In 2016, Clara Cappagali and Armand Bultheel happened upon the biggest hit of their careers so far. For a moment, it felt impossible to avoid the New Wave pulse of Prettiest Virgin on indie blogs and playlists, the song becoming a sleeper hit for left field tastemakers and the fortunate few in-the-know of the most in-vogue music. Prettiest Virgin lacks nothing in style, though truly its success is more likely accredited to its strangeness. Cappagali’s deadpan, android-like delivery is striking against the song’s analog synth loops and overall retro vibe, making Prettiest Virgin feel a touch surreal. Apparently inspired by The Sims and named after what a child Bultheel would feed to his pet ants, as Agar Agar, Cappagali and Bultheel thrive off this sort of uncanniness. It’s what sets their Parisian synthpop apart from the rest of Paris’s otherwise chic obsessed scene, whose boundaries Agar Agar happily push by being both chic and totally weird at the same time.
Their latest album, Player Non Player, has a distinct retro arcade vibe. The synths here are neon soaked, buzzy, and excitable. They pulse with day-glo coloured intentions, as if ripped straight out of a late 80’s video game. Grass uses this quality particularly well, beginning with an atmospheric ambient loop, joined by a throbbing Moog sequence that bursts into motorik synthpop. It’s an incredibly effective album opener, and sets the scene well enough for the surfrock-by-way-of-synth vibe of The Visit. This makes the left turn taken at Trouble even more surprising. Agar Agar swiftly pulls us from the halls of the 80’s arcade and drops us into a psychedelic landscape of dubby acid and 90’s breakbeats. In fact, the influence of 90’s era dance music courses through a number of tracks on Player Non Player, with Agar Agar finding inspiration in the slow burn ooze of trip-hop, more often than not filtering this through their indie chic gaze. The quasi-interlude Crave also turns to diverse references to intriguing effect. Wailing like a possessed Nintendo, Crave is sparse, deconstructed, and erratic, with Agar Agar trying their hand at contemporary club in the vein of Sega Bodega.
Download and stream Player Non Player here
These stylistic U-turns are all the more welcome next to the rest of Player Non Player, which stays within Agar Agar’s usual scope. The trouble with tracks like No Pressure and Odile is that they sound too familiar next to the likes of Dragonlie or Fake Names. It’s Over does a good job of closing the experience, but keen ears will pick up on its striking similarities to Prettiest Virgin. As a sophomore effort, Player One Player is a resounding success. The music on here is slick and stylishly realised, and credit must be given to the duo’s instincts for a killer pop hook. Still, there’s room for evolution here. Cappagali and Bultheel start to test the waters by expanding their palette, and the results are so satisfying that you want them to take the full plunge. Player Non Player is an Agar Agar in the process of becoming, but not quite set just yet.
Listen to Trouble from Player Non Player below.
Follow Agar Agar
Instagram | Facebook | SoundCloud
