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agentsidegrinder remax
Artist: Agent Side Grinder
Title: Rema/X
Genre: Electronic Post Punk
Release Date: 16th October 2020
Label: Progress Productions


Album Review

Clearly this has been a year where nothing has been done in the way it used to be done, and everyone has had to find new and innovative ways of getting by - none more so than those in the creative arts. It seems strangely disappointing then, that 3 out of the last 5 albums I’ve reviewed have been remix releases. If ever there was a time to be writing and producing amazing new art, it’s 2020. At any time in history, extremes in politics, personal experiences, world events, deaths, births and all of life’s complexities, tragedies and joys, all conspire to inspire Great Art. Surely a global pandemic, lockdowns, social isolation, multiple deaths, fear, conspiracies, mistrust, weariness and hope slash an equally inspirational brush across art’s hungry canvas? In many cases, it seems not.

To be fair to AGENT SIDE GRINDER they are working on new material, so this remix album is a kind of stop-gap. But it’s basically all of the tracks from last year’s ‘A/X’ album, plus one newbie. Bizarrely, this was not such a strong album in the first place - I reviewed it myself and gave it 7/10. And this is where the confusion comes in - do people actually listen to remixes? What is their point? If you’ve produced a first class album, surely the last thing you’d want is someone tampering with it. Artists don’t hand over a finished canvas to other artists to mess about with, and our galleries would be laughably strange if they did. And if you haven’t produced a first class album and are giving it to other artists to tamper with, isn’t that like admitting it’s just not very good? I don’t get it.

Anyway. Here it is. It’s ok. The good songs here still shine through, as they did on the original, and the not so good songs still struggle to get out of the starting blocks. ‘Stripdown’ still sounds like DEPECHE MODE, ‘Inner Noises’ still has an awesome ‘90s groove to it and ‘MM CM’ is still a somewhat tedious instrumental. ‘The Archives’ is the token new song here, and it’s excellent, brooding and dark, and if this is an indication of what’s ahead, then all is good in the AGENT SIDE GRINDER camp.

So I have to say, I found the whole experience of listening to this album again, a year later, and not as good as first time around, somewhat depressing. Forthcoming albums, indeed the next artistic and creative effort of anyone who’s anyone, should all be something incredibly special. There has surely been inspiration, on a global and individual scale, to feed even the most barren of artistic palettes.


Tracklist

01. Inner Noises (Ash Code remix)
02. In From The Cold (Antipole ft Paris Alexander remix)
03. Allisin Sane (No2) (Adsol remix)
04. Stripdown (Tobias Bernstrup remix)
05. Decompression (Delphine Coma remix)
06. Wounded Star (Siri Karlsson remix)
07. Doppelganger (Luminance remix)
08. MM CM (Hidden Operator Voodoo Dub remix)
09. The Great Collapse (Buzz Kull remix)
10. The Archives
11. Doden Pa Latt Svenska (Diskoteket)
12. Stripdown (She Pleasures Herself remix)
13. Doppelganger (Kiss Of The Whip remix)


Line-up

Johan Lange
Peter Fristedt
Emanuel Åström


Website

https://www.agentsidegrinder.com / https://www.facebook.com/agentsidegrinder


Cover Picture

agentsidegrinder remax


Rating

Music: 6/
Sound: 6
Total: 6 / 10




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