Nov 16, 2013

RhoDeo 1345 Beats

Hello, just returned and back behind the screen, it's been all about a nasty typhoon this week and i'm afraid the survivors didn't show much respect to eachother in fact it has been a showcase of total anarchy, not that that is something typical of Fillipino's or Catholics although the verb God helps those that help themselves certainly wasn't meant as a call to anarchy. I'm afraid things wouldn't be much better if a disaster of this magnitude struck the 'civilized' west.

The coming months Frenchies rule the beats and they have plenty to offer even though not that much reaches the world as  the music scene is rather dominated by the Anglo - American industry. Meanwhile the French enjoyed themselves in their own niche so to speak, and they did rather well. Today a return to a technowizard who's albums came through here 10 weeks ago, this week his outstanding mixes are in the spotlight ....... N'joy

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Sebastian Devaud AKA Agoria grew up in rural France. His name evolved from the name of an event series he started as a teenager, Agora, loosely meaning ‘meeting place’ in ancient Greek. The son of an opera singer (who taught him music theory and piano from the age of 10) and an architect (who was apparently a big fan of Steve Reich and Brian Eno’s repetitive musics), Devaud cites the inspiration of Pierre Henry, Stockhausen, hip-hop and Prince alongside Detroit luminaries such as Derrick May, Kenny Larkin and Underground Resistance.

Back in 2001 Lyon's nightlife was in an abject state. Promoters of any form of music were subject to constant pressure and restrictions from the local government. Parties were forced to close at 1:00 AM. Local DJs like Sébastien Devaud, AKA Agoria, were regularly being arrested for breaking laws on opening hours. The situation remained fairly bleak, until in March of that year socialist mayoral candidate Gérard Collomb came to power with a mandate to boost Lyon's nightlife and therefore its student population. The city's key cultural figures were gathered and asked to give their thoughts on improving the situation. A small group of people including Devaud and Vincent Carry (now the Nuits Sonores director) campaigned for a dedicated electronic music festival. Carry eventually convinced the mayor to join them on a night out, looking to give him a greater insight into their nocturnal culture. Ten years on and Collomb is still in office, and Nuits Sonores is France's most important electronic music event.

Ten years since his debut and critically acclaimed album release, ‘Blossom’ on PIAS recordings, Agoria is still growing and has become a true pioneer of his style, creating an original epic metamorphosis of dub and acid that takes techno beyond where it started.  His three consecutive albums (‘The Green Armchair’ 2006, soundtrack ‘Go Fast’ 2008 and ‘Impermanence’ 2011) elevated him to cult status and Resident Advisor named his ‘At The Controls’ release in the top 20 best of the decade (2000-2010). His production techniques have collided with an army of notorious artists including Tricky, Neneh Cherry and Ann Saunderson.

Agoria’s dextrous production skills are sought out from the worlds of film and fashion such as with his soundtrack for the film ‘Go Fast’ produced by Luc Besson and directed by Olivier Van Hoofstad. He is now a music director or the high-end French label Courrèges and recently produced the first album from female singer Kid A who featured on his last album.  In 2011 he delivered an episode of the fabric mix series, one of their most successful to date.

Agoria cares more about the music than titles. A student of cinema school he recently created FORMS, a visual and conceptual installation where the DJ is just an element of the show - the motor of the music - engulfed in a vast structure submerged in mapping video, images scripted and graphic composing,  he takes a shamanic approach to creating the perfect environment for the music. . FORMS takes us to the heart of the industrial world; to the absolute essence of electronic music, its architecture and history.  .

In between these roles he manages to maintain and enjoy over 100 gigs a year that take him throughout Europe, USA, Asia, South America and to some of the most cutting edge cities of the world. His favourite place is Japan for its food, idiosyncrasies and humorous nature. A true Frenchmen, he knows to share and to laugh are the key ingredients to a good life.

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Cute & Cult is Agoria’s first mix CD, and it comes at you like a bolt out of the blue. In the first ten minutes the DJ somehow manages to navigate his way from Angelo Badalamenti’s ‘Mulholland Drive’ music through to Radiohead’s ‘Idioteque’, by way of Carl Craig and Ricardo Villalobos, without making the progression sound in any way contrived or unnatural. Anyone who likes inventiveness in DJing will find plenty here to keep their attention, and as Agoria moves on to a techno landscape the beats sharpen up and the riffs get stronger.

