Nosaj Thing [Unsigned / iTunes]
Jason Chung aka Nosaj Thing has been catching a lot of peoples attention lately. The reason is obvious. People are starved for talented electronic musicians like this. When I first listened to Jason’s promo mixtape [recorded for dublab], my brain milk was leaking all over the desk …it was disgusting. Which brings me to an interesting question – at what point do words become completely ambiguous? The other day someone told me “yo, those shoes are rude!” and I wasn’t sure if this was a good or bad thing.
Ok! Sorry about the attention deficit influenced random tangent – listen to the mix: Nosaj Thing Live On Dublab
After I cleaned up the brain-mess, I hunted down his EP, which you can buy at Turntable Lab, iTunes and through Paypal. The release sounds like a combination of Eliot Lipp, Daedelus, edIT, Ooah, Lorn & Flying Lotus, but still has a lot of its own unique character and style to it. As I regard this as one of those pieces of art that are just an amazing journey front to back, it has been difficult for me to pick out single tracks as being my favourites. -sigh-
This is the part where I do anyways:
Nosaj Thing – Heart Entire
Nosaj Thing – Distro
In the process of searching for that EP I discovered that he’s dropped a slew of remixes, some of which have even been contest winners! Surprised? Unlikely.
Daedelus-It’s Madness (Nosaj Thing Remix)
Nalepa – Flatlands (Nosaj Thing Remix)
Health-Tabloid Sores (Nosaj Thing Remix)
Plastic Little-More Tongue Less Teeth ft. MF Doom (Nosaj Thing Remix)
Scarub from Living Ledgends (?)
Eliot Lipp (?)
Jason is planning on dropping a split 7″ with Lorn, as well as a full length LP sometime in mid 2008! Word is he’s been working pretty damn hard to get it all polished and finished up. I’m not sure who to be more excited about on that 7″ to be totally honest – Lorn and Nosaj Thing are both top notch electronic music producers.
Jason is yet to be signed to a lable, which kinda blows my mind! Hefty? Alphapup? Glitch Mob Unlimited? Seriously what are you guys waiting for? This guy is Glitch-Hop’s best kept secret!
I also recommend checking out his friend Kawata, and the Mixtape. It reminded me how much i love Ratatat. If you haven’t heard their Remixes Vol. 2 yet you really should cop that shit also.


Edward Ma from Los Angeles is edIT. “Ed Ma’s first album as edIT features tracks that have been painstakingly sequenced, hiphop that takes glitchiness to the extreme. The style of the album takes cues from Prefuse 73, but taken to another level. Yet it is not really the tricky programming that really pops out at you – it’s the soulfulness and smoothness with which each track is glued together from extremely small snippets of sound. The opener features an electric piano first noodling then exploding into a shower of digital particles, it’s all put together with the ear of an expert artist. Guitars peek around the edge of many of the pieces, and there is homage to both underground beats and more g-oriented swissbeatz styles going on. Perhaps the album’s only shortcoming is its relentless pace of all things digital and beautiful, that can be almost too much to bear. Crying over pros for no reason is emotional, instrumental hiphop at its finest – looking forward with its digital edge but also beating with a warm analog heart.”
Lost Subject is the chilled out debut of a Portland based producer Deceptikon. Creating smooth jazzy downtempo beats, his music is evocative and atmospheric, equally drawing upon hip hop and jazz elements for his gorgeously produced carefully crafted grooves. Utilising numerous techniques, yet regularly arriving at a similar funky location, Deceptikon effortlessly creates the kind of highly composed beat orientated instrumental hip hop pieces championed in recent times by Ninja Tune via the likes of Sixtoo or Blockhead. Whilst not necessarily pushing the sonic envelope, Deceptikon is peerless in his ability to get a groove on, though he is at his best on cuts like /treeghost/ where he doesn’t rely solely on the beats, utilising acoustic guitar and synthesizer to create an intimate sense of longing. Composed over the last few years, Lost Subject is a journey that fits perfectly into the lounge room – funky basslines, crackling trip hop beats and lush gentle atmospheres that act as a relaxing tonic to all the stressors of daily life.
Sam Nelson doesn’t use a single truly novel sound or effect on his first album as Little Plastic Pilots. Every sample and tone you hear has been used by one electronic auteur or another, and most have been done half to death. What’s most remarkable about Little Plastic Pilots, then, is the fact that an absolutely unmistakable personality and musical vision arises from the arrangement and interplay of these utterly familiar elements. Nelson doesn’t attempt to redefine or reinvigorate his genre (as have some of his biggest influences, including Aphex Twin, Autechre, and Boards of Canada); rather, he’s the sort of artist who, finding a complete set of tools and genre parameters available to him, exploits one corner of that established framework to the utmost. More often than not, it’s artists of Nelson’s temperament who create most of a given genre’s most memorable statements.
This album finds Nobody (aka Elvin Estela) in transition and in regression, building on psychedelic themes apparent in his last album, yet revisiting his hip-hop roots as heard on hisdebut Soulmates (2000, Ubiquity Records). Nobody once again teams upwith Mystic Chords of Memory (Chris Gunst of Beachwood Sparks and JenCohen of the Aisler’s Set) and Farmer Dave Scher (Beachwood Sparks) who delivered the standout track on Pacific Drift, a beat heavy cover of theMonkees’ “Porpoise Song.” This time, they jump 30 years to cover one ofNobody’s favorite 90’s anthems, The Flaming Lips’ “What is the Light?“
