Komarebi not only has imagination to burn, he obviously exults in the sheer wonder of these sprightly creations; never in recent memory has such beatcraft felt, well, so utterly joyous. Sheer heavenly miasma—beg, borrow, or steal, but dare to pass on this gem at your own peril.
Instantly-gripping atmospheric melodies that ooze
Ever yearn for the good ‘ol 90s, when bedroom boffins and dancehall denizens the world over decided to break with tradition and launch what was arguably electronica’s golden age, when such newbie styles as armchair techno and prescient IDM ruled the roost?
Unless you’ve been living in a cave the last few years, you’re well-advised to look no further than the UK’s Touched Music, which has been diligently and steadily hoisting the flag of our synthetic alma mater by nursing a robust catalog spotlighting the luminaries (Plaid, Funckarma, Drøn, Mick Chillage) as well as the upstarts (Min-Y-Llan, Murya, Exm, Keiss, etc.). Sister label Ping-Discs, run by Richard Wilkes aka Myoptik, himself no slouch in the analogics department, has been carving out its own niche amongst its brethren, and in a relatively short space of time has realized some killer lit’l records in the process.
The mysterious Komarebi’s released full-lengths on both imprints, but this latest one is so breathtakingly assured it challenges the origin stories first told by his stylistic elders of decades past. This is the kind of record whose every rhythmic motif makes you break out in a toothy, cheshire grin. And it surely doesn’t hurt that Komarebi wraps his sonic constructs in the types of instantly-gripping atmospheric melodies that ooze into your ears like melting chocolate and taste just as sweet. “Altered States” epitomizes such form and function, drum machine dada of the highest order, around which rotate crushed velvet synth smears and swiftly irising perambula. “Exercises in Advanced Time Travel” is literal sci-fi for your hi-fi, recalling the classic bathyscaphic mindwhorls of Biosphere and Bigeneric, its electro-motive push-pull stretching the speaker fabric into so much digital taffy.
Komarebi not only has imagination to burn, he obviously exults in the sheer wonder of these sprightly creations; never in recent memory has such beatcraft felt, well, so utterly joyous. Sheer heavenly miasma—beg, borrow, or steal, but dare to pass on this gem at your own peril.
Nebulous is available on Ping-Discs/Touched Music. [Bandcamp]
