Nourished by Time @ The Sinclair 9/15
Photography by Miguel Gonzales
Review by Owen Butler
When synthesizer appreciation meets a retro vocal style, magic happens. Just look at the works of Frank Ocean and George Clanton. The 2010s may have been marred with regrettable synth-tragedies, but out of the sieve of 2020 came Nourished by Time. Releasing his first official album in 2023, Marcus Brown, aka Nourished by Time, made a name for himself in the online indie scene of synth heads, whose fans stretch the entire age range of r/mu. The show’s crowd reflected this range—no age group was spared.
Before Brown’s performance, experimental pop artist and downtown NYC fashion icon Zsela graced The Sinclair’s stage. A stage doesn’t take much to look otherworldly. On Monday night, all it took was white pantyhose stretched over four folding chairs and a red flood light to make a stage suitable for Zsela’s extraterrestrial pop sound. Despite its sparse instrumentation evoking a Kubrick sense of space’s vastness, Zsela’s music is purely humanistic at its heart.
Brown ran onto the stage with the cheers of a crowd welcoming a soldier home. Hailing originally from Baltimore, Marcus Brown first attended Berklee College of Music over a decade ago. So while this show was not a true homecoming show, the venue became a 10-year reunion for all college-aged spirits. He started the show with “Automatic Love,” a four-minute synth opener from his latest album, The Passionate Ones. His new album is a collection of vignettes about modern romance in a world that demands more from you by the day.
He followed the track with its official successor, “Idiots in the Park,” a straight groove about the necessity of danger in romance and needing “a love that leaves a scar.” Without missing a beat, Nourished by Time slid right into the fan-favorite “Shed that Fear,” which showcased Brown’s (and noteworthily, the audience’s) rich vocals and sultry charm. The song is a reincarnate’s anthem relatable to all those who haven’t quite escaped Samsara. Eternally optimistic and meant to be screamed, Nourished by Time’s lyrics don’t deviate from the triumphant power of his sonics.
Next up was “It’s Time,” an alchemical concoction of equal piano, synth, and buttery guitar. The song demands the audience to not rely on any idea of tomorrow—no past lives, no excuses, no promises—and to get up and go, now. He preached to the crowd like a messiah for godless 20-somethings, his image wavering with the microphone stand as if overpowered by the melody. Nourished by Time continued with “Daddy” and “9 2 5,” two songs that lament losing one’s self in their chase of material possessions and professional ventures. For context, the only reason Nourished by Time was able to create an album as career-defining as “The Fields” is that he had put some of his last savings into Dogecoin, earning enough to buy his first synth, a Juno-106, after the cryptocurrency’s boom in May 2021. During these songs, I prayed a little harder for the friends I knew who were missing the show for their on-campus jobs.
Upon hearing the brain-melting moan of the synths that start “The Fields,” the crowd began hooting. Continuing the societal critique of his previous songs, Brown wandered the stage with his microphone, delivering a vocal performance that made dancing a second priority to focusing on him. And dancing could wait, with “Crazy People” and “Max Potential” lined up next. The ‘90s R&B breakdown halfway through the former was drawn out for the show. Brown swayed on beat alongside his Sequential keyboard like a human metronome, keeping pace for the audience’s jiving.
Of the latter half of the setlist, “BABY BABY” stood out as a jarring juxtaposition of his dizzying retro-synth leads and contemporary progressive-rap flow. The most in-your-face song of the album, this track is just as joyously disorienting live as it was upon first listen. Having already played the most fiery tracks from his catalog, Brown did not have a traditional encore for the insatiable crowd. Instead he played a demo beat featuring Brandy’s “Sittin’ Up in My Room,” which remains unfinished until he can find a fitting melody. Nourished by Time, with his all-encompassing charisma and help of Zsela, turned The Sinclair into an anachronistic, otherworldly private venue.
