PREVIEW A delicate secret lies behind electronic producer Jason Chung’s musical alias, Nosaj Thing. I’ll break it down quickly. Invert Jason from front to back so that the sound rolls off the tongue in an ephemeral two-step hop from palate to teeth. Supplement that spacious beginning with a full-bodied surname, and the paradoxical nature of "Nosaj Thing" is complete. Corporeal sensuality whisked away in nebulous lightness. Might there be such an impossible thing? I point the nonbelievers in the direction of Chung’s full length debut, Drift (Alpha Pup), a brilliant soundscape still building in momentum since last month’s release. A lesson in the elegant aerodynamics of heavy objects, Drift reflects the harmonious relations of galactic bodies floating in space and the unbelievable lightness of human-made aircrafts soaring in the air.
The 24-year-old Chung’s committed but decidedly loose affiliation with the versatile Low End Theory collective has fueled his lift-off into ethereal robotics. But Chung has picked up a free range ethic of self-determination from the L.A. underground more than any ideological doctrine. On Drift, Nosaj Thing’s disembodied mind sets off on an odyssey through eerie, oil-spill melodies and cavernous rhythmic voids. Darkly harmonic sounds are submerged under the android lights of an indigo night sky. The result is a soundtrack for an ancient sci-fi film about a genetically engineered Moses drifting along a river between Virgil’s hell and a raver’s ecstatic heaven. Oh, I can keep going.
BLASTHAUS PRESENTS NOSAJ THING’S DRIFT ALBUM RELEASE PARTY
Fri/31, 9 p.m., $12.50. Mighty, 119 Utah Street, SF. (415) 762-0151, www.mighty119.com