''Flying Colours'' is the third album by

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n hip hop group Bliss n Eso. It was released by Illusive Sounds on 26 April 2008. At the

J Awards of 2008 The J Award of 2008 is the fourth annual J Awards, established by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's youth-focused radio station Triple J Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian radio station ...

, the album was nominated for Australian Album of the Year. The album was recorded in three different continents over twelve months, and features Illmaculate (World freestyle and Scribble Jam champion), a 20 piece African Zulu Choir (The Zulu Connections Choir),

Debaser "Debaser" is a song by American alternative rock band Pixies, and is the first song on their 1989 album '' Doolittle''. The song was written and sung by frontman Black Francis and was produced by Gil Norton during ''Doolittles recording sess ...

(US),

Hyjak Hyjak N Torcha is an Australian hip hop group from Sydney, New South Wales. Biography The group formed in 2000, consisting of Hyjak (Jack McCarthy), Torcha (John Chmielewski), and DJ Bonez (George Kordas). Hyjak first appeared on the scene in ...

and

Phrase In syntax and grammar, a phrase is a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adjective phrase "very happy". Phrases can consi ...

. In an interview with

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

newspaper Jonathan Notley (Bliss) explained that the band's previous albums were recorded on the fly, in sporadic periods whenever they could score some studio time, whereas with Flying Colours, the Sydneysiders relocated to Melbourne for three months of dedicated writing and recording at Richmond's Sing Sing Studios

"We decided to get out of Sydney and go somewhere where we could get up every day and just focus on making the record. It was great. We weren't worried about the pressure of what people would think, or forcing it or trying to make hits" - Notley

The cover of the album features artwork by tattoo artist, Steve Cross from Melbourne. It depicts a man with blazing coloured wings leaping off a cliff.

"With this album we wanted to do something a bit different than just pictures of us. We kinda wanted to go a little bit more creative and imaginative. We thought of this concept of this guy like leaping off this cliff with these flaming colourful wings, and it kind of really worked with the context of this album and obviously the title." - Notley

The first single from the album, a reworking of Citizen Cope's "Bullet and a Target", gained major national commercial radio and television airplay. ''Flying Colours'' features production from Bliss,

and

Hattori Hanzo is a Japanese surname. Notable people * , mathematician *, Japanese footballer * , Japanese samurai * , Japanese classical composer * , manga artist * , Japanese classical violinist * , Japanese racing driver and journalist * , Japanese bask ...

, the album was mixed at Sing Sing Studios (Melbourne) by Noam Dishon and Andy Baldwin (

The Cat Empire The Cat Empire are an Australian jazz/funk band, formed in Melbourne, Victoria, in 1999. For most of the band's duration, the core members were Felix Riebl (lead vocals, percussion), Harry James Angus (trumpet, vocals), Will Hull-Brown (drums), ...

, Spiderbait,

Killing Heidi Killing Heidi are an Australian rock band, formed in Violet Town, Victoria in 1996, initially as a folk-pop duo by siblings Ella and Jesse Hooper. The band has released three studio albums: '' Reflector'' (March 2000), which reached No. 1 ...

). The third single off the album "Eye of the Storm" uses the main riff and idea from folk rock duo Angus & Julia Stone song "Paper Aeroplane". It was featured as the

Triple J Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian Radio in Australia, radio station intended to appeal to listeners of alternative music, which began broadcasting in January 1975. The station also places a greate ...

feature album in the week leading up to its release. The album debuted a week after its release at the No. 10 position on the Australian ARIA Albums Chart. and reached the No. 1 position on the ARIA Top 40 Urban Albums chart. The album was nominated for a

J Award The J Awards are an annual series of Australian music awards that were established by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's youth-focused radio station Triple J and which are judged by the music and on-air teams from radio stations Triple J, ...

in August 2008. The album was also nominated for an ARIA award for 'Best Urban Release' in 2008. In an interview with Xpress magazine Notley indicated their surprise at the album's success.