Agoria’s own ‘Les Beaux Jours’, an exclusive for this mix, has a wonderfully metallic sound, and while The Age Of Love may seem a lazy choice on paper it actually sounds better positioned in the middle, flanked by Matthew Jonson and the pounding drum of 69’s ‘Filter King’.  At which point comes the masterstroke, Iggy Pop’s ‘Nightclubbing’ working its way in for an unexpected appearance, sounding brilliant with its klaxon-like backing. It forms an effective break, so that when the techno music reappears it gains even more power, and the cuts that follow from Swayzak, Basic Channel and Anthony Rother take on a sharper dancefloor edge, leading up to another anthem in ‘LFO’. Agoria doesn’t stop there, ending with a solo piano rendition of ‘Strings Of Life’ from Francesco Tristano, an improvised number that works up to the main riff in full, the lights seemingly coming up on the dancefloor as it ends.

 Mixed completely live, this is an excellent, provocative set that challenges a lot of genres along the way and is never less than rewarding on its journey.



VA - Agoria - Cute and Cult ( flac 410mb)

01 Angelo Badalamenti - Mulholland Drive / Love Theme 1:47
02 Carl Craig - Experimento 1:33
03 Lucien–N–Luciano - Stone Age 2:39
04 Sieg Über Die Sonne - Love Is Ok (Ricardo Villalobos Remix) 2:51
05 Extrawelt - Soopertrack 2:03
06 Radiohead - Idioteque 3:38
07 André Kraml - Safari (James Holden Remix) 4:07
08 Alter Ego - Daktari (Robag Wruhme's Handkäs Mit Musikk Remixx) 1:34
09 Agoria - Les Beaux Jours 4:59
10 Mathew Jonson - Marionette 2:39
11 Age Of Love - The Age Of Love (Jam & Spoon Watch Out For Stella Mix) 0:38
12 Sleeparchive - Research 3:26
13 69 - Filter King 2:10
14 Iggy Pop - Nightclubbing 3:53
15 Agoria - Lude 0:14
16 69 - No Highs - Finale 2:06
17 Swayzak - Another Way 3:38
18 Basic Channel - Phylyps Trak II 2:45
19 Sasse - Soul Sounds (Dirt Crew Solid Diamond Remix) 3:24
20 MGI - Rainbow 4:12
21 Anthony Rother - Back Home 2:23
22 LFO - Lfo 3:00
23 Francesco Tristano - Strings Of Life 5:01

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One of the more unusual - and perhaps most inspired - mixes currently doing the rounds, Agoria's contribution to the Balance series is, frankly, all over the place. Brilliantly so, in fact. The French producer/DJ shifts restlessly between experimental electronics, classical music, techno, disco and pop, treating some tracks to heavy editing, whilst just letting others play out. He'll only use some material for a few beats or samples (Sylvain Chauveau gets a whole six seconds at the start of the second CD) while other songs recur at different points throughout the mix, making everything feel eerily connected together in a rhizomic sort of way. The first disc introduces itself with draughts of Gregg Kowalsky's tape-drone melting into Alva Noto's wonderful 'Xerrox Moonphaser 2' with elements of DJ Koze's 'Lords Of Panama' in tow. In the main sequence you encounter works by The Field, Emiliana Torrini, Bibio, LCD Soundsystem, Tosca and Agoria himself all brilliantly merged into a single, highly original non-linear narrative, that successfully juggles its danceable passages with an underlying experimental approach to structure and form. The second disc continues to be inventive and exploratory, making its mark with an early stretch that incorporates four different tracks simultaneously, at the heart of which is Aphrodite's Child's 'Loud Loud Loud'. There are more moments like this to come, with recurring uses of Sylvain Chauveau tracks and Avril's 'French Kiss' and an unexpected deployment of Jonny Greenwood's orchestral work, 'Tehellet', right at the heart of the mix when the tempo should really be at its most frenzied. Brilliant stuff.



