Agoria 'Impermanence' Review

As one of techno’s consistent performers over the past decade Agoria had a lot to live up to with his latest album, Impermanence.

The past few years have seen his style wander a little from the more techy dance floor numbers of 2003’s ‘Blossom’ but it hasn’t been bad at all and it’s refreshing to hear an artist who doesn’t stick to the same thing over and over but can still come up with the goods too. This is all the more reason to check out Impermanence - it’s something special in itself and has a clutch of interesting tracks which will groove, soothe or amp you.

It kicks off with the piano ballad ‘Kiss My Soul’ featuring the sublime vocals of Kid A followed by one of the straight-up club numbers, ‘Souless Dreamer’ which features Seth Troxler on vocals overtop a sparse house groove. Right away you get the picture here.

Detroit’s Carl Craig appears on ‘Speechless’, contributing the sleazy, spoken vocals in a track which has already done the rounds on limited 12” since late last year. It’s well cool and has the classic Carl Craig stamp of ‘crazy’ on it. At the other end of the spectrum ‘Grande Torino’ is a bouncy key-led groove with orchestral elements – the sort of Âme ‘Rej’ moment of the album which is infectious and hypnotic.

The standout moment of the album is surely ‘Heart Beating’ which also features the vocals of Kid A. It’s superbly written and with a perfectly subtle orchestral and percussion arrangement which never overpowers the song, setting the stage for Agoria to earn plenty of new fans in the mainstream – and without selling out one bit.

Overall you might be disappointed if you were expecting stuff like ‘Sky Is Clear’ or ‘La Onzième Marche’ all over again but this is definitely a quality listen. It shows Agoria has the touch for creating great music without feeling the need to aim for the dance floor at all times

Agoria 'Impermanence' is out from 14 February on Infine Music.

Check out the Impermanence 7 minute teaser mix at Agoria's soundcloud page.