The cover for “Satellite Business 2.0” from the deluxe of ‘Lahai,’ the 2023 Sampha album.
Last year, Sampha delivered Lahai, an LP that became a mainstay of “best of 2023” after breaking a six-year hiatus between it and his debut album. Though the British singer has cropped up on several guest appearances in the time since, there hasn’t been much word on a follow-up. While that remains true, Sampha returned to Lahai for a deluxe edition nearly a year after its release, adding four new tracks. Here’s everything you need to know about the addendum to his sophomore effort.
Little Simz Steals Spotlight In Opening Half
The new wing of this Lahai deluxe is exactly split in half, providing two new takes on original material and two entirely fresh songs. It feels a bit reductive to call the former category simple remixes, as rather than pasting new verse sections onto existing tracks, Sampha veers closer to full reimaginings with novel production and structures.
The first is “Satellite Business 2.0” where Little Simz makes an appearance, meshing well with the new instrumentation that maintains the classically tuned, jazzy atmosphere that Lahai majored in. In fact, the rapper takes to it perfectly, a result of her ear already tending towards the same song—while it’s a welcome surprise twelve months later, it almost begs the question why she wasn’t on the LP in the first place. “Dancing Circles 2.0” furthers the same sort of sound, no doubt a standout song in a vacuum but perhaps a better reminder of what made the album such a strong body of work in the first place by harkening to its central musical motifs.
“Re-Entry” kicks off the second category, the new studio recordings that tack onto the original material but chart new territory entirely. Space age synths meander in the song’s intro underneath a voicemail recording, dispensing wisdom in a personal address to the singer. The interstellar atmosphere becomes a constant throughout the song even as it kicks in with a heavy dose of analog production; arpeggiating chords in the verse sections are the best example.
Sampha Heads To Outer Space With New Material On Lahai Deluxe
Outside of Sampha’s voice, “Sensory Nectar” bears almost no resemblance to Lahai proper, but don’t take that to mean it’s any less spectacular than that larger body. The distinctions come with a complete absence of nearly any analog instrumentation, save for a quieted drum beat at the start and fleeting moments of strings that dot throughout the track.
Instead, the main beat of the song is provided by digital SFX, a combination of the extra-terrestrial synthesizers of a kind with the ones from “Re-Entry,” as well as far stranger fare: a machine whirring to life, a tape recorder stopping. It’s only natural that Sampha’s lyrics over top hit a similarly alien tenor. Rather than the ground-level lucid reflections that paced Lahai, the UK singer almost speaks in parable:
“Have you ever woke like you never slept
With a hissing snake right beside your head? Unaccompanied in the nature nest
There’s a farmer’s seat in the forest breath”
If it wasn’t abundantly clear by now, the deluxe edition of Lahai is just as exemplary as the project it latches onto. Your motive may vary on whether the remixes or the entirely new tracks are the better half, but all of it is worth a revisit if you enjoyed the LP upon release. Catch the Lahai deluxe and all of the Sampha backlog wherever you stream your music.
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