AGF & Delay, Explode (AGF Proucktion)

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This is a very interesting meeting between two of the most interesting artists on the contemporary music scene. AGF is of course Antye Greie-Fuchs, a multimedia artists of some notoriety. During the summer of 2004, she and renowned minimalist Vladislav Delay abandoned the big city for the pristine confines of northern Finland, where the entire album began its gestation, although it was finally recorded in Berlin. Even so, as stated in the miniscule liner notes (which all appear on the front cover, including all the lyrics), in recording Explode they strove to avoid digital perfection in order to preserve the organic nature of its origins, leaving plenty of room for human error and "dirty drums".

While this reviewer must have missed the errors, the deep bass and percussion are indeed down and dirty, slowly crackling and dragging along the floor; perhaps Delay´s best work ever. Despite its electronic origins, the overall sound is strangely organic, with all the decay and corrosion that implies.

AGF speak-sings her way through most of the album in a whispery German-accented English, very pleasant to the ear. Her songs/poetry are also very well composed and her poetic straight-talk is a suggestive complement to Delay´s restrained minimalism. She even throws in a couple of lyrical references to The Doors and Sade.

While the record is expressely dedicated to the kind of nature that surrounded them in the land of chilly lakes and silence, "Far away from civilization, contemporary struggles of urban environments", it is striking how sobering the lyrics are throughout, reflecting on global politics, female suicide bombers, chaos theory, and rampant consumerism. In fact, it is almost as if the pursuit of happiness is impossible as the world just keeps on intruding - the track "Restrict" begins with AGF spitting frustratedly, "But fucking politics again...".

The overall theme of Explode seems to be the disconnect between man and nature, between life and politics, need and desire, and appearance and reality and those who confuse the latter with the former.

But just as important as AGF´s lyrics is the nature of the sound she and Delay construct together - it´s as if their electronic tools were made of wood. Complex in its simplicity, cruddy in its purity.

Explode is the first release on her new label, AGF Producktion, a platform for releasing AGF's solo releases as well as collaborations with other artists (which can be visited at http://www.agfproducktion.com).