By Nick Machak

To say that Flying Lotus at Murmuration Fest was an out-of-body experience is an understatement. The concert began with a screen in front of the stage that presented his ‘You’re Dead’ tour visuals. All that was visible from Flying Lotus was his silhouette behind the fast-paced, enchanting animations depicting the afterlife. The animations began with the screen flashing, alternating between red and white, effectively making the screen a strobe light of sorts. Suddenly, “YOU’RE DEAD” text—in reference to his album released in 2014—appears. All the while, FlyLo is delivering head-pounding beats that got the crowd uncontrollably tripped out. The rest of the visuals were inter-weavings of various images which were the original work of Shintaro Kago, animated by Strangeloop.
The visuals were surreal and graphic, which accompanied by FlyLo’s production, were meant to take the viewer along a psychological journey through the afterlife. The “You’re Dead” text at the beginning of the visual display was a clear indication that every part of the concert after that point was meant to be experienced in the afterlife. A lot of the visuals were varied—ranging from very graphic, gory scenes to images that looked like neurons firing action potentials in the brain.
The setlist was mainly centered around songs from the You’re Dead album, covers, and Captain Murphy songs, which is his side project. Personally, I could have done without his cover of Travi$ Scott’s “Antidote” with Scott’s vocals extremely pitched up, but the rest of the set was amazing and very well-mixed. Other covers included Lunice’s “Can’t Wait To” and “Pass That S***” by DJ Rashad.