★★★★★
Monks shows a level of continuity that most albums, let alone hip hop albums, lack. The opening track, "Monk (young)," offers a commentary on the music to follow, as the lyrics state, "One day the young monk snuck away from the monastery. His mind raced as new sounds and colors flew by." "He Ain't Well" featuring Ozay Moore, which comes next, is not the strongest track on the release but as with all things new, it reflects a learning process...
- www.jambands.com
2013-09-23
★★★★★
The jamtronica road warriors of Lotus have dropped their fifth studio album with Build, which aptly continues to build on their groovy catalog. The tunes find the band evolving their electronica meets trance rock and electro sound, with psychedelic bells and whistles galore. But stylistic diversity is scarce, with the band mining a familiar vein of similar sounds and grooves...
- www.popmatters.com
2013-05-01
★★★★★
SCI Fidelity Livetronica kings Lotus' early albums were filled with lovely, neon-liquid jams--fluid and bright. But with each progressive studio album, that flowing sound has congealed into something with structure, harder edges and sharper corners. Build, the band's fifth studio album, sees that transformation all but complete. If old-school fan favorite Nomad presented a flowing river of exotic grooves, then Build is a jagged mountain made of ice...
- www.relix.com
2013-02-19
★★★★★
Lotus' self-titled fourth studio album features the band painting with bigger, broader brushes to create their musical vision. There's a signature sound in place, the result of a decade's worth of evolution in both band and equipment, but many of the intricacies that defined the band's sound have been shaped into grander melodic ideas. The album's more engaging moments are quite triumphant...
- www.glidemagazine.com
2011-12-13
★★★★★
SCI Fidelity For a band synonymous with live electronica throughout the early 2000s, Lotus signaled a new and possibly risky direction on its post-rock leaning releases, Hammerstrike (2008) and Oil on Glass/Feather on Wood (2009)...
- www.relix.com
2011-10-20
★★★★★
The twee pop of British Columbia-based Lotus is almost a throwback to another indie scene altogether, the book-smart alt-folk of 10,000 Maniacs and their contemporaries which helped define college radio in the late '80s and early '90s. Left-of-the-dial staples such as The Sundays and the Innocence Mission are reflected in Lotus' sparkling summer-afternoon jangle and honey-warm harmonies...
- www.ink19.com
2009-07-20
★★★★★
Pop...uh, I mean, jazz quiz: what might one get if they could combine smooth/mellow fusion with a jam band, adding a generous dollop of drum & bass/jungle-style electronica? Answer: Lotus...
- www.jazzreview.com
2009-06-08
★★★★★
Talk about taking a surprising career turn. Copy/Paste/Repeat, the new remix CD from the Philadelphia, PA jam band Lotus, takes a totally different direction than you'd expect after the band's previous release, the live Escaping Sargasso Sea. That double CD showed the five-member band stretching its jazz-flecked electronic-based music out into improvisational on-stage jams...
- www.popmatters.com
2009-03-23
★★★★★
Lotus have always occupied a nebulous place in the instrumental rock world. They're not quite post-rock, although their long, building pieces almost make them a funkier Explosions in the Sky. Nor do their electronic tendencies fit in well with the jam-band scene—as prone to improvisation as they may be, these guys cull little of their influence from Phish or The Dead...
- www.popmatters.com
2009-02-27
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