WL//WH Review: Existential Adventures Inside the Amazing New “Jack Vegas” LP by AGENT SIDE GRINDER

WL//WH Review AGENT SIDE GRINDER

photo by Haris Mlivic

On May 4, the Swedish independent record label Progress Productions published the new opus “Jack Vegas” LP by the native Swedish post-punk ‘twilightists’ Agent Side Grinder. Their new album has 8 songs of the highest modern post-punk quality by this band that has featured a lot of times in WL//WH because we love their music clearly. I saw a few things in the EPK (you can read some of those on their Bandcamp page as well) that really got my interest in their new LP, which really explained enough of the core of their intentions.

Jack Vegas LP marks the band’s first exploration of American culture, drawing heavily on the beatnik-era works of Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, as well as the proto-punk and avant-garde movements – while maintaining a contemporary storytelling perspective…The name Jack Vegas’ is derived from a Swedish chain of low-stakes slot machines.

The album was produced by former ASG member Henrik Sunbring, and recorded in Stockholm in 2022, while the artwork was made by Swedish artist, designer, and poet Andreas Rehnberg and meant to represent the irrational thought patterns of a person teetering on the edge of insanity. The first single “Waiting Room” appeared a few months ago with an official video too as a first taste of their new amazing record.

Later on, they let out another leading track, “Bloodless” on clear and certain cold synth post-punk rails and with a glorious refrain too!!! These two songs together are sounding like the actual map of “Jack Vegas” LP…

…or I thought so! Maybe these two songs can really work well as the promos to the new album, but believe me, there is a handful of 4-5 more songs that could appear as leading tracks too, and a few more that are like the ‘hidden gems in the album’ such as “Madeleine” with that proto synth-punk orientation like been constructed for the batcaves and very late at night dancing to it like no tomorrow. And surely “Decipher” which is a marvel of inspirational synth-pop-driven electro-industrialism for a quite big audience though. And the closing track “The Unravelling” closes the album sweetly, bitter, and dynamically too. As for the rest leading forces (songs) of the album, well, I’ll leave you alone to discover them, to dance to them, and to look better where you can find the beatniks in their lyrics and in their whole structure. Is it the best ASG album so far? IDK yet but probably yes.

Personally, I am amazed at “Jack Vegas” LP, here it is, and turn it loud (please)!!!

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