Sam Akpro joins forces with ANTI to unveil his collar-grabbing new single ‘Death By Entertainment’. This post-punk hellion is a new kind of beast from the London-born artist, a far more melodic turn primed to whip up the mosh pits that await him after the success and wide critical acclaim of his EP released earlier this year, Arrival. With a performance on the horizon at this month’s Pitchfork Festival Paris following appearances at Green Man Festival and Outbreak Fest where he shared a bill with Death Grips and Denzel Curry, Sam Akpro is raring to shift his momentum into a new gear.
“This song is about the numbing feeling of repeating the same day again and again, and how we entertain ourselves to death just to get through it – an easy cop-out from actually thinking or changing a situation,” explains Akpro. The guitars haemorrhage with feedback, and the bass – the kind you feel rattle your bones – carries the urgency of a heartbeat. It’s all a head-first collision that brings us his most danceable offering so far without compromising on the raw-nerved, experimental flair which earned him his accolades.
‘Death By Entertainment’ follows on from the impact of his subversive second EP Arrival, which drew from post-rock to jazz through to dub, reggae and no-wave found to find fans The Line of Best Fit, DIY, So Young, NME, DMY, Clash, Notion and more, as well as catching the ears of BBC 6 Music‘s Mary Anne Hobbs and BBC Radio 1‘s Jack Saunders. The new single is unequivocal proof that Sam Akpro, an artist rising, is now primed to deliver sounds at the peak of his powers.