Dance With The Devil (AKOV)

AKOV has put in commendable work in solidifying his style over the years, but I can't say I'm sold on the screamo-oriented neuro one he brings to his "Dance With The Devil" album. Pair that with randomly discarding his bear branding, and you can see why I'm just generally a little disillusioned with this project.

Admittedly, I've always liked AKOV's approach to neurofunk and neuro breaks. Something about it has always felt a little more mature and controlled than other acts, pulling punches only to slam them down later on in some kind of twisted impact progression. And you can see that here, in this project — perhaps in the stomper of a tune that is "VIBE", or the four-on-the-floor pummeler of "Kawaii", or maybe the powerful "Goliath" — in that AKOV doesn't skimp on his production. But what will ultimately make or break this project for you is AKOV's screamo vocal. Unfortunately, for me, it broke it. Shouty vocals such as this have generally never been my style of listening, and swaddling it in layers of levelled neurofunk sound design feels like a taint on both aesthetics. AKOV's neuro growls and bass rips are tasteful and pragmatic, as I've come to expect from him, but his screamo vocals just lack that mature tonality, and it often ends up sounding overly enthusiastic or shallowly intense, colliding the two worlds in an unfortunate clash of two sounds that should work together, but two styles that refuse to. The problem, I suppose, amplifies through the two styles genuinely not being able to budge whatsoever throughout the 45-minute tracklist, with every track (outside of "Kawaii") sticking stolidly to these two motifs to a fault. But to get hung up on the vocal alone would be short-sighted, because believe me when I say that AKOV is a very proficient producer. Neurofunk has often been hailed as one of the most difficult styles of bass music to create, and yet "Dance With The Devil" is smoothly produced (for the most part) without skipping a beat, leveraging driven basslines and creative leads. It's a stern album, no funny business, and there are times you can really appreciate that thanks to AKOV's sound design and production, but there are also times where his shouty vocal can just feel a little silly or otherwise undermine the tonality.

I mean, if you like this fusion of sound, then you'll love this record, but "Dance With The Devil" just doesn't click with me particularly well. The vocal sounds a little half-hearted and the way the two styles are brought together just doesn't feel fully developed enough for me to take a liking to it for even an individual track, but for an album — well, that's asking too much. As I said before: this is an album where the styles will make or break it. But why, oh why, did he have to get rid of the bear?