It’s clear we’re in for a treat as opening track on Bass composer Komodo ‘ s latest offering slowly coalesces into a languid, shifting major/minor melodic contour, driven by a soft snippet of woodwind melody over a deceptively easygoing rolling beat. Breakdowns evoke a Blade Runner era Vangelis vista in wide pan. The bass doesn’t even appear until the second track, which picks up the pace after a shimmering gamelan melody is established. The bass is pointillist-ic, a soft triangle wave flyover that is masterfully wielded, in sheer contrast to the dickish-ly aggressive aggro-step pooped out by lesser producers.
“Mbira” transports us over Zimbabwe with it’s use of interlocking idiophonic tone and rattle, and the beats crank up to almost house-like pace, another round edged bassline propelling the tune through the sky like the aural equivalent to a Studio Ghibli animated airship.
The journey pauses for meditational reflection with the breath-y and Turkish flute laced “Invisible Forces” before slipping into a synthetic Tron-scape of chopped syncopated beats and dry wow and flutter bass of “Shapeshift”. There is a huge visual component to this track, evoking some sort of Geiger – esque panorama, the organically chiming nature of the source sounds constantly at play with the cold metal of the beats, bass and ornate washes of granular synthesis. Beautiful and chilling at the same time while being so succinctly visual!
Penultimate track “Apparition” is a tad more comfortably human, a hypnotic groove that blends throat singing, resonating bowls and samples of shakuhachi master Atsuya Okuda. The depth of the meditations are offset by little bits and pieces that flutter around, a metaphor for the thoughts that enter the meditative state unbidden and subconscious.
For the closing piece “Vessel”, Komodo finally brings out his signature didgeridoo, which he is a master of and allows the bare instrument to speak for itself in a raw, unsampled and unprocessed exploration of the ur-bass generated by lungs and log. A perfect way to knit the end to a highly successful musical journey.
Shape Shifter is truly a jewel in the craft of Komodo’s (nee Matthew Burton) oeuvre. Originally known as Subluna, Burton’s established a global reputation for roof-raising live sets and enjoys a local rep for nurturing an aspect of the dubstep/bass scene since it’s inception into the Canadian east coast. Hearkening way back to the mid-oughts when Bass was the domain of real composers like Skream, Kode9 and Plasticman, Komodo carries the torch elegantly for Bass music with depth, breadth and ability. A seriously deep piece of genius, you can get your own copy right from the source at http://sambalrecords.com/ .
