Local Review: Agape – Self-titled EP

Agape
Self-titled EP

Agape = (ABBA + I Am the World Trade Center + Wesley Willis) x (insert any GSL band here)

One might compare Agape to Gold Standard Laboratory Records bands, and yeah, that’d be accurate, but one-man-band Ryan Powers kind of leaves ’em all in the dust if you ask me. (Ask me.) Seeing Agape’s power-dance techno-driven crunch-buzz blastball live is far better than anything that could be put on a one-dimensional CD, yet still, this is one of the best local CDs of the year. The aural assault of Agape’s simple, stripped-down, abrasive, bleepy, insectoid, video-game, brutal synth lines encompass Kill Me Tomorrow, The Locust, Atom & His Package and Some Girls, but imbue the sincerely danceable basics with much more shocking violence. Whether that violence is good-natured or murderous is the question, the question that will keep you awake at night.