When Pink Floyd was ten albums into their studio recording career, the iconic four piece offered their fans the long-form adventurous sounds of 1977’s Animals: a peak creative moment for one of rock’s most imaginative bands. And by no means do you regularly hear any Animals songs on classic rock radio. And you won’t hear Lotus on the radio either and perhaps that’s a good thing.
Lotus is on their tenth album-Free Swim (out 8/21)- as the electronic dance music band continues to hone up different moods and styles into a dynamic eclectic sound. This communal approach to beat-driven instrumental music can make them an ideal booking on the stages of Coachella, Electric Daisy Carnival, Primavera Sound and Lockn’. In other words; Lotus cross-sects all genres, and like Pink Floyd, everyone can certainly get down to their tasteful yet challenging compositions.
Written and produced by the group’s Jesse and Luke Miller and recorded earlier this year at Spice House Sound in Philadelphia, Free Swim marks the follow-up to Lotus’s 2018 audio and video album experience Frames Per Second and as stated above, is the band’s 10th full-length studio album overall, not including their multiple live, EP and remix collections. The 10-track album pays homage to the greats of music’s past, built on the bones of what the five members of Lotus listen to and have absorbed over time.
Glide is thrilled to premiere both the song and video for “Bjorn Gets A Haircut,” (below) a disco-influenced stunner with dance beat dynamics underneath a contagious mellotron-infused melody and Chic funk-driven guitar work for a grab-bag of instrumental groove gumbo.
“Bjorn Gets a Haircut” is a head-bopping cosmic disco tune. It takes cues from the Nordic disco playbooks of producers like Todd Terje and Lindstrom. The main hook is a Mellotron vocal “Oh” patch leading into a chorus of slick chromatic chord changes on the piano. The guitar takes over in the middle for an improvisatory freeride,” says Luke Miller (guitar/keys) of Lotus.
“The video was shot while we tracked live at Spice House Sound in Philadelphia. The animation was created using the same live-reactive system I have been building for Lotus’s live show, “adds Jesse Miller (bass). “I used triggers from the drums and other music elements while tweaking parameters live on a MIDI controller and all of these data interact with randomized and evolving calculations in the custom video generation program.”
