Hive Mind - AKOV, Pluvio, Screamarts

To be honest, I'm not certain whether this technically counts as an album or a compilation, but it says LP in the name, so I figured I may as well give it a review.

The "Hive Mind" is certainly an interesting concept. Neuro producers AKOV, Screamarts and Pluvio band together for an offbeat 10-track album that quite rigidly sticks to its concept. "Hive Mind" is essentially a pooling together of the abilities of these three producers in a project that bounces around amongst them. Acting as one producer — and yet under their own distinct aliases — AKOV, Screamarts and Pluvio play with a tracklist in which the three are never on one single track all together, and yet each track is chained together by a series of collaborations between the three, with a few solo tracks thrown in the mix, identity amidst the chaos of the hivemind. Conceptually "Hive Mind" is extremely interesting. It is, in effect, an album produced by nobody. Nobody can truly make a claim to this project, perhaps not even AKOV who makes up the largest proportion of the tracklist out of the three — no, this project is a product of a combined artistic firepower of the three of them. And I'm here for it, because the creativity in the execution of such a concept is refreshing. Thankfully, the production holds up too. Neuro is, at its core, a gritty and harsh style, and the trio climb that hill proficiently. All in all, the quality feels quite evenly spread to me between the three, but the consistency is persistent all throughout, and "Hive Mind" brings forth a flurry of grimy basses, wobbly basslines, strong drum beats, and the occasional odd sample (with even an Urso feature bringing in a vocal on "Alone"). It seems like the neuro underground is really hitting its stride once again; but unfortunately the record is so consistent it becomes repetitive. Many of the tracks struggle to stay engaging throughout their runtime, often relying on the same old lead or stylistic choice the whole way through, perhaps lacking impact or just simply lacking intrigue in themselves. Yes, they're well-produced, but the same kick snare over the same bass structure does get old quite fast. Between tracks, the repetitiveness can be felt, too — although "Hive Mind" does better in this regard, it doesn't quite escape having overly similar production motifs throughout its tracklist, whilst simultaneously not quite reaching the consistency required for a cohesive mood or atmosphere.

I love the concept, and the production is great, it just could have been so much more. But honestly, don't let that take away from the conceptual creativity of these three, as (if this was, in fact, designed with the intent mirroring my reading of it) because this is still a really solid project overall. Side note: for the track ranking, the collaborators are simply just labelled with the main producers, because I have no idea how to represent who's on which track otherwise.