// Liner notes
Flying Lotus wanted "a Blade Runner thing" for a samurai anime.
Released April 30, 2021 via Warp, Yasuke is Flying Lotus's score for the Netflix anime about the African retainer who served Oda Nobunaga in late-16th-century Japan, a three-year project he also executive produced. LeSean Thomas directed for Studio MAPPA, and LaKeith Stanfield voices the title character. FlyLo aimed for the sound Vangelis brought to Blade Runner and the way J Dilla sampled Isao Tomita. The 26 cues fuse synth melodies and machine rhythm with taiko, hyōshigi clappers and West African percussion: feudal Japan wired into a Los Angeles beat lab.
Mostly instrumental, it still makes room for voices. Thundercat joins him on the theme "Black Gold," Denzel Curry snarls through "African Samurai," and Niki Randa drifts across "Hiding in the Shadows" and "Between Memories." The cues move through combat, mourning and stillness without losing their shape, and it stands out as the most cinematic record in his catalogue.
12-inch black vinyl, sealed.
Specs
- Format
- LP, Vinyl
- Original release
- 2021
- Label
- Warp
- Genre
- Soundtrack / Electronic / Experimental Hip-Hop / Ambient
Tracklist
Side A
- A1War at the Door
- A2Black Gold (feat. Thundercat)
- A3Your Lord
- A4Shoreline Sus
- A5Hiding in the Shadows (feat. Niki Randa)
- A6Crust
- A7Fighting Without Honor
- A8Pain and Blood
- A9War Lords
- A10Sachi
- A11Your Screams
- A12Using What You Got
- A13African Samurai (feat. Denzel Curry)
- A14Where's the Girl?
Side B
- B1Kurosaka Strikes!
- B2This Cursed Life
- B3RoBomb
- B4Taiko Time // Sacrifice
- B5Your Day Off
- B6Your Armour
- B7Enchanted
- B8Mind Flight
- B9Survivors
- B10Your Head // We Won
- B11The Eyes of Vengeance
- B12Between Memories (feat. Niki Randa)
