Thus far, AKOV’s work has mostly been in the 174 BPM realm and DnB heads know him well for his deeper than deep bass, his clean composition and his humor. AKOV never intended to solely produce DnB, however, and in recent months he’s been playing around with other bass music formats. He’s posted clips of hip hop, breaks, halftime and more on his social media so to his regular fanbase it should come as no surprise that he’s put together a new EP full of lots of new and different formats.
With the Archaic EP, AKOV is formally announcing his foray into other bass formats than D&B and he’s doing it with a free download on his Soundcloud account tomorrow, June 26. He’s already put one clip up of the trippy and experimental “Only You” which combines breaks and bass house. In addition, Your EDM was lucky enough to grab the title track as well for and exclusive premiere before the EP drops.
“Archaic” start out also in the somewhat experimental realm but those who were not aware of his otherwordly bass will be immediately introduced to it in the intro. Here the beat is chunky techy and sort of resembles a classic breakbeat but after the drop that original beat is scratched into a sort of funky cross between dubstep, drone and breakbeat. Confused yet? No need; it all makes sense in the face of AKOV’s stellar bass. But it’s not over. 
While there is a traditional break after the main beat, another section is introduced into the track that switches beat formats once again. A nod to classic UK garage, this section can be seen as an extension of the break but it’s long enough that is could be mixed as its own separate track. No matter what, there’s surprises around every corner with “Archaic” and it’s a great introduction to what’s in store for the rest of the EP.
The Archaic EP is an interesting conglomerate of a number of different types of bass music and while it will appeal to adherents of almost any bass genre. That said, each track on this release is its own style and is in some way different from any of said genres. The bass unites us all, however, and when it comes to AKOV there is no shortage of bass.
The Archaic EP free download will be available on AKOV’s Soundcloud. Direct download here.
