[Cover photo credit to Parker Day]

Electronic artist Flying Lotus has announced new EP Big Mama, coming out on the 6th of March 2026. It marks the debut release from the Producer, otherwise known as Steve Ellison, on his own Brainfeeder imprint: the Los Angeles based record label he founded almost two decades ago. It has since released records from artists such as Thundercat, Hiatus Kaiyote, Kamasi Washington, and many more.

The EP delivers what he describes as “experimental, maximalist, hyperfast, electronic burst of energy”, across seven tracks which act as a “single continuous composition.”

He explains:

I wanted it to feel like being shot out of a cannon, just explosive, unpredictable energy. Like a fuckin’ computer gone awry. Like a machine that had just lost its mind.

The EP was created in the wake of a period of isolation spent directing and scoring his latest feature film, Ash, a process that saw him going back-to-basics in New Zealand with just his laptop and a controller.

He says:

It was like being in this hyperbolic time chamber, having to make a whole soundtrack alone. I felt like right after that I wanted to do anything but what I was just doing. So I started this project, and it felt like such a release to be able to have this place where I could just vent out some of my inner chaos.

The release features artwork by Christopher Ian Macfarlane, with whom Ellison found a kindred spirit through a shared love of the cartoons he grew up with.

Big Mama is a milestone as the first full Flying Lotus release on his own Brainfeeder imprint.

Explaining the move he says:

I think it was just time at this point to work with the label that I built and work more closely with the team that’s around me more. You know, we’ve been able to compete with some pretty big records in the world, we’ve been at the Grammys several times, and I think we’ve built a nice situation for ourselves, so why not? It’s about time, I think!