Sonnymoon’s “Nothing Thought” now has a compact second life. Released digitally by Plug Research on September 18, 2012, catalogue number PLG145 pairs the 4:05 album recording with a 3:40 remix credited to Natural Self. It is a deliberately small package—one song, one reinterpretation—and its timing directs listeners back toward a track that had been gathering attention since the spring. Bleep dates the two-track release and supplies its catalogue number, while Plug Research confirms the two versions and their running times.
That modest format suits “Nothing Thought.” The original is not a loose vocal in need of a new identity, nor an incidental album cut being promoted through a stack of anonymous edits. It is a complete Sonnymoon composition by Anna Wise and Dane Orr, already supported by an official video and singled out by several critics as a high point of the duo’s self-titled Plug Research album. Natural Self’s credit introduces another producer’s route through the material, but the original remains beside it on the release. The listener is invited to compare, not replace.
A standout before it became a single
The single follows a staggered release history for Sonnymoon. Apple Music dates the US digital album to May 22, while a September review in The Upcoming described September 17 as its official release date in the publication’s market. Those listings are best understood as evidence of a territorial rollout rather than competing universal dates. In either case, “Nothing Thought” was established album material before the remix appeared. Apple Music preserves the May album date, and The Upcoming documents the later September release context.
The song was already reaching independent radio immediately after the May release. WFMU’s May 29 playlist for This Is the Modern World with Trouble identifies “Nothing Thought,” the self-titled album and Plug Research, placing it amid a characteristically exploratory sequence that also included Sun Ra, Julianna Barwick and Jonti. That appearance does not prove mass exposure, but it does show the track circulating among adventurous listeners months before the standalone remix. WFMU’s archived playlist records the broadcast.
By June, Sweeney Kovár’s Indie Shuffle review had identified the song as the album’s spiritual centre. His reading concentrated on impermanence, the intimacy of Wise’s vocal and the deliberate placement of Orr’s percussion. Okayplayer’s album review also highlighted the contrast between sombre writing and an immediately memorable melody. These responses matter because they locate the song’s appeal in the relationship between voice, words and production—not in any single detachable hook. Indie Shuffle published its assessment on June 7, while Okayplayer included the track among the album’s highlights.
Sonnymoon’s productive instability
That balance reflects the broader character of Sonnymoon. The Guardian identified the 2012 lineup as Wise on vocals and Orr on instruments and reported that they met at Berklee College of Music, where Wise studied singing and Orr studied saxophone. Its profile moved freely among electronica, R&B, jazz, avant-garde music and pop when describing the duo, treating resistance to a single category as a defining quality rather than a marketing problem. The Guardian’s August profile documents the lineup, Berklee connection and stylistic range.
“Nothing Thought” is unusually accessible within that unstable framework. The Guardian heard clicking, glitching surfaces and hip-hop technique beneath its pop attraction. The Upcoming drew attention to relaxed piano, a prominent bass line and Wise’s unusual vocal presence, ultimately naming it the album’s standout. Okayplayer similarly heard the song’s melancholy and melody working together. The descriptions differ in emphasis, but they agree on the essential point: recognisable elements are arranged so that softness and rhythmic weight can coexist.
The official video, uploaded by Sonnymoon’s own YouTube account on August 21, reinforces the song’s independent identity before the remix. Its description credits the song to Orr and Wise and the video to Gordon Hendrick. Okayplayer’s subsequent coverage focused on the contrast between home-movie imagery and more abstract visual processing, as well as the record’s heavy drums and reflective atmosphere. The video is not evidence of what Natural Self changed, but it establishes the audiovisual form against which the new version arrives. Sonnymoon’s official upload supplies the creative credits, and Okayplayer documents its contemporary reception.
Why Natural Self is a meaningful credit
Natural Self is the project of producer, vocalist and DJ Nathaniel Pearn. His label biography traces a path beginning with hip-hop and expanding through funk, soul, jazz, Latin music and electronica. It also identifies raw drums and polyrhythmic percussion as recurring features of his earlier production and notes an extensive record of remix work. That background makes him a coherent choice for Sonnymoon: both projects draw energy from rhythm without treating genre boundaries as fixed. Tru Thoughts’ artist biography identifies Pearn and outlines the project’s musical development.
The available release documentation does not include session notes, stems or a detailed production statement, so it would be misleading to invent a bar-by-bar account of the remix. What can be said securely is narrower but still useful. Natural Self delivers a separately credited version that is 25 seconds shorter than the album recording, and Plug Research makes it the only alternate interpretation on PLG145. Duration alone cannot reveal every edit or production decision. It does establish that the remix is not merely the same master relabelled: the two versions occupy distinct running times and positions on the single.
That restraint in the documentation should shape the way the release is heard and discussed. “Nothing Thought” had already been praised for precise percussion, calm keyboard writing, bass weight and a vocal performance that keeps an existential subject intimate. A worthwhile remix has several possible relationships to such a song: it may concentrate the arrangement, shift the rhythmic emphasis or change how quickly its sections arrive. The official credits do not tell us which tools Natural Self used, so the release should be approached as an audible comparison rather than reduced to an unsupported studio narrative.
A single that points in two directions
PLG145 also captures two connected histories. Sonnymoon’s relationship with Plug Research predates the self-titled album: KCRW reported in August 2010 that the group had signed to the Los Angeles label after receiving airplay from Anthony Valadez and Aaron Byrd. By 2012, that alliance had produced a full-length record whose mixture of electronic production, soul phrasing and jazz-informed musicianship was attracting attention well beyond one scene. KCRW preserves the early account of the signing.
Natural Self brings a parallel vocabulary shaped by beat-making, DJ practice and cross-genre record collecting. The remix credit therefore connects two artists without pretending they are interchangeable. Sonnymoon’s original remains the reference point: a restrained song placed near the centre of an album known for abrupt textures and stylistic turns. Natural Self’s version offers a shorter, separately designated path through it. The two-track construction lets listeners keep the composition and its reinterpretation in immediate reach.
That is why this release deserves attention despite its small scale. It does not need bonus tracks, a speculative origin story or extravagant claims about reinvention. The documented facts are enough: a song that critics and radio programmers had already elevated, an official visual identity established in August, and a single issued on September 18 with one carefully credited alternative. “Nothing Thought” can remain Sonnymoon’s quietly reflective album centre while also becoming material for another producer’s imagination. The single preserves both propositions—and asks the listener to hear the distance between them.