- Obelisk is Akkord's first original material since last summer, and it's more or less business as usual for the Manchester duo. These two taut tracks avoid their own worst habits: on the one side an excessively doom-laden mood, on the other a formal slickness that borders on bland. Instead the 10-inch single is subtle and engaging—particularly on "Monolith," a study in 808 bass boom and sculpted static, which goes almost nowhere very stylishly.
The bolder "Megalith" picks up where the breakbeat-techno hybrids of last year's HTH035 left off. The producers show their usual clinical control: the intro's breakbeat shreds take a good four minutes to hit their syncopated stride, and even then they're applied with extreme care. As ever, it's difficult not to be impressed by Akkord, even if not entirely dazzled.
TracklistA Monolith
B Megalith