Drift is the debut album for Nosaj Thing, one of L.A.’s finest up and coming producers, having remixed Daedelus and Flying Lotus, won Plastic Little/Turntable Lab’s remix contest featuring MF Doom, and won the prestigious Project Blowed beat battle, he has become a popular regular at the seminal Low End Theory club night in L.A.
Drift fused hip hop sensibilities with electronica, sometimes lush and organic, sometimes highly edited and injected with glitch. He could be compared to a new and upcoming breed of hip hop producers, producing a leftfield electronic sound, or alongside what is being called ‘wonky’. Nosaj Thing’s music has as much to do with electronics as it does hip hop, creating a soundtrack for the future, oozing with vibrant bass, and a menacing undertone that never seems to surface, never overtaking the gloss, retaining a playful joy as if channeling an L.A. summer. It’s this playfulness that really works, in tracks such as ‘Quest’, ‘Fog’, ‘IOIO’, ‘2222’ and ‘Lords’, Nosaj Thing shows just how he weaves his magic.
A beautiful debut, and a producer to keep a very close eye on, released on Alpha Pup too, which has become a label to watch also, releasing the forward thinking producers of a new school.
Wayne Stronell
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