Pre-release promos of Flying Lotus' Cosmogramma came in single-track form-- just one file containing the entire record, without any indexing. It was presumably a strategy to thwart leaks, but it also presented the record in an interesting way, since Cosmogramma is truly an album-minded statement that gains something from being experienced whole. It also highlighted the fact that, despite its impressive sweep and end-on-end listenabiility, this is a dense album with very few traditional "singles" to sing or hum along to. Even the track featuring Thom Yorke, "...And the World Laughs With You", was more of a throbbing interstitial.

All this makes "MmmHmm", the album's gorgeous centerpiece, even more of a standout. Featuring bass wizard Thundercat, the song seems to exist as an astral oasis amidst all the hyperspeed cosmic drama existing around it. The main melody has a breezy tropical air, even as Thundercat's folded-over lines mesh with the machine-like beat. It's a "moment in time" kind of track that you wish would last just a little longer, and that feeling wells up when "MmmHmm" starts mutating into the easy juke groove of "Do the Astral Plane". "Just be who you are," goes one key line-- wise advice from an artist who always seems to think ahead.

[from Cosmogramma; out now on Warp]