March 19, 2024
Written By
Tahirah Thomas
Tendai has been on an immaculate run with the roll out of his coming EP ‘The Rain’. Back in April the East London native returned with ‘I Deserve It’, debuting an affecting heartbreak anthem with an afrobeat hybrid sound hinged in ambient electronics. Alongside the arrival of I Deserve It, and its subsequent 2000s UKG reminiscent follow up single ‘Twin Flame’ Tendai began introducing fans to the concept of The Raido Room; a space in which creatives could gather to explore their own approach to art, with a focus on what it means to be human. In an extension of the founding ethos of The Raido Room, and in a considered effort to create an environment where the people who listen to his music could gather and connect, last Friday, on a fittingly rainy July afternoon, Tendai opened up The Raido Room to a small group of his fans. Offering them the opportunity to watch him finish the project live, before collectively listening to the projects first ever playback.
Honoring his love for brutalist industrial spaces The Raido Room is set on the top floor of a warehouse reminiscent event space. As we enter the space we’re confronted with the warm echoing sounds of an acoustic guitar playing softly, creating a contrast between the rooms' painted stripped walls and rusty window panes and filling the space with light energy. Fans sit on benches and steel tables dotted around the room talking to each other quietly. There’s an air of excited expectation translated in their whispers back and forth. Tendai is sitting in the middle of the room at an ancient looking green wooden table. He’s holding his head as though he’s trying to solve a puzzle of some sorts. To his left, there’s a standing mic with a pop filter, as well as the musician responsible for the soft guitar melodies which are being amplified around the room by two standing speakers either side of the musicians. It’s a makeshift recording studio of grandiose artistic proportions, one that implies Tendai’s freedom and openness during the process of creating.
As the room continues to fill with cool kids, amongst them singer songwriter’s Dre6 and Wxterboi arrive, so does rapper Zinovinci and Tendai’s frequent collaborator Leaf, Tendai’s demeanor softens. He’s surrounded by his people. I peer over his shoulder and he has Logic open as he’s having conversations with everyone who stops by the table. It dawns on me that they’re recording the guitar melodies as the room gets louder and louder. When the bustling chatter heightens, and the live guitar melodies are just about becoming drowned out, Tendai presses a button on his laptop and the melody’s refrain starts emanating from the speakers on a loop, bolstered by a nostalgic UKG bassline; creating a genius art imitates life moment. Once the looping melody plays out, Tendai beckons everyone in the room to gather around the table.
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“It’s so funny, I’ve been walking around and talking to people and seeing just how no one knows or understands what the fuck is happening here” he cracks, opening a dialogue with his audience. “I like that” he continues, “ I like the energy of feeling like anything can happen. That’s what we’re trying to set with this Raido thing, where we’re killing all of the expectations of what you’re supposed to feel, or what you’re supposed to do as an artist. I guess I just want everything in this space to be as vibe-y as we are as humans, so when we’re in the space together chilling, things just happen naturally, music might get made whatever” he explains. “ Mainly, I'm here to play the tape” he asserts, before doing just that.
‘The Rain’ fittingly opens with the sounds of a thunderstorm, before swirling brassy synths bring us into the driving melody of ‘Twin Flame’, across the EP hybrid sounds are showcased, and as ‘mayb I’m lonely’, ‘wishing’, ‘My world’, ‘Nobody’s Enough’ and ‘Deserve It’ and p play out, we’re immersed in a glorious amalgamation of influences across Afrobeats, UKG, R’n’B, Soul, Classical and more.Across the songs Tendai teases in the space, ‘The Rain’ arrives as a reflection of youth angst, which has centered the pursuit of romantic love, as the singer songwriters poeticisms take the form of songs that speak to a collective existential need for belonging. Its sonic experimentations with genre lend perfectly to that feeling of uncertainty we all feel when coming of age and figuring out our place, where we fit into society, who our people are. It’s all of those emotions beautifully wrapped into a bow.
The Raido Room, outside of its incentives rooted in genius fan interactive marketing, provides another reflection. As I look out around the room, there’s kids from all backgrounds and walks of life nodding their heads along to the music in collective disbelief at how perfectly Tendai has been able package a feeling. In a strangely subversive happening, in creating the space, Tendai has managed to completely take his fans outside of the current standard for a digitized music roll out and curate an environment where a room full of strangers are connected by music and fully engaged in its performance. Possibly because we don’t know the songs, or because across 5e tape there aren’t any TikTok reminiscent hooks for us to latch on to, the audience is powerfully engaged. As the final track plays out, Tendai takes a moment to thank the audience for coming and sharing the experience with him. As we leave The Raido Room we’re confronted with the fact that we’ve just witnessed the genius work of one of the UK’s most promising rising music stars.
