Following the premiere of Netflix’s new anime “Yasuke” on April 29, Flying Lotus has unveiled the full soundtrack of the series.
It features 45 minutes of themed music across 26 tracks, and also includes some guest appearances from Thundercat on “Black Gold,” Denzel Curry on “African Samurai” and Niki Randa on “Between Memories” and “Hiding in the Shadows.”
Flying Lotus utilizes hybridizing synth melodies, bass lines and machine generated drum patterns alongside traditional Japanese percussion instruments such as the taiko and hyōshigi, plus west African percussion, to pay homage to the Afro-Japanese world of the series.
“You haven’t really heard an anime score do a “Blade Runner” thing,” FlyLo said in a bio by Timhotep Aku. “I was like, ‘let me try and get into the headspace of that’ but also there were several things that were part of the recipe for me. I thought about when Dilla would sample [Isao] Tomita and people like Vangelis, and how he had a [signature] sound when he did that sort of thing.”
Along with creating the soundtrack, the GRAMMY winner served as consultant and executive producer for Yasuke, which also stars LaKeith Stanfield as the titular character.
Stream Flying Lotus’ Yasuke soundtrack on Spotify and Apple Music below, and watch the series on Netflix.