Flying Lotus, Roundhouse

Electronic experimenter Flying Lotus to play with a live band at Camden’s Roundhouse

Flying Lotus’ (real name, Steven Ellison) music is difficult to categorise. He starts with a hip-hop tool kit, but ranges more widely than many of his contemporaries, delving into orchestral and free jazz with the kind of experimental sensibility that one might expect from Alice and John Coltrane’s great nephew.

His music is richly textured and hugely varied. Take ‘Recoiled’,for instance, the stand-out track from his 2010 release Cosmogramma , which layers swirling saxophones, delicate harp chords, and clattering cymbals over a shuddering break-beat. Ellison is a musician who leaves no stone unturned in crafting a sound that is detailed and engrossing.

Ellison hasn’t released an album since 2012’s When the Quiet Comes , a mystical dreamscape which saw him collaborating with the likes of Thom Yorke and Erykah Badu. Later this year, he is set to return with a new album, You’re Dead! for which he’s recently shared a surreal promotional video that promises yet more wild, jazz-driven experimentation,as well as a guest appearance from Snoop Dogg.

On November 7, Ellison is due to perform with a live band at Camden’s Roundhouse. Expect glitchy, off-kilter rhythms, squealing brass, and space-age sound effects.