Logo
DiS Needs You: Save our site »
  • Logo_home2
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • In Photos
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Search
  • Community
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • Blog
  • Community

THIS SITE HAS BEEN ARCHIVED AND CLOSED.

Please join the conversation over on our new forums »

If you really want to read this, try using The Internet Archive.

Nosaj Thing

Home

Label: Innovative Leisure Release Date: 21/01/2013

88582
WillDTA by William Grant January 18th, 2013

Sometimes little is said about how the emotion of electronic music can be portrayed properly. With the landscape nowadays littered with popular, house-hungry beats from the likes of Skrillex, Disclosure and other four-to-the-floor torchbearers, those with a more introspective view seem to have become less and less in evidence.

The Burials of this world hide behind their emotive sonic landscapes but find kinship in unlikely places. Jason Chung, under the alias of Nosaj Thing, found similar fandom with his own brand of downtempo, near hip-hop style instrumentals with debut album Drift. It stands up to this day as a magnificent example of a dying artform in a continuously more superficial electronic world. And with Home, that stirred heart still beats, albeit with an occasionally unwelcome arrythmia.

The template hasn’t changed much, and to some extent this is no bad thing. ‘Distance’ could easily find a home alongside the stronger turns on Drift, with its Boards of Canada-baiting high hooks and mutating bass lines dancing over its parental broken beat. ‘Snap’, similarly, swaggers through the dark spaces it creates itself, bouncing around a tight compound of ever building synths, whilst ‘Safe’ echoes Apparat’s Berliner techno in a downtrodden fashion that it’s only right to feel some kind of loving sympathy for.

Such moments stand out to the Nosaj-trained ear already, but it’s in the newer sounds where Chung’s musical contestations now lie. His music may be well accustomed to the basements and clubs of the beard-stroking masses, but none of his music has ever truly crossed over to a more traditional dance set, vocals and all - until now. Home’s lead single, ‘Eclipse/Blue’ – a track suitably accompanied by a perfectly suiting, stargazing visual – sees his first turn with vocals as Blonde Redhead’s Kazu Makino breathes an ethereal and joyous life into Chung’s heart-wrenching musical mosaic. Unfortunately, Makino's confidence doesn’t seem to apply to Chaz Bundick aka Toro Y Moi’s inclusion on ‘Try’ – a track that stands out in its unfortunate limpness, his vocal proving to be a kind of unwelcome hitchhiker to the ride.

It’s in these experimentations where Home does tend to fall short of the heights of Drift. ‘Glue’ plods where others thrive, upping the tempo to little effect in accompaniment of a pre-IDM synth wobble – a mesh of stylings that, on paper, could blend perfectly, but in this reality fall flat. ‘Phase III’ attempts a similar upbest approach, but melodies remain unperturbed and flat around the percussions new skittishness. These may be minor slights, but they, unfortunately, stand out against Home’s wider backdrop of deft, empathetic touches.

  • 7
    William Grant's Score
Log-in to rate this record out of 10
Share on
   
Love DiS? Become a Patron of the site here »


LATEST


  • Why Music Journalism Matters in 2024


  • Drowned in Sound is back!


  • Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Year: 2020


  • Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter


  • Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing


  • Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alternative must sees



Left-arrow

This Town Needs Guns

13.0.0.0.0

Mobback
88581
88584

Foxygen

We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors Of Peace & Magic

Mobforward
Right-arrow


LATEST

    news


    Why Music Journalism Matters in 2024

  • 106145
  • news


    Drowned in Sound is back!

  • 106143

    news


    Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Y...

  • 106141
  • news


    Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter

  • 106139

    Playlist


    Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing

  • 106138
  • Festival Preview


    Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alterna...

  • 106137

    Interview


    A Different Kind Of Weird: dEUS on The Ideal Crash

  • 106136
  • Festival Review


    Way Out East: DiS Does Sharpe Festival 2019

  • 106135
MORE


    news


    The Neptune Music Prize 2016 - Vote Now

  • 103918
  • Takeover


    The Winner Takes It All

  • 50972

    Takeover


    10 Things To Not Expect Your Record Producer To...

  • 93724
  • review


    The Mars Volta - Deloused In The Comatorium

  • 4317

    review


    Sonic Youth - Nurse

  • 6044
  • feature


    New Emo Goth Danger? My Chemical Romance confro...

  • 89578

    feature


    DiS meets Justice

  • 27270
  • news


    Our Independent music filled alternative to New...

  • 104374
MORE

Drowned in Sound
  • DROWNED IN SOUND
  • HOME
  • SITE MAP
  • NEWS
  • IN DEPTH
  • IN PHOTOS
  • RECORDS
  • RECOMMENDED RECORDS
  • ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
  • FESTIVAL COVERAGE
  • COMMUNITY
  • MUSIC FORUM
  • SOCIAL BOARD
  • REPORT ERRORS
  • CONTACT US
  • JOIN OUR MAILING LIST
  • FOLLOW DiS
  • GOOGLE+
  • FACEBOOK
  • TWITTER
  • SHUFFLER
  • TUMBLR
  • YOUTUBE
  • RSS FEED
  • RSS EMAIL SUBSCRIBE
  • MISC
  • TERM OF USE
  • PRIVACY
  • ADVERTISING
  • OUR WIKIPEDIA
© 2000-2025 DROWNED IN SOUND