“I love you!” With just three words, Flying Lotus had already won the crowd over before he had played a note. Flying Lotus’ stage was fairly simple but utterly effective, with his DJ booth set up between two screens, the front one being fairly transparent and therefore giving a realistic 3D effect. Words assembled on screen, disassembling into pulsing volume indicators as the music started. Straight bass to the bone was the set’s start as an uneasy, just audible melody line hovered above it, before giving way to a sawtoothed line of harmony. Flying Lotus’ evolution over the set was his strongest point, with pauses rare and therefore not allowing the audience’s concentration to ever falter. Then the bass plunged lower, pulverising as it hummed up and down. The sampling of female voice was gradually consumed by the bass and clicking electronic blips, with Flying Lotus a half glimpsed figure almost out of reality between his graphics.

After a short interlude, it then started getting weird and trippy; half gasps, astral melodies and falling bass took over. Flying Lotus took the mood down as stars fell across the screen. Robot chiptunes blipped in and out around the all consuming bass, before the melody soared up and away on electronic strings. The man himself came out from behind the screen and scored out a short rap sequence, before taking up position in the booth again. The slight hint of dubstep bass brought the crowd to even more activity, with a clatter of percussion and double stepping bass gradually merge in this section. Any sequence was just a twist of the knob away from being turned on its head.

Then he pulled out a track from his latest album, ‘Until The Quiet Comes’, named “Putty Boy Strut”. Full of jangling percussion and xylophone, they were overruled by a beautiful voice cutting through the ever present bass thump. Flying Lotus stepped out again to rap against sampled voices including the Batman movies. Having revealed a hint of geek-dom, he then confirmed it by delving straight into some old-school video game and glitch sound. Cathartic gasps of synth after each bass hit gave release to the adoring audience. The set ended with the first lightning of the evening in the sky and Flying Lotus diverging into lounge territory, through the filter of electronica.

The visuals throughout the set were uncompromisingly inventive and matched the music to a T, only enhancing the mood. The set managed to please both the EDM lovers who were hanging out for Skrillex in the next set and also Flying Lotus’ own fans who came expecting his brand of IDM from his albums. On top of Flying Lotus showed off his musician alter ego, in the form of ‘Captain Murphy’ and his rap passages. Whatever kind of fan you are, you would have had to walk away satisfied with the show.