Khalil Joseph, an Indian film director, put together a truly mind stopping short film for the new Flying Lotus album, which will be released October 1st/2nd. Flying Lotus, known for his mixed genres, producing music for Adult Swim, and remixing tracks from famous artists such as Radiohead, is what many music lovers believe to be a true musician. Piecing together from what seems to be a million sounds from a million genres, his music shows the work he has put into it by the abstract and unique sounds he creates and releases.
The film, titled after the album Until The Quiet Comes, leaves the viewer in a completely different state then they had been before viewing the 3:50 minute video. The film opens under water, bubbling, and the empty feeling and image of yourself sinking. A young boy is shown holding up a non existent gun, and when he pulls the trigger, he himself gets shot. When the slow heart aching music rolls in the screen switches to the neighborhood of Nickerson Gardens, Los Angeles. The video follows the boys in the neighborhood, mimicking older men throughout the video. As the screen follows the young pre-teen boys throughout their neighborhood, the music is cycles through slow, peaceful, suspenseful, and comforting beats, while the screen flashes images of the men wiping down their souped-up cars and young men with gold chains, yet the young boys are playing with sticks and slabs of wood, because it’s the ghetto. The camera follows the young boys jumping fences, playing guns, fighting one another, and walking alone in the dark at night. The music stops again, and you see the frozen image of a drive by shooting, with the young boys in the back, the young man on the floor, and the car driving by. As the young man on floor is getting up, the setting is still frozen, as you realize he is traveling on after death. This film descriptively demonstrated existentially what happens “until the quiet comes,” through this neighborhood. I believe this is what Flying Lotus tried to demonstrate through his music, and Kahlil Joseph through this film. A truly beautifully done film,where as the viewer you feel the paralysis of the people in this neighborhood, and what they experience before, during, and after the quiet reaches them.
