Nosaj Thing
Fated
INNOVATIVE LESIURE
7/10
Jason Chung makes music for the dark, specifically, the infinite and impermanent moment just around mid-night. Appropriately, the electronic beats, samples, and melodies he constructs as Nosaj Thing manifest both as dreamy reveries and insomniatic visions in this surreal space-time paradox. For Fated, Nosaj Thing’s third LP (and second for Innovative Leisure), Chung explores all subconscious realms, capturing the weird, more sinister qualities of oOoOO, the ambient lushness of Clams Casino, and the crossover appeal of James Blake and Flying Lotus. On “Cold Stares,” the most linear of the album’s offerings, Chung wields his instinctual, savvy abilities as a producer over laidback lyrics from Chance the Rapper, one of two discernable (and credited) vocal appearances. However, Fated is less an album of songs than a workbook of sonic experiments; the results are genre-melding—maybe genre-less—and fantastic, even in the two-minute doses most of the compositions take form as. For all its exceptional unusualness, it’s a captivating and stimulating listen—no matter what time of day.
