Ant AggsAnt Aggs
Indie

- The last thing I wrote about Ant Aggs was back in 2015, in the form of a plea for him to release much, much more music. Come 2018 and the one-time Afrodizziact and Resin Dogs member is sneaking out a new, self-titled release that is exactly as slim as his last. Sneaking it out almost like he’s aiming to avoid the attention of the industry and would-be fans. Yet if all that stays the same, so does the consistently high quality of what’s on offer. .

The producer-pianist continues to work out interesting stylistic matchups and finds the guest artists to give them a high-sheen finish. Opener Are You Ready, for instance, brings together simple, electro beats with squelchy synth and -oh-hello- Meg Delos. The young singer does a soft but sultry vocal. The chorus had me asking “surely I’ve heard this before”, thanks to an instant and classic catchiness, a feat which is repeated with alarming ease across just about all the material here.

There’s something else about the snappy melodies all over the EP and it took me a while to put my finger on it; let’s continue. Brisbane-based Eritrean diva Arig, works magic on I Baby, but her line is cut down to what might as well be vocal samples, which makes this sound like Soul II Soul or even, with the easygoing dance mosey, a bit like old Moby. So much of the record isn’t so much pumping with dance energy, but like it’s just about to leap out of the booth and on to the dancefloor; but no, it’s mostly content to just flirt with the idea and, hey, it’s a very practiced flirt.

It’ll keep you guessing too. The third cut is the single and it’s totally different. A vehicle for Roman MC’s rap and the organic warmth that he and Aggs work up together will make you feel like you’re vibing to old Gang Starr or De La Soul, or, failing that, one of Mark Ronson’s better, funky numbers. Ant even takes a turn at  vocalising as a Jordan Rakei style smoothey and, once again, it’s remarkably good.

Make It Better is more of that mid-tempo, ‘90’s dance-floor feel, with canned-sounding but still delightful vox from Elly Hoyt and maybe the friskiest beat on the record. The drum break -which sounds curiously like a drumline- I like a little less, but only because it takes me away from the rest of the song, which, being dancefloor material, could have been stretched out another three minutes, no problem.

Final number Sunrise is nothing if not true to the blueprint already laid out, oscillating between r’n’b and slow dance without ever really being one or the other. Arig returns and teams up with Lai (about whom I know little) contributing not much more than a vocalise. Once again, for all that it seems like not a lot, it delivers a whole lot more.

Maybe this EP is so top-loaded with infectiously catchy melody because Ant Aggs’ has spent a decade cutting his teeth as an ad-industry producer and session muso. On the other hand maybe he does those things because he’s just got a great ear for a tune. Whatever the reason, this little EP is the result and it’s a great result. I’m sort of surprised that Ant -business-focused, working-musician that he is- releases these EPs at all, but I’m so glad he does. At the same time it’s frustrating, knowing the feeding frenzy that is the music industry will likely never even get a whiff of this. He’d kill at Bigsound this year, if they even knew he existed. Let me shed the little amount of light I can on one of the best releases from one of the finer talents out of Brisbane this year: ladies and gentleman, it's Ant Aggs.

- Chris Cobcroft.


Ant AggsAnt Aggs

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