If the artists under Flying Lotus’ LA-based Brainfeeder imprint had any stage fright at all, out-of-town cat Lorn would not have been keen to rock after the main event: Flying Lotus’ recent Warp Records release Cosmogramma. Luckily, the only rivalry to be found lurking in Brainfeeder’s creative haze is an element of positive competition. And besides, the furious pace at which Samiyam, FlyLo, Daedelus, Ras G, The Gaslamp Killer, Lorn et al are making music probably renders them oblivious to the sequence of their own release dates.

Less metaphysical than FlyLo’s release, Lorn’s debut album Nothing Else is conceptually bound to the calamitous theme of armed conflict, just as Daedelus’ recent Brainfeeder debut digested the Chinese Boxer Uprising.

Beginning with the legacy of a veteran ‘Grandfather‘ and his clock through the treading then stomping ‘Bretagne‘ and two masterfully intense, intertwined accounts of confrontation (’Void 1‘ and ‘Void 2‘), Nothing Else is a dark, contemplative account of mortal combat – whether in real life or on a video gaming console. ‘Gold & Silver‘ is the sweet hymn to confirm that there is no winner before the dominant organ and spared vocals of ‘What’s the Use’ ties it all up.

Unlike Cosmogramma, this is not a 50-minute journey, but rather an album, where the familiar elements of breaks, choruses and intros can be deciphered. With the military theme comes organization. And there is nothing wrong with organization, especially not when the sheer funkiness of single tracks tend to shake the fundaments of the structure. The Brainfeeder crew is at the very forefront of electronic music, creative enough to dodge all expectations by shifting, raising and breaking the bar with their releases—Nothing Else is no different.

Words Sven Carlsson

Buy Nothing Else via Amazon.