. Sachi
11. Your Screams 
12. Using What You Got  
13. African Samurai (feat. Denzel Curry)
14. Where’s the Girl?
15. Kurosaka Strikes!
16. This Cursed Life
17. RoBomb
18. Taiko Time // Sacrifice 
19. Your Day Off 
20. Your Armour
21. Enchanted
22. Mind Flight 
23. Survivors 
24. Your Head // We Won
25. The Eyes of Vengeance 
26. Between Memories (feat. Niki Randa)

More news