We have a good selection of albums to introduce (including ‘Tuvaband’, ‘Warning Warning’ and more), so we’ll try and keep things short and simple to get through as many as possible. We’ll start with Swedish artist ‘Agacy’ who has released his debut album ‘The Space Between our Lips’ day on ‘Yellow Step Records’, the same label that we introduced when writing about ‘Björn Falk’ on Friday.
Behind ‘Agacy’ is the Swedish songwriter Adam Agace, who is also the bass player and co-songwriter in the excellent Swedish band ‘Hater’, that we’ve featured previously. The tracks on ‘The Space Between our Lips’ were written in Agace’s home studio in Malmö, predominantly based rhythmically around synth pads and drum loops, but all instruments were performed by him, as well as recording and mixing the songs, before being mastered by Joakim Lindberg at Studio Sickan.
’The Space Between our Lips’ is a well written album, with a richness and warmth to the overall sound that I wasn’t quite expecting, given it’s relatively lo-fi beginnings. Highlights include opening track ‘Cry into My Heart’ which has an intensity in the vocals (which are impressive throughout), supported by the transfixing looping guitar which swirls away atmospherically in the background. But the melodic ‘pop’ intent of the album is demonstrated in tracks such as ‘Give my Life Back’ and 'Every Time', with a diversity in the instrumentation which adds interesting textures to the songs. ‘Trying too Hard’ also captures my attention in particular, a striking track with a stripped back low tempo opening and a distinct melancholy vocal, whilst the indie pop fused ‘Fireworks’ is an obvious favourite, with an irresistibly catchy if understated chorus.
This is an impressive indie release from 'Agacy', which may have begun as a self developed ‘spare time’ project, but has a real attention to detail particularly in the instrumentation and arrangements throughout. I haven’t quite yet gained an emotional attachment to it lyrically, but I've only been listening for a few days and 'The Space Between our Lips' is the type of album I'll keep coming back to, as it has a natural musical warmth and is full of likeable tunes that should appeal to pretty much everyone - we hope you'll give it a listen.