- Another day, another anonymous outfit. Akkord—replete with trendy triangle—hail from Manchester, and my guess is that they have something to do with Synkro and company. Whomever they/he/she are/is, the music here couldn't be further removed from that producer's brand of ethereal beats, however. Instead, Akkord's music is powered by a techno-compatible sense of clinical clarity, three tracks built out of surgical steel and sparkling glass.
"Back and Forth" is the best reflection of this, drum machines bobbing in a vacuum over LFO tendrils that more than a little resemble Objekt's "Cactus," with stabby vocals that bring to mind recent Addison Groove. While "Back and Forth" admittedly does nothing new, rendered in such confident and exacting structures by Akkord, it's an impressive piece regardless.
The other two are more distinctive, incorporating oldskool-style dialogue snippets to accompany their dubstep-friendly atmospheres. "Renewal" sounds like an old Tempa lost in some dark corner of Berlin, the LFO stabs accompanied by queasy chords and flattened, distorted snares that hit with a gravelly "splat!" Featuring those same broken snares, with a drum sample pack cobbled together from corrupted dregs, there's something romantic and gorgeous about the odd tones, alien melodies and harsh textures of "The Drums," especially when it's all rendered with that heaving romantic swoon. With this track in particular, they've struck a genuinely interesting angle on the old dubstep/techno axis. Backed up with an incredible ear for sound design, they deserve all the attention they've been getting.
TracklistA The Drums
B1 Back & Forth
B2 Renewal