"To tell you the truth it smashed any of my expectations. The reception for the record has been fantastic so we couldn't really be happier at the moment." - Notley

Following the group's successful appearance at the

Sound Relief Sound Relief was a multi-venue rock music concert held on 14 March 2009, which was announced by the Premier of Victoria, John Brumby on 24 February 2009. The event was organised by Michael Gudinski, Michael Chugg, Amanda Pelman, Joe Segreto & To ...

concert on 14 March 2009 at the

MCG The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as "The 'G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hem ...

, "Field of Dreams" featuring

Paris Wells Paris Wells is an Australian singer-songwriter based in Melbourne. She has released two albums and one EP. Wells has played at festivals such as Falls Festival, Big Day Out, Meredith and Sydney Music Festival. She has supported Justin Timberlak ...

was officially released to radio as a single. On 14 June 2009 the album became only the second

Australian hip hop Australian hip hop traces its origins to the early 1980s and is largely inspired by hip hop and other urban musical genres from the United States. As the form matured, Australian hip hop has become a commercially viable style of music which i ...

record to be certified

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

, after being in the

ARIA charts The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

for 58 weeks. In October 2010, ''Flying Colours'' was listed in the book, '' 100 Best Australian Albums''.

Track listing

All songs written by Jonathon Notley, Max MacKinnon and Noam Dishon, except where notedAPRA database
at the

Australasian Performing Right Association APRA AMCOS consists of Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), both copyright management organisations or copyright collectives which jointly represent over 100,000 songwr ...

website (search each song title) ''Flying Colours'' #"The Beginning" – 1:41 #"Woodstock 2008" – 4:27 #"Eye of the Storm" (Jonathon Notley, Max MacKinnon, A. Stone, J. Stone) – 3:27 #"

Bullet and a Target "Bullet and a Target" is a song by Citizen Cope recorded by Australian hip hop trio Bliss n Eso, with featured vocals from Connections Zulu Choir. The song was released as the lead single from the trio's third studio album '' Flying Colours'' ...

" (featuring the Zulu Connection Choir) ( Clarence Greenwood) – 4:15 #"Happy in My Hoody" (featuring

and

) (Jonathon Notley, Max MacKinnon, J McCarthy, Harley Webster, Vester) – 4:19 #"Destiny Lane" (Jonathon Notley, Max MacKinnon, Mark Landon) – 3:41 #"Zion Bash" (Jonathon Notley, Max MacKinnon, Mark Landon) – 2:51 #"

The Sea is Rising "The Sea is Rising" is a song by Australian hip hop trio Bliss n Eso featuring John Butler Trio. It was released in 2008 as the third single from the trio's third studio album, '' Flying Colours''. The song peaked and debuted at No. 80 on t ...

" – 5:36 #"Gorilla Militia" (Jonathon Notley, Max MacKinnon, Mark Landon) – 3:14 #"How to Listen, Part 1" – 3:02 #"Climb These Cliffs" (Jonathon Notley, Max MacKinnon, Noam Dishon, Mark Landon) – 3:41 #"At Midnight" – 5:21 #"Royal Flush" – 3:52 #"$5 Steak" (Jonathon Notley, Max MacKinnon, Noam Dishon, Etheridge, Montgo) – 5:35 #"The Truth" (featuring

ILLmacuLate Gregory Poe (born February 4, 1986), better known by his stage name Illmaculate (a.k.a. Illmac), is an American battle rap Battle rap (also known as rap battling)Edwards, Paul, 2009, p. 25. is a type of rapping performed between two or more ...

and Sapient) – 4:41 #"Never Give Up" (featuring Changes) (Jonathon Notley, Max MacKinnon, Noam Dishon, Mchunu, Mhlongo) – 4:31 #"Field of Dreams" (featuring

) – 3:24 ''Flying Colours'' limited edition bonus disc #"The Dark Tower" – 5:49 (features a sample from the 1947 radioplay The Dark Tower by Louis MacNeice) #"Lonely Streets" (featuring Debaser) – 4:33 #"Bullet and a Target" (acoustic version) (featuring the Zulu Connection Choir) – 3:58 #"Mexican Spit Fire" – 2:30 #"Choof Choof Train" – 4:09

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2008 albums ARIA Award-winning albums Bliss n Eso albums