Agape

Aggressive, obnoxious and frequently unlistenable, the music of Salt Lake City's Agape is also often dangerously danceable, hypnotically seductive and pleasantly disorienting. The experience of an Agape show lies somewhere between the scrotum-shrinking rush of jumping out of an airplane and the exquisitely unendurable pain of being trampled by a...

By Eryc Eyl

August 10, 2006

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Aggressive, obnoxious and frequently unlistenable, the music of Salt Lake City's Agape is also often dangerously danceable, hypnotically seductive and pleasantly disorienting. The experience of an Agape show lies somewhere between the scrotum-shrinking rush of jumping out of an airplane and the exquisitely unendurable pain of being trampled by a million jackbooted leprechauns. Ryan Powers -- aka key torturer and "vocalist" -- once admitted that rehearsing his songs made him physically ill. Taking inspiration from grindcore minimalists the Locust and neo-dance winkers the Faint, this one-man band provides the soundtrack to a rusty razor-blade fight in a fetid subway tunnel while exploring metal, industrial, techno, house and Bernard Herrmann. Remember that dream you had where Vince Clarke, Skinny Puppy, Napalm Death and John Zorn played at your sister's wedding while the entire Mormon Tabernacle Choir was stretched on the rack? Well, Agape turns that beautiful dream into a brutal, undeniable reality.

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