Really dig this, even if I’m not entirely sure what to make of it. The Akkord debut is a bass influenced leftfield-techno affair; minimal and clean in nature and an absolute masterclass in composition. Out on Houndstooth, this is the second smashing LP the label’s brought us this year, following on from the Special Request (Paul Woolford) Soul Music release, creating a bit of a reputation for high-quality projects that may be out-of-the-norm for incredble producers.
As Akkord, the collaboration of Synkro and Indigo have made a dark and relevant record for an unnamed audience, without forgetting their bass roots. They’ve not traded it all in for techno, but rather it seems they set out with a specific purpose, to make a precise type of club record that would be welcome at raves but also shake up the listener who pays attention.
Last year there were a couple of white labels, neither of which I managed to get my hands on, and a handful of radio show drops that started to get us hyped about Akkord. With the exception of a few internet samples though, it wasn’t until I was fortunate to grab the cassette release Channel Drift (that lasted about half-a-day on Boomkat) that I was finally able to absorb it all properly, and as it turns out this was a much murkier affair than should’ve been expected. The pure raw vibes on Channel Drift were on the Regis and Tommy Four Seven tip, and I guess are what led me to be somewhat pleasantly surprised by what they’ve put on to wax with Akkord.
Ten cuts in all, the sounds are crisp, surgically refined to deliver an almost slightly unnerving precision with no wasted soundwaves. It’s in the programming that things get really interesting, often teasing out the areas where we’d expect drops from either producer individually, before converting the flow in to leftfield techno that seems to come unexpectedly every time. Nothing better than being able to concentrate on a track start to finish without losing interest, and that’s about 80% of this record.
It reminds me of that old jazz musician’s mantra about playing what you know, then how you play it and finally what you don’t play. It’s crazy how evolved these sounds are and to be a fair it’s not a self-indulged project of producers just trying something new. We’ve got two garage influenced producers, one with a name in drum n bass and the other on the speedier end of dubstep coming together and composing new tracks of the sort we’ve never heard before.
I wouldn’t have been surprised to find these on Semantica or Ostgut Ton, or possibly Modern Love given the hauntological nature of what’s on offer. Akkord is right up our alley, and on first few listens has blown me away, can’t wait to play this out.
via Houndstooth
Following a pair of highly sought-after white labels and the superb Navigate EP, Akkord return to Houndstooth with their self-titled debut album.
Akkord began as a shadowy collective with an espoused passion for mathematics and sacred geometry, crafting intelligent and beautifully oppressive electronic music. Eventually revealed as a collaboration between experienced Mancunian bass producers Synkro and Indigo, ‘Akkord’ blurs the lines between junglist revivalism, smoky ambience, and suctioned dub, with a consistently engaging pulse linking the styles. Carefully arranged and achieving maximum impact on a proper soundsystem, Akkord have turned in an ominous and daring debut LP.
Previews of each track on the album will be revealed during the weeks leading up to the release via akkordmusik.net and other sources.
The album is available on double LP, cut to heavyweight 180g vinyl by mastering engineer of the year, Matt Colton, CD and digital.