Louis Cole’s fifth album is called nothing and it is a collaboration with the Dutch Metropole Orkest directed by Jules Buckley. Cole is a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist who is normally thought of as only a drummer. The new album showcases a fuller picture of his creative impulses with inspiration from big band horns. The Los Angeles-based musician wanted to use his appreciation for classical music gleaned from his father to compose new songs not beholden to one genre. The Metropole Orkest was a good fit for Cole’s vision because they have a history of working with jazz artists with an eclectic scope of music including Ella Fitzgerald, Herbie Hancock, and Pat Metheny.

“Things Fall Apart” is from nothing and in the video Cole’s funk influences are expressed with him, the orchestra, and the singers performing while wearing skeleton outfits. The video is taken from one of their shows in Germany during their tour of Europe. Cole will return to Germany in the fall to perform nothing with the Orkest and Buckley. He has shared the tracklisting for nothing, including the Grammy-nominated “Let It Happen” on his 2023 album, Some Unused Songs. Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder imprint will release nothing on August 9th. The album will be available in two vinyl prints. 

nothing Tracklisting

1.  Ludovici Cole Est Frigus
2. Things Will Fall Apart
3. Life
4. It All Passes
5. Cruisin’ for P
6. A Pill in the Sea
7. nothing
8. Who Cares 1
9. Who Cares 2
10. Wizard Funk
11. Weird Moments
12. High Five
13. These Dreams are Killing Me
14. Shallow Laughter : Bitches (orchestral version)
15. Let it Happen (orchestral version)
16. Doesn’t Matter
17. You Belonged

Louis Cole reveals that his new album Quality Over Opinion is coming out and posts the video for “I’m Tight.” The bouncy funk jam is represented by a visual of Cole and crew dancing in unison for the camera. The multi-instrumentalist with a jazz background said this about the forthcoming release, “There is no continuous thread of a story on this album, each song expresses its own moment in my life and time. I was inspired by joy, pain and the constant mission to pull something out of life around me.” Cole recorded the music in his home studio with some of his closest friends with the goal of taking the best of his artistry to make something that can resonate all kinds of listeners. Quality Over Opinion will be released on Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder label on October 14th and Cole’s tour of the United States starts on October 19th.

Louis Cole’s “Doing The Things” video comes out today before the release of his Live Sesh And Xtra Songs EP. The Thundercat collaborator’s fourth studio album, Time, was released in 2018. Cole demonstrates his ability to play multiple instruments in the clip that has screens of him singing and playing guitar, keyboards and drums. Cole shared the process for the video in a press release: 

“The live session was the day after my Time album release show in LA, so I just used the same band. I also got five of my friends to wear beekeeper suits to film and record the audio. Beekeeper suits are really cheap by the way. At the end of the day I had three really nice takes of those songs. We accidentally left the air conditioning on, there were cars driving by, aeroplanes, people living in the house, and I think at some point you can hear all of those things in the recordings which is perfect to me. The whole day was slightly blurry because I was frantically trying to lead the whole session and band, while trying to play the songs right (I messed up the ‘F it Up’ solo intro pretty much every time besides that final take), while also trying to problem-solve in the moment (microphones, snacks and shot placement), but the whole day felt like pure magic. So many friends coming together.”

Live Sesh And Xtra Songs will be released April 5th. 

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[youtube id=”a6LhO7YsayY”]Louis Cole is his own band in several frames of blue with different instruments. The video for “Phone” comes one day before the release of his Time Out album tomorrow. He says, 

“This song is about someone picking up their phone. It gets deeper than that though. I don’t wanna over explain it. It looks at it from all sides. Also the groove is reeeeeeaaaal nice.”

Cole’s third album has features from his friend Thundercat is on the Brainfeeder roster. The funk soul artist will be touring America and Canada in support of Time Out.