Flying Lotus (aka Steven Ellison) is one of the most original electronic music artists working today (well, except that he’s bogarted dubstep maverick Zomby’s mask game—and that’s coming from Zomby himself!). As a result, FlyLo’s upcoming full-length Cosmogramma is being hailed by those that have heard it—like tastemaker BBC DJ Mary Anne Hobbs—as a paradigm-shifting opus (FlyLo himself calls it a “space opera”) that will change electronic music forever. His second album, 2008’s Los Angeles, was his breakthrough—a game-changer itself, its jazzy mutant stew of skewed electronic beats proving as listenable as it did challenging and adventurous, putting Lotus into near-Aphex Twin legend status. At the same time, he’s been working with a diverse artists like the jazz vocalist Jose James, whose smooth delivery is only made more compelling when paired with Lotus’ digital sandpaper.

Indeed, Cosmogramma must be as good as the advance hype—the likes of both Thom Yorke and Erykah Badu have deigned to put his vocals on it, after all. To further whet appetites until its release in early May, FlyLo’s label, the esteemed Warp imprint, has blessed us with three unreleased tracks, none of which will appear on Cosmogramma, but all of which showcase a different color in the producer’s kaleidoscopic quiver. “Quakes” is one of Ellison’s loping, hypnotic tracks that casts a spell in its rippling, Dilla-esque rhythms of tinkling percussion and off-kilter synth burbles; like his best work, it seems to become a part of the atmosphere it’s heard in, changing it in into Lotus’ decidedly psychedelic image. “Ancestors” is one of the tracks FlyLo has created for the mystical troubadour GonjaSufi, yet it shows more of Lotus’ hip-hop roots: where Sufi’s Devendra Banhart-style hippie shtick is often paired with trebly garage rock, FlyLo surrounds him here with scratchy Wu Tang-style grooves that seem to float in the air, making Sufi seem even more strange and exotic (a feat). As airy as “Ancestors” is, “Photo Shoot,” a remix of an Atlanta gangsta rapper Gucci Mane track, teems with claustrophobia, hitting hard with sirens and insistent drums; on it, FlyLo deconstructs the beat to evoke the ballooned mind state of Mane’s rhymes even more effectively than the original. The promise and diversity of these tracks demonstrate Lotus’ sprawling virtuosity, making anticipation for Cosmogramma even greater: if he can go this far on throwaways, imagine what he’ll do on a fully realized album.