After a string of releases throughout 2020, komidashi comes at us with another all-encompassing release on the Blancmange Lounge label. Sagittarius Rising is a beautiful confluence of modern life laid bare, born out of isolation. Teaming up with Sheffield producer Zillch, the pair generate a mix of cinematic soundscapes and mind freeing poetry that drifts through warm layered textural tracks. The result; a moving four-track EP you feel you can almost touch, a sound so tangible it stands by you in isolation. There’s something very secure and grounding about this record, especially at this time when it’s important to be at ease. As the rapper, poet, saxophonist and songwriter puts it in his lyrics, “Freeing people with his pen.”
The tracks hang onto the lyrics, resonating like newly unearthed scripture. From what feels a very meditative approach, komadashi elegantly delivers his poetry in layers between the variety of samples and jazzy tones. Fluid afro-futurist vocals hit hard with honest truths. Drawing from experiences of growing up Black in white spaces, the EP explores the conflict between his definition of self and the one placed on him by the outside world - "A sonic journey through liminal space, playing on the intangibility of the two through sound and poetry."
The choppy arhythmic arrangement adds to its lo-fi approachable feel. At times it feels like listening on an old radio trying to get the right tuning, with the drifting and floating result in an ethereal feeling almost slipping out of grasp. The result is a transient and fleeting sound, all the while conveying sincere and often vulnerable emotions. Rolling ambiguous rhythms and samples generate an MF DOOM vibe, playing with atypical rhythms and rhyming styles. The record brought to light possible influences such as Earl Sweatshirt, Gil Scott-Heron and early work from Archy Marshall (King Krule). What’s engaging is the records ability to form something so raw and hip-hop orientated with such a variety of sounds.
In ‘Epoch’, muffled lo-fi piano grooves cut through the abrasive confrontational vocal samples. All the while, the thick rolling bass tones drive the track and build a deep-rooted romantic melancholy that couldn’t be born out of anywhere but North-West London. There’s an eclectic mix carried throughout the EP; each track creates something warm and nostalgic, providing space and time to listen, reflect and absorb the patchwork of sounds.
This confluence is one that is evolving and pulsating, distant rhythms fly by in a world of sounds and emotions. It’s not trying to be pretty or flaunt what it’s got; it’s honest, appealing and inviting. Bringing together what originally must have been pretty disparate elements the duo form an encompassing hybrid-sound crossing multiple borders, grounded in a variety of genres but still with a natural organic feel. The space komidashi and Zillch have formed with this record is one that will invite you to revisit time and time again.
Hugh Roberts
Read Komadashi's pertinent lyrics to 'Epoch' below.
EPOCH
day 4, quarantine
sun shining lazily,
hazy
times flows unabated,
fuck platonic dialogues
im still chasing
still waiting
contemplating routes of escapes
but the rues look the same,
empty,
been lonely since october
been trapped like haematomas
still tryna dodge corona
and this pandemic epidemic to this 73m2
tryna craft a better me
with yoga
and trips to the 93 franprix,
with headwrap musky
scalp greased,
im moneyless
these banks dont trust me
i still wrestle with this apathy
isaac staring down stairs,
demons tryna body me
i lost grip on reality,
for a while my nib like a lost rib,
so i walk these paths alone
just leaning on my vices
my cain is just a snake
never abel to forget past shame
im estranged in foreign plaines
tryna prophecy a better way
id hoped
wished
dreamed
maybe you’d see i was all about doing it naturally
explains why we were fucking
cutting
mucking around
and i left,
a ghost as always
i sparked flames with tinder
and of course I had my faults
notes as long a list as Schindlers
i pined interest pinned to your chest wishing the days away
saw tears when we left
gripped chest,
heart bereft
fleeing
i guess,
running away to be the child you knew best
now im here,
stressed in a city of bright lights
bar fights and vibrant lilac neon strips give tips for baccy
a place I thought i could to be happy
for a while at (least)
now im here,
attracting masses of stares like a priest in montmatre
wonder when the fuck this all started
thought being sad was temporary but like fireflies time flies flitting quite
befitting really
the fake was all I saw
see more flaws in this diamond
all fours when we lying bout not giving a fuck about star signs
the bell tolls too soon
bridged between the shrooms and room to be me and to be the man you see on tv
hopefully one i day might
achieve it
and its sunday,
mourning
im falling, different,
entirely splitting missing days gone before
4/4 q door to door,
face faces floor
flaws ripple on seashores
and i clawed at the gates of hell
if Sisyphus that bold why the boulder roll over the shoulder
im colder than february mornings
crisper than november sunlight
so we stay gorgeous
stalking under sour moonrise
still searching for the limelight