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Review: 'AKAI'
'The Coldest Hour (Is Just Before the Dawn)'   

-  Album: 'The Coldest Hour (Is Just Before the Dawn)'
-  Genre: 'Post-Rock' -  Release Date: '2nd January 2010'

Our Rating:
Some interest and additional depth is lent by some swirling synths low in the mix on opener 'When the Sun Goes Down,' but the chiming, chirpy sweetness is rather cloying. There are redeeming features in the form of interesting details on many of the tracks: on 'Breath,' which makes a fair stab at 'epic' in terms of production but falls down by being just a bit too 'nice,' it's the appearance of a brass section.

However, the male / female dual vocals don't provide nearly enough contrast, but nor is there as much harmony as might perhaps be expected given the nicey-nicey nature of the indie-pop that comprises the twelve tracks on here. By way of a reference, it sounds a little like a post-rock Human League. Track five, 'Drifted' marks a change of sound, with shoegaze guitars blurring the edges, but the pace remains somewhat pedestrian, and there's no real life or passion, the shades being very much those of dappled sunlight without any real sharpness of contrast, any opposing elements of light and dark.

The contents, then, don't really deliver on the promise of then cover: the people with the heads of dears and wolves - one of whom is armed with a rifle - running and skipping around in a full-moon forest may equally suggest sinister or fairlytale, perhaps with a darker twist, but what we actually get is more whimsical in nature. In fact, it's all a bit trite and contrived, and ultimately lacking in dynamics.

http://www.theakai.com
http://www.myspace.com/theakai

  author: Christopher Nosnibor

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