Akumu

Like the fiery red images blurred over a void-like backdrop, the sounds on Akumu's debut album are darkly passionate. The ten-track instrumental excursion sounds it was like recorded in a dungeon. The mood is dreary and isolating, and often leaves the senses to contemplate a never-ending, formless oblivion. However, Akumu's impressions of this sonic wasteland are not only listenable, but beautifully imagined. It’s very rhythmic and often sounds like what industrial (in both the Skinny Puppy and Neubaten sense) could be if it tried to keep up with drum & bass and dub. Although it’s not necessarily something you want to dance to, the tempos on Akumu roller-coaster from hard-working breakbeats to metallic down-tempo grooves to complete ambient sound, the latter often fuelled by the kind of ethereal dirge that evokes Spacemen 3-style shoe-gazing with electronics instead of guitars. Although dance music is usually best when it's a lot more optimistic, keep this on repeat when sunshine seems like an impossible dream.