Track Listing

1. Words Are Useless
2. Letters Make No Meaning (Weapons No War Germs No Disease)
3. Food Combination Chart
4. Die Ufer Sind In Feindes Hand
5. Where The White Animals Meet
6. Cognitive Modules Party II
7. Dread In Strangers Eyes
8. Present/Absent
9. Head Inside Cloud
10. Ooops For Understanding III
11. Kreuzwortraetsel
12. Presswehen
13. Mohr Und Die Raben Von London
14. KZ
15. I War
16. Under Water (Run)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #256905 in Music
• Released on: 2008-02-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .13 pounds

Customer Reviews

AGF- Words Are Missing Review (7.5/10)
Arriving without a press release and in a white slipcase with some illegible graffiti adorning the cover, it took us a while to figure out who this album was by. The mystery caused by this lack of information was highly intriguing and gave an air of obscurity and slight-pretention. The label code hidden behind the disc gave the game away and it was promptly discovered that this was in fact the work of AGF aka Antye Greie or Mrs Vladislav Delay. AGF is an electronica producer who, like her hubby, is interested in the boundless opportunities presented by the genre of leftfield electronica. `Words Are Missing' is her fourth release following on from the 2004's `Language Is The Most'.

With `Words Are Missing', AGF has challenged the conventional use of vocals in music which has led to the creation of soundscapes which embrace a very different kind of vocal use. Be they fragmented, spliced, reversed, male, female, collective, used as (sub)melody or used conventionally, AGF has worked her electronic trickery to utilise vocals in such a way as to demand the listeners attention, whilst adding value to the musical landscape to which it adorns. The vocal experimentation ranges from the hallucinatory, spliced micro-snippets found on `Cognitive Modules Party II`, and `Ooops For Understanding III` (where the vocals are elevated to lead melody status), to the boisterous, crowd-cheer infused `Die Ufer Sind In Feindes Hand`.

Musically, AGF has produced an extremely varied and versatile piece of experimental electronica which explores both the necro and ambient sides of the genre; sometimes separately, but mostly in parallel. The album is full of discordant yet harmoniously arranged electronica which utilises industrial glitch, crackling microbeats, dense atmospherics, errie sound-manipulations and the aforementioned, freakily arranged-abstract vocals.

Similar in style to the electro works of composer Lutz Glandien, AGF focuses on dark and unstable avant-soundscapes laced with unique vocal experimentation. On `Food Combination Chart`, AGF moves through a futuristic soundscape of industrial techno and ambient electronica by playing around with progressively growing moodscapes which lie on a bed of rippling, sub-aqua drag-beats. `Where The White Animals Meet` see's playful and slightly haphazard melodic arrangements complimented by layers of gaseous beatscapes and teasing sound manipulations which throb with the kind of visceral energy that is lost by many of today's IDM producers. `Dread In Strangers Eyes` takes the listeners on a surreal journey to hear what Pendericki might have produced if he conducted in today's digital era. Suffice to say this track is a slice of avant-garde techno full of clattering anti-sounds which lock-in to a Pan Sonic-esque groove. This air of avant-garde eccentricity continues forth on `Head Inside Cloud` with its airborne beats that strike out randomly over a soundscape of haphazard keys, gaseous discharge and breathy atmospherics.

The dark undertone of the album comes to a head on the nightmarish `Presswehen` which sounds like the gates of hell have been opened after a séance that has gone badly wrong. Deep breathy vocals move into frighteningly torturous moans and yelps on-top of a suffocating layer of audio-static and micro-skree. Imagine Jarboe being tortured whilst Merzbow v Nordvargr's Partikel project spins in the background. Seriously disconcerting and a successful experiment showcasing the all-enveloping power that sound can possess. Although more laid-back, `KZ' is another dark and exhilarating venture into the abyss. Sounding more like the psychedelic drone-rock of Skullflower than anything remotely electronica, AGF creates a sound which pitches ethereal drones against sharp outbursts of military cluster-beats to carve out a soothing yet disconcerting vision of a lengthy battle on the brink of failure.

Throughout the album, AGF proves to be an expert crafter and arranger of mutant-beats, creating a dark and foreboding aura which merges together many sub-genre's of electronica within an avant-garde aesthetic. The interplay between light and dark is central to the consistency of `Words Are Missing', acting as the gel which brings all the elements together. Ultimately, this is a varied, thought-provoking and thumping release that deserves to be heard by all serious fans of out-of-scope electronica. (AM)

For fans of: Matmos, Pan Sonic, Lutz Glandien, Richard Devine