AGF/Delay
Explode

From the old East Germany and Finland comes the collaboration between Antye Greie (aka AGF) and Sasu Ripatti (aka Vladislav Delay), a collaboration that is so deep that in 2006 it will be crowned with the birth of a daughter between the two. A year before the pink ribbon for the Ripatti family, the album "Explode" is released.

The Finnish guy represents a symbol of quality in house, ambient, and techno music, even though he was only born in 1976. He has a series of albums worthy of a veteran, and the ideas that accompany his career under various pseudonyms (Delay, Uusitalo, Luomo, etc.) mark an important path in the concept of electronic music. Alongside him in this ambitious union are the texts of his partner; Antye declaims, speaks, reads, and reflects with her voice, giving a sonic impact to the album and conveying a postmodern narrative of art in electronic sauce.
There's talk and decomposition of sounds at the same time, a story of a Palestinian suicide bomber girl who kills twenty-two people and herself ("Explode Baby"), but also the laws of the world and the transience of our lives in "Distributor," atmospheres and dub, breakbeats, and micro-house sounds masterfully handled by the Finn in an obsessive repetitiveness.

The album has many strengths, but the flaw of this record, which also affects AGF's career, is represented by the factor of taking itself too seriously and being repetitive in some declamations. After the initial positive sonic impact of the blend of these so far-apart universes, the tracks begin to tire and fail to convey that deep artistic message they seek to bear, in fact, the very dark sacredness with which they try to convey this message becomes too heavy a burden to bear and the tension drops.
The sense of unease that the album transmits achieves good results, for example, in "All Lies On Us," but at the same time, it doesn't convey a richness of ideas, but rather widespread limitations. Don't get me wrong, there should be more albums like these or stimulating collaborations in different fields, but I believe that the formula doesn't always succeed perfectly, and the repetition of phrases declaimed by Antje tends to diminish the good work of her partner.

"Explode" represents the duo's best work, but should be taken in small doses, without emphasizing its monotony too much and focusing on the good ideas contained herein. The Ripatti family is a couple of young people who read a lot, study, gather information, attend numerous exhibitions and, in short, are intellectually active, perhaps in this case too much because they try to cram everything into a small container, and who knows if it won't be up to the little daughter, in not too distant a future, to continue the insights of her cultured parents...