Channelling the vibe of his fellow frenchmen Daft Punk and the en vogue “big synth” sound of Kavinsky, Akbo shows us why some of the deepest house music is coming out of l’Hexagone.
With a slowly filtered intro and a storm overlay that helps build the tension, Akbo artfully begins to build the song. “Petrichords” is dark with an immediately catchy bass line. A heavily vocoded and obfuscated voice seems to egg you on to “dance”, but the voice is otherworldly. It’s as if there were hands from the grave protruding through the dance floor moving the occupants feet, pushing them to dance slowly, and in perpetuity. When the build comes to a head, Akbo deftly uses harmony to further the overall feeling of the track, using descending major chords that eventually cycle around to a major tonic. But it’s not the major that music 101 classes would try to classify as “happy”, it’s a spiral toward something else.