AGF: Words are Missing
AGF Producktion

Remember that tall, long-haired brunette in high school you pined after in Chemistry class, the one who, when you finally got up the nerve to talk to her, gushed about fractals, trigonometric functions, and the Periodic Table? Well, she grew up and became AGF, “poem producer” and Laub partner Antye Greie who once again channels her brainiac tendencies into inspired cyborg electronica. On Words Are Missing, AGF's style gravitates ever-closer to sometime collaborator Vladislav Delay's with dense and dubby tracks like “Where The White Animals Meet” and “Dread In Strangers Eyes” trafficking in a rhythmically spasmodic and lurching style occasionally heard in his music. Though Words Are Missing signifies her intention to “leave words behind,” it's a far from vocal-less collection. Her voice is still present, albeit used as a sonic tool instead of a conventional conveyor of lyrics. Thematically, the album constellates around ideas of silence, deconstructed language, and impeded communication, and sonically exudes an industrial-mechano chilliness. AGF doesn't hesitate to challenge the listener as tracks like the clanging dirge “Food Combination Chart,” squawking “Die Ufer Sind In Feindes Hand,” and nightmarish “Presswehen” push the limits of listenability. She's not afraid to explore contrasting moods either: one track references the visit she made to the concentration camp in Buchenwald when she was sixteen, while another is an apparent homage to crossword puzzles. Three related pieces use the recorded alphabet as a starting point: “Letters Make No Meaning (Weapons No War Germs No Disease) I,” in which her voice is fragmented into rapid-fire percussive loops; “Cognitive Modules Party II,” where spoken letters are transformed into urgent techno-funk rhythms; and the playful and high-spirited “Ooops For Understanding III.” Words Are Missing clearly shows that AGF's fearless explorative spirit hasn't diminished.

February 2008