Bleep

Continua is both Nosaj Thing's most explorative and collaborative effort yet, yielding twelve tracks with just as many collaborators. That time spent in service to other artists clearly had an impact on the Angeleno, as the record runs through genres, styles, and switch ups like sprinklers on a hot summer’s day.

Five long years have passed since the last Nosaj Thing LP surfaced, or to borrow a phrase from the man himself, “it’s been a minute.” That’s nearly a lifetime in the hyperspeed news cycle that is electronic music, enough time to get lost in the shuffle of new sounds, trends, technology, and clubs, but the artist known as Jason Chung to some never stepped away entirely. Guest production with artists as diverse as Kendrick Lamar, Chance The Rapper, and Juliana Barwick took up the lion’s share, but a couple of EPs and some remix work saw him flex those Nosaj muscles into familiar but slightly new shapes. Folding more traditional sounds into his process to meet that format while still maintaining flashes of that signature Nosaj sound. All of this work outside the typical purview suggested some sort of event horizon, and that moment has finally come into frame. Nosaj Thing has a new LP ready for the masses.

After a gently beatless intro, ‘My Soul Or Something’ compresses dusty Amen breaks and siren bass synths into a neat little pop song for Kazu Makino of Blonde Redhead to gift vocals to. Elsewhere, Nosaj sets a molasses drip cadence on the trip-hop influenced ‘Woodland’ while serpentwithfeet cuts through the intoxicating haze with a paean to a lover. Animal Collective’s Panda Bear continues his winning streak of electronic collaborations with the emotional tease ‘All Over’ and its winking deep house drop that never actually copulates. Also of note, Grasp features a veritable trifecta of guests featuring UK polymath Coby Sey alongside LA's Slauson Malone and Sam Gendel, on the buttons and the sax respectively, while Look Both Ways slides in the singular Pink Siifu's signature flow. Most striking of all though is the lead single ‘Blue Hour.’ Julianna Barwick returns the favor with some of her least abstracted vocals yet, lending a gilded edge to some widescreen sound design that wouldn’t be out of place on a record of her own.