VA - Agoria - Balance 016 -1 Aller Retour (flac 420mb)

  Aller Retour (64:19)
01 Gregg Kowalsky - Ashes From Evermore 1:14
02.1 Alva Noto - Xerrox Monophaser 2 2:48
02.2 DJ Koze - Lords Of Panama
03 Mark Pritchard - ? 2:55
04 Manvoy de Saint Sadrill - Soeheniona 2:24
05 Tosca - Joe Si Ha 3:49
06 Emiliana Torrini - Gun 2:29
07 Agoria - Parasite 2 0:27
08 Arandel - In D#5 2:23
09 Messina - Columpnam 2:07
10 19.454.18.5.25.5.18 - When I Think Of 1:48
11 Pom Pom - 10 1:12
12 Agoria - Altre Voci 3:49
13 Glimpse - Train In Austria Part 2 2:51
14 The Field - Over The Ice (Live Mix) 1:58
15 Olibusta - La Pazz 2:03
16 Cubenx - Mis Dias Y Tus Noches 2:38
17 Felix Laband - Whistling In Tongues (Todd Terje Remix) 4:47
18 Jozif - Back 2 My Roots (Jozif's 5o'clock Fabric Shadow Edit) 0:57
19 Bibio - Jealous Of Roses 2:14
20 LCD Soundsystem - 45:33 (Trus'me Remix) 4:43
21.1 Boozoo Bajou Feat. Rumer - Same Sun (Prins Thomas Diskomiks) 4:25
21.2 Oxia - Less Time
22 Hatikvah - Synchronicty (Block Barley & Engin Ozturk Holmby Hills Remix) 2:15
23 Rio en Medio - The Last Child's Tear 3:32
24 Tipper - Just As The Sun Went Down 2:41
25.1 Gregg Kowalsky - Ashes From Evermore 1:41
25.2 Alva Noto - Xerrox Monophaser 2

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VA - Agoria - Balance 016 -2 Rising Sine ( flac 404mb)

  Rising Sine (61:47)
01 Sylvain Chauveau - Hurlement En Faveur De Serge T. 0:05
02 Aphrodite's Child - Loud Loud Loud 2:29
03.1 Taron Trekka - Shirol 2:04
03.2 Suedmilch - We Were
04 The Same - Szarpiesz Minerwa 3:20
05 Ogris Debris - G-Thong (youANDme Remix) 2:45
06 Francesco Tristano - Knee For Thought 3:33
07.1 Different Gear - One Thing More (Dub Mix) 2:40
07.2 Dorothée & Ben Munyaneza - Mwali We!
08.1 Michael Forzza - Abstractor 2.0 2:19
08.2 Rio en Medio - The Last Child's Tear
09 Chris Carrier & Jef K - Morning 0:15
10 DVS1 - Running 1:40
11 Drama Society & Vladislav Delay - Almodrama 2:53
12.1 Agoria - Libellules 4:09
12.2 Gadi Mizrahi - I Know
12.3 Marc Antona - Kipkop
13 Avril - French Kiss 1:45
14 Gadi Mizrahi - I Know 3:21
15.1 Jonny Greenwood - Tehellet 3:05
15.2 Agoria - Parasite
16 Avril - French Kiss 1:04
17 Mark Broom - Twenty Nine (Broom 09 Mix) 2:55
18 Einmusik - Atl Antis 1:53
19 Perc & Passarella Death Squad - Temperature's Rising 2:42
20 Aufgang - Sonar (Spitzer Remix) 4:59
21 Shit Robot - Simple Things (Work It Out) (Serge Santiago Remix) 3:43
22 Efdemin - Acid Bells (Martyn Remix) 2:22
23 3 Chairs - No Drum Machine Part 2 1:50
24 Kid A - Lonely 2:33
25 Sylvain Chauveau - Hurlements En Faveur De Serge T. 1:11

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previously RhoDeo Beats 1335

more Agoria

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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi! Any chance or re-upping VA - Agoria - Balance 016 -2 Rising Sine?
The link is dead.
Many thanks for an awesome blog!

Rho said...

Bit Odd Hugefiles dropping the link anyway its back upN'Joy

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the prompt re-up!

CerealKiller said...

It looks like the server hosting the 2nd disc for the balance release is undergoing server maintenance. Could you please re-up? Really digging the first disc and would love to see what he did on disc 2. A deeper night mix would be sick. Thanks!

CerealKiller said...

Please disregard as I was able to get it to work.

The second disc was really good with a slightly higher BPM and some nice build ups. Dug the vocal track at the end too.
Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

Any chance or re-upping Agoria - Balance 016 and/or Agoria Cute & Cult Thanks.

Anonymous said...

again? plz. thank you