NOSAJ THING レコード& CD

Review: Los Angeles-born and raised Jason W. Chung aka Nosaj Thing is back on Lucky Me with a new album, more than 15 years into his career. Continua is his fifth album overall and this one finds him working with a top crew of collaborators including Toro y Moi, Sam Gendel, Pink Siifu, Panda Bear and Eyedress. Renowned for his ability to craft soundscapes that draw on his life in music from early punk and DIY shows to his sets at the famed Low End Theory, here he again cooks up an all-pervading mood of absorbing synth goodness. Some rides broke beats, some is abstract, all of it is gold.

Review: Nosaj Thing's fifth studio album, 'Continua' - his first full-length excursion since 2017 - earned plenty of plaudits when it first appeared on streaming platforms in the autumn. Listening to this belated CD edition, it's easy to see why. Warmer, deeper and dreamier than much of his work, it begins with the picturesque pianos-and-ambient pads of 'Continua' and ends with the drowsy, slow-motion electronic dream pop of 'Different Life' with vocalist Eyedress. In between, he shuffles between deep, breakbeat driven dreaminess ('My Soul or Something', with KAZ), chopped and screwed aquatic soul (the serpentwithfeet-sporting 'Woodland'), gently jazzy ambient soul ('Grasp', which features a trio of guests), ethereal hip-hop wooziness ('Look Both Ways' with Pink Siifu) and impeccable ambient pop (Panda Bear hook-up 'All Over').