Steven Ellison, AKA Flying Lotus, has been one of the most influential producers of his generation. A direct descendant of jazz greats Alice Coltrane and Marilyn McLeod, his music derives inspiration from these ancestral roots, but expands into an eclectic mix of genres such as electronica, rap, hip-hop, and avant-garde jazz fusion. 
His 2010 album Cosmogramma is one of our absolute favorites. Inspired by the death of his mother, the album takes listeners on a wild, dreamy space opera through cosmic soundscapes. Flying Lotus's jazz heritage greatly comes into play as he blends dense afro-futurism with intricate, polyrhythmic electronic beats. It takes more than a few complete listens to fully grasp the incredible detail of the work. 

The second half of the record starts with Do The Astral Plane. Opening with samples of a string section, Flying Lotus slowly builds the track with layers of disorienting beats, scat singing, percussion, and instrumentals. We took this song as a challenge to see how much we could recreate with just four live classical instruments (two violins, cello, and a piano). The end result is a wild ride that we had so much fun with, AND is FlyLo approved (he retweeted our video)! We hope you enjoy.

 In honor of Thanksgiving, Mixtape is proud to present a mashup of some of America’s most notable musicians: Daniel Caesar, H.E.R., and Aaron Copland. Our great big melting pot of a country feels fairly fractured and isolated these days. So we thought we’d do our part and mix some American sounds together. If we can’t all come together in person, perhaps our music can. We originally set out only to arrange Best Part, a song we love by Daniel Caesar & H.E.R for the Pasadena-based arts organization, MUSE/IQUE. The arrangement was to be featured this month on their “In A Minute” digital concert series, exploring themes of thanks and gratitude. However, literally a few minutes into our rehearsal, MUSE/IQUE emailed us asking if we could arrange Copland’s Appalachian Spring instead. We can’t believe we’re saying this, but thank god we were checking our phones during rehearsal… A few head scratches later, an idea hit us. Perhaps this isn’t a case of either/or… perhaps… this is an opportunity for us to do what we do best! It was time to mix. Suffice it to say, we believe this led to us finding the Best Part of Appalachian Spring. We hope you enjoy! Happy Thanksgiving, from Mixtape.

A semi-improvised arrangement of Radiohead’s “Present Tense”. 

From Nathan: “Listening to Radiohead is one of my most blissful experiences of solitude. At times it feels wrong for me to share the experience- like some aspect of the deep sentiment and consolation it provides becomes tainted by a setting other than isolation. We’ve been stuck in isolation for months. Our respective defense mechanisms and patterns, which keep us moving, our dance, which protects from the weight of our solitude and our fear, has shattered. But we are surviving it together.

It seems appropriate that for once this music became an excuse to come out of isolation, and transform into an opportunity to redefine how Misha, Juan-Salvador and I collaborate with each other, and think about arranging music in the first place. We created this arrangement entirely together in this basement, letting our intimate knowledge of our instruments realize each other's aural images. 

Much the way Radiohead might, upon hearing Thom Yorke strum these undulating, circling harmonies on his guitar for the first time, we allowed the parts to evolve together. This has felt like a revelation for us so-called "classical" instrumentalists.

Present Tense is about finding a way to protect yourself from inner violence. We aren’t meant to face it alone, but we’ve proven to ourselves that what’s born of solitude is what defends and uplifts us the most.”

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From Misha: "This arrangement is very dear to us. The lyrics of the original song are about trying to maintain normalcy - to “keep it light, keep it moving”, even as the “world comes crashing down”. Of course, this can be interpreted in direct correlation to the events of 2020 so far. But prior to that, we all identified with it on far more personal terms.

It's been difficult. Difficult for everyone, but in our social circles, we’ve been watching the musicians. Some of our friends have been doing well, at least on the surface. Putting up videos, joking about quarantine, teaching. But we can all agree that a mental toll has been exacted on everyone in the music industry. In a 2018 study from the Music Industry Research Association, a staggering 50 percent of musicians reported battling symptoms of depression. How much has that grown to now? 

For anyone struggling today, for anyone who has struggled, for anyone who will struggle with mental health, inner turmoil, and pain, we’d like to dedicate this to you. Please reach out to your friends, and invite your friends to reach out to you. It’s normal to have dark moments, weeks, months. Let’s be open about it. Now is the time to remove any kind of stigma from mental health- when everyone is in it together."

Please find links to more mental health resources on our Donate Page.

Today we put together Bobby Hebbs ‘Sunny’ and ‘Estrellita’ by Manuel Ponce. Both are so well known and loved by everyone (including us), that we feel really lucky to have a chance at them. We jokingly named this mix ‘Solar’ because of the similarity we found in the names, but ‘Estrellita’ (which means Little Star), and ‘Sunny’ are fundamentally different songs.

Besides the upbeat tempo of Sunny, and the slower, more thoughtful grace of ‘Estrellita’, the lyrics of Ponce’s ‘Estrellita’ are asking for the Little Star to come down and ease the singer’s anguish - meanwhile the lyrics of ‘Sunny’ are thankful - “Sunny, you smiled at me and really eased the pain”. When we put these two together, they told us a story… and we hope they do for you as well.

To round out our month of Mini Mix Mondays, we’d like to present our very first Mini Mix, recorded around the beginning of April, conceived and recorded in about 2 days. When we recorded this we didn’t actually mean for it to see the light of day - it was made for a very specific purpose. 

We had been contacted by a representative of a well known choreographer to see if we could record a demo, using something from a list of wildly diverse music chosen by her. The deadline was ASAP.

At this point we had all been sitting at home, barely touching our instruments, completely without purpose. We sprang on this, choosing John Lurie’s soundtrack “Car Florida” &  Elle Kings “Ex’s & Oh’s” from the list. 

The fact that we were able to make this so quickly and that it was so fun really inspired us! Following some uncertainty and setbacks, we started recording more Mini Mixes in June, and never looked back. Thank you for joining us this month and we look forward to more fun music making just like this in future.