“Fading away in a city that is hard to live in” — that’s the idea behind the video for Sam Akpro’s new single ‘Evenfall’, according to director Pedro Takahashi. Via rushing roadside time-lapse sequences, slow-motion portraits of pedestrians, and artificial light glowing on housing estate brickwork – paired with the track’s thrashing guitar chords, and soft, reverberating bass – the duo convey a hypnotising mixture of dread and calmness.
READ MORE: The 10 best new acts we saw at The Great Escape 2023
That essence echoes across the ten tracks of Akpro’s debut album of the same name. Previously described by NME as “an artist with an intensity at his core”, the southeast London-born vocalist blends punk, indie, hip-hop, and jazzy experimentation — often laced with a slightly disconcerting ambience — that runs throughout his projects.
2021 EP ‘Drift’ and 2023 follow-up ‘Arrival’ hinted at ties with similar south London alchemists like Wu-Lu and King Krule, with Akpro’s ability to fluidly collide grunge guitar, jazz-flecked drumming, and evocative south London storytelling. But Akpro’s voice is more boyish and post-punk; ‘Evenfall’ sails on darker and rockier waters than Archy Marshall tends to traverse. There’s a grainy, suffocating energy to the combination of bass and percussion that forms the backbone of tracks like ‘Tunnel Vision’ and ‘Cherry’. On the latter effort, Akpro’s creeping, whispered backing vocals fuel the disruption and disorder that permeates both the track and the wider record.
‘Chicago Town’ takes listeners meandering down the lesser-lit alleyways of south London, snapping between dreamy, chorus-drenched verses and heavier breaks that twist the tap to let metal and grunge flood in. ‘Baka’ slaps you with an eerie collage of skittering industrial sound effects and white noise, but even its maddest moments contain the kind of slow-burning broodiness felt across ‘Evenfall’. Meanwhile, a sense of anti-establishment angst is communicated in the deftest ways, from raging guitar stomps on tracks like the new single ‘Tunnel Vision’ to simple lines like “Lost my mind to the news / The headlines left me blue”, spat out amid a wave of distortion on the same track.
The release of this album on ANTI- makes sense; Akpro shares his calmly entrancing tone with artists like Waxahatchee and MJ Lenderman who also call ANTI- home. But ‘Evenfall’ is from another world; the record’s moodiness isn’t melded by southern US drawls and folksy guitar but by crisp south London vocals and murky, grunge-centric soundscapes that match up perfectly. Akpro’s debut is a dark, winding ode to the UK capital, grounded in his own experiences and expressed with a subtle mystery. This sense of nuance – often missing so early in an artist’s journey – makes for one absolutely captivating listen.
Details
Release date: 28 March, 2025
Record label: ANTI-
The post Sam Akpro – ‘Evenfall’ review: a captivatingly eerie debut appeared first on NME.
