Agonoize - Wahre Liebe

Agonoize is a German Hard Electro band, established in late 2002 as a duo, later taking on a vocalist to form a trio. 'Wahre Liebe' is a CD single, an appetizer for the bands album due in autumn 2012, and three years since their last album release 'Hexakosioihexekontahexa'.

Our single starts with "Dafür (version)", its melodic and certainly bass-dominated, but hardly the dance-floor filler I was hoping to hear. But, there's plenty of distorted beats and the vocals go well with the catchy melody. I like this track but it doesn't hit as hard as I would like.

"Wahre Liebe" soon delivers a driving hard beat and rhythm, and the drum beat I appreciate, although I cannot say the same for the majority of the synth sounds. It just doesn't sound evil enough, it doesn't thump and pound like much of their earlier work I so admire, or have the accompanying melody to fill a floor.

Is "Dafür (Classic)" Agonoize gone experimental? If it is I hope they don't make a habit of it. It does recover after a minute or so, but then is pretty much the same as "Dafür (version)", more bass driven is my description of the major difference. I would say that this subtle difference does however make for a potential dance floor filler if you lose the first minute or so. As an Agonoize fan I feel a bit ripped off by this track. I know it's an MCD but still!

The first of 3 remixes is, "Wahre Liebe (Auto-Auto A-Go-Go Mix)", now this is interesting with it's slower drum beat and droning synths, and has the feel of an 80s disco track. I know it's like "Living on Video", gone to hell with harsh vocals, it's a masterpiece for me.

"Dafür (No-Clean-Vocal-Mix by Gerrit Thomas of Funker Vogt)", it's what I want typical Funker Vogt, hard, punchy and fast. "Dafur" is not a bad track at all but I very much like it given the Funker Vogt treatment. Now it's a dance floor filler, great drums, melodic synths, and rhythm, all the necessary ingredients are there. And now those vocals do sound evil.

We finish with "Wahre Liebe (Aesthetic Perfection Remix)", again very different from the original as it should be and again made for the dance floor, with it's pounding rhythm for me it's harder and better. The vocals are so well complemented by the synth lines.

Conclusion:
Counting myself as one of Agonoize rapidly growing fanbase I was disappointed. Admittedly I think mainly because I like what has gone before so much. What we have is two new Agonoize tracks which I like but cannot rave about, plus "Dafur (Classic)" which I have a problem with as detailed above, plus 3 superb dance floor filling remixes. If you want to state that you are among the finest in the Hard Electro genre you need to do better than this. I am going to choose my highlight as "Wahre Liebe (Auto-Auto A-Go-Go Mix)", I hope this has nothing to do with my age. I want to stress it is only the remixes that allow me to score this as a 7. Jun 19 2012