AK/DK’s third album, Shared Particles is a lo-fi electro-punk monster with a psychedelic splatter that has the dancefloor clearly within its crosshairs and the muscle to deliver on its intentions. These punchy, relentless grooves with distorted, half-heard vocals from Brighton’s synths and drums duo are more than enough to spin any minds while getting hips swinging and working up a sweat. In fact, in this festival-free summer, it is an emphatic reminder of just what we are all missing while Covid-19 stalks the globe.
As with on their previous discs, Synths+Drums+Noise+Space and Patterns/Harmonics, Ed Chivers and Graham Sowerby lay down a frantic electronic storm with a driving beat. Shared Particles, however, also brings shades of furry psychedelicists Snapped Ankles, motorik grooves, the nu-rave sounds of the first decade of this century and even high-energy punkers the Death Set. Without a doubt, this is thrilling freak out music that demands to be experienced in the middle of a lively crowd with the volume turned all the way up to 11.
From the first bars of “Feeds” the raw and unpolished rhythm comes crashing in and barely lets up until the album finally winds down with the Kraftwerk-like “Draggin’”. Beats pound through the speakers without any noticeable pause while vocals are twisted and squeezed around a groove that takes hold and won't have any truck with quiet reflection. The title track is a prime piece of bouncing electronic thrash with a mind-melting psychedelic wash, while “Hot Mist” and “Casio Beguine” throw in a churning, woozy trip and “Defragment to Survive” brings more than a sniff of punk rock energy to the party.
It’s all frantic stuff that just feeds the longing that we are all feeling for wild nights out, surrounded by crowds of like-minded people on packed dancefloors. For, make no mistake, that is the place where Shared Particles really needs to be heard.
