Would I be as devoted to left-of-center sounds as I am today without Brainfeeder? While it’s impossible to say for sure, I doubt it. Flying Lotus’ skunky, grotesque label spent the 2010s emphasizing the gray area between jazz, hip-hop, and electronic experimentation. It uplifted a sphere of woozy California weirdos delivering what, at the time, was truly mind-boggling material. Artists including Teebs, Daedelus, and Ras G beamed utopian melodies through layers of warbled chords and trippy effects, evoking thick smoke wafting through a Venice Beach apartment. Obsessing over Brainfeeder releases as a teenager took me somewhere deeply cosmic and a little seedy — a universe far more alluring than that of my bedroom in Northern Virginia.
