AGYA - "ANEMOΣ"

Artist: AGYA
Album: ANEMOΣ
Year: 2014
Label: Signifier
Genre: Powernoise
Website:  signifier.bandcamp.com/













Basics:
AGYA is a new project comprised of the men behind the powernoise projects Yura Yura (Hands Productions) and Supersimmetria (Le Petit Machiniste / Industry8). The result is, unsurprisingly, 12 tracks of heavy, club friendly powernoise with remixes from Philipp Munch (Synapscape, et al.) and Le Monderniste.

Stuff:
The record kicks off with "Hal" which begins with a slow brooding atmosphere that slowly builds into plodding, heavy drums and mysterious choirs. This track offers up the fundamental elements which will be the norm for the majority of the record: chunky, repetitive, groovy drums coupled with machine-like fx and pleasant melodic content. ANEMOΣ immediately brings to mind the typical minimal drum'n'noise Hands sound, and harkens back to the classic sound of late 90s european powernoise. Although the record is pretty homogenous, the tracks aren't carbon copies of one another. There are some bangers on here that would sound great in a club in between any given Hands or Ant Zen act, including the energetic "Jaws" and the booming "Third Dentition". Other tracks like "Is It You" have a larger focus on pads which bring to mind the atmospheric, cosmic-leaning sound of Supersimmetria's solo work. One of my favorites is "Tongue" whose dream-like pad, space-y fx, and non-four-on-the-floor crunchy kick remind me of the excellent moods conjured by Gridlock. I really like that they employ some type of synth work in every song, as this connects with me much moreso than acts who only use drums and noise. While the record is loud to the point of feeling squashed (very noticeable on tracks like "Demons"), the production is generally clean (as clean as can be achieved when using very distorted, crunchy percussion) and even. I imagine this would hit very hard and sound great in a club setting and/or at a live performance.

Overall: 
A solid, if not groundbreaking, work of European style powernoise. I would've preferred more diversity in the tracks and less linearity, but I can still get into most of the work here. A release to check out for fans of Hypnoskull, Nin Kuji, Nullgrad...ok, pretty much any Hands guy, and of course the member's other projects.