Are you ready for a journey? Sunrise Nowhere’s fittingly titled Intronaut feels nothing short of a trip as it progresses through its selection of spaced-out yet sonically-dense beats. Aokid’s cover illustration really sums up the experience of listening to this project, with all its distant and immersive drum patterns that are easy to lose yourself in.
His second release on Derby-based MANA Records, Sunrise Nowhere’s curation of funky synths and groovey rhythms on Intronaut lends a timeless quality to the project and sets it apart from the Lo-fi hordes. Complimented by an arrangement of muted bass drums and gentle kicks, these synths also distinguish Intronaut from the rest of Sunrise Nowhere’s discography, only serving to preserve the unique soundscape that this project inhabits.
Opening with a gentle melody, the listener is soon transported into the stratosphere on lead track ‘Blue Orb’, as Sunrise Nowhere introduces a range of motifs that will repeat throughout the project. Meanwhile, a booming and buried bass gives a sense of the Earth (the Blue Orb itself) slowly retreating into the background.
The second track, ‘Nukes’, in particular is a strong demonstration of the attention to detail that beatmakers pride themselves on, with satisfyingly distant-sounding drum kicks that drive the beat forward and form a backbone for the sonic flourishes that come from other corners of the instrumentation. Striking the perfect balance between crispness and all the muted murkiness that a chilled-out beat tape deserves, ‘Nukes’ contrasts strongly with the following track ‘Astro Jazz’, which injects a dose of funk into this outer-space environment. Bringing compelling rhythms and bombastic orchestration that is heavily reminiscent of Flying Lotus’ legendary album Cosmogramma, Sunrise Nowhere navigates these spacey grooves with a classiness that Flying Lotus only developed later on in his career.
The final track, ‘All My Yesterdays’ foregoes a drum pattern altogether and lets wandering keys take centre-stage, forming a gentle landing to close off this interstellar journey. As the keys fades out into the distance towards the end of this track, the listener is taken back to where they started their adventure, with the gentle opening melody on ‘Blue Orb’. Despite a general saturation of the music scene with beatmakers in recent years, Sunrise Nowhere manages to create a memorable and immersive soundscape that genuinely feels out of this world. Cop it now on MANA Records bandcamp.