Los Angeles’ Steve Ellison – aka Flying Lotus – has been compared to Jimi Hendrix and is directly connected to the Coltranes through his family tree. He pays tribute to – and greatly expands – on his bloodline’s legacy on his second LP for Warped Records.

For nearly 45-minutes, Ellison takes the wheel and flawlessly unleashes and sequences a smorgasbord of sounds, which include big beat dance (“Do The Astral Plane”), club bangers (“Nose Art”), and hip hop (“Zodiac Shit”). He even flexes his muscles, tossing in some tribal drums (“Dance of the Pseudo Nymph”) and orchestral strings (“Drips/Aunties Harp”).

Hidden under all the album’s intricacies are thick, fluid, bass lines flipping and turning all over the place like a 300-pound gymnast going apes-hit during the floor exercise.

“Do The Astral Plane” sounds like something suited for a cosmic wedding on the moon; the horns and bass on the four-and-a-half minute exercise in funkiness are enough to make a wallflower want to uprock – and it gets even cooler after that.

“German Haircut” may only be less than two-minutes long, but it is a smoky, freeform jazz cut that that would merit more exploration on any other album. Instead, it settles for being the perfect intro to “Recoiled” – a five-and-a-half minute blend of serene ambient tones, spastic noise, and samples that sounds like they came from pit row at Talladega.

Cosmogramma mostly forsakes the vocals and despite Thom Yorke’s contribution on “…And the World Laughs With You”, the first real vocal actually comes when Ellison reconnects with Laura Darlington on “Table Tennis”. (Darlington contributed to his Warp debut — Los Angeles) With the sound of ping pong balls in the background, Flying Lotus takes the backseat and lets one-half of L.A. cosmic-folk outfit, The Long Lost?, execute her breathy vocals over one of the coolest tracks she’s ever touched. In fact, every cut has something to offer.

He acknowledges his jazz pedigree time and time again on Cosmogramma. As evidenced by the spastic bass line on “Pickled!”, the drum sample on “Arkestry”, and his cousin’s saxophone part on “Recoiled”. Ellison creates tracks that scream for someone to bring his great-uncle John Coltrane back from the grave for a live mash-up.

Ellison makes it near impossible to push him into any categorical corner. The only thing really obvious on Cosmogramma is that Flying Lotus is clearly part of an unique group of artists (Deadmau5, Nice Nice) who are quickly bring modern, electronics-based music back into the mainstream. The 17-song set should easily function as the perfect gateway album for anyone trying to expand his or her tastes beyond much of today’s guitar-driven music. So punch a ticket, and take a Flying Lotus ride.