OFFICIAL BIO
Regarded upon his 2006 arrival as a promising beatmaker looming in the shadows of J Dilla, Madlib, waterfalls and Dabrye, Steven Ellison -- known as Flying Lotus -- nullified all comparisons only two years later with Los Angeles. On that album, his first of five for the Warp label, Ellison distilled a uniquely crisp, spasmodic, and heady sound with elements of hip-hop, avant-garde jazz, IDM, and dubstep. While the abovementioned producers fueled Ellison, he had also been excited as a youngster by the '90s West Coast rap classics that combined programming and live instrumentation. His sound continued to develop as he put his own twist on the approach, recording with a crop of jazz musicians including the indispensable likes of bassist Thundercat and strings master Miguel Atwood-Ferguson. This process began with the turbulent 2010 set Cosmogramma and peaked in terms of acclaim in 2014 with You're Dead!, which crashed the Top 20 of the Billboard 200 and spawned the Kendrick Lamar collaboration "Never Catch Me," a Grammy nominee for Best Dance Recording. Ellison devoted a few years to various forms of film work and the operation of his revered Brainfeeder label, and returned in 2019 with Flamagra, his second consecutive album to top Billboard's Dance/Electronic chart.

Even though he’s barely in his early twenties, Issa Maïga can’t be considered a beginner in the world of electronic music. His passion for rhythm has indeed been growing since he was a young kid. From the drums he started playing when he was 8 to his sister’s electronic music that his house resounds with, rhythm literally leads his life.

At the age of 15, Issa finds the right people to teach him DJing techniques and mainly to help him discover influences from electronic music artists such as Bangkok Impakt, Alden Tyrell, I-F, Dopplereffekt, Detroit Techno & Chicago House Classics that still inspire him nowadays. 

Still very (too) young, Issa goes out to the Fuse (Brussels) for the first time. Once again, he quickly gets addicted to the place and sound and regularly goes back to discover labels such as Perlon, Dial and artists like Horror Inc. (Akufen, Marc Leclair), Isolee or Lawrence, which will influence him a lot. It’s there as well that he’ll be discovered by Pierre (Fuse, Lessizmore) and given a tryout for Lessizmore’s 5 years birthday in 2010. Tryout that will reveal itself successful as Issa is nowadays a resident DJ for this label and can so give a full go to his passion: sharing the rhythms that have been fascinating him since his childhood.

Hello, it's me.

My new album "The Work" is out now on City Slang. 

thanks x

Profile photos by www.lauralewisphotography.co.uk

goodspeed24 is following