https://soundcloud.com/adultswimsingles/woke
Last week, Flying Lotus announced his new collaborative project called WOKE; an Afrofuturist supergroup comprised of FlyLo, Thundercat, and both halves of Shabazz Palaces. They also released their first single, "The Lavishments of Light Looking", featuring Parliament-Funkadelic legend George Clinton.
What initially started out as the name of a film that Flying Lotus and friends were working on, but lacked funding, WOKE has now become a musical means to garner attention for future plans of making the movie.
According to an interview with Pitchfork, Flying Lotus explains that WOKE, " Is about music, it's about musicians, and so I decided, Why don't we just try and build up some momentum through music and maybe do the film after? We started working earlier this year on music. We did a few songs. We have a few things. We're just going to let it build naturally, see what happens."
With no plans for a WOKE album set in stone, FlyLo revealed that there are about nine songs floating around the group. The group is no rush, however, to release their next track, as they look to make sure that all the stuff they are creating is done in the same room together. "I'm not trying to do e-mail shit; I really want it to be organic and a true collaboration," said Flylo to Pitchfork.
"The Lavishments of Light Looking," offers a layered groove of atmospheric and FlyLo's characteristic astral-like production. Thundercat's deep funk touches skip through the track as it shape-shifts from cosmic-jazz to G-funk, inevitably becoming a beautifully coherent whole. The cherry on top: Mr. Clinton emerging in the latter half of the track, delivering his mantra, "Free your mind."