<span><span>- There aren't many positives to be gleaned from the current pandemic, least of all for the musical community. One small upside has been the number of bands releasing recordings that have been sitting on the shelf for a number of years. With not much else to do there's been time to put the finishing touches on these records, and – with further encouragement from Bandcamp's monthly fee-free Fridays – finally put them out for public consumption. One such record is the latest from Canberra's <strong>Agency</strong> with their <em>Wild Possession</em> EP, which was recorded over a lightning three-day session three years ago.</span></span>
<span><span>Agency have been trading in cerebral, experimental punk for a number of years, having released a series of EPs (the most recent being the twin 2016 releases <em>Do We Go It Alone</em> and <em>I Know I'm In Flames</em>) and one album (2015's <em>The Stillness Of Speed</em>). Wild Possession is curious in that two of its six songs were already released as the respective openings tracks of those 2016 EPs, but the versions contained here – while mostly pretty similar in structure and performance – are different enough to justify their inclusion, largely thanks to the more direct production on this release care of <strong>Party Dozen</strong>'s <strong>Jonathan Boulet</strong> – it's much drier and more in-your-face than Agency's previous releases, and welcomely so.</span></span>
<span><span>The record opens with <em>Long Gone</em>, a song that wouldn't feel out of place on <strong>Fugazi</strong>'s <em>In On The Killtaker</em> album, with its tense opening giving way to an absolutely barnstorming punk-rock number that you could totally imagine being sung by <strong>Guy Picciotto</strong>. <em>This Year's Favourite Son</em> starts off somewhere near the math-rock of early <strong>My Disco</strong> and ends up amongst <strong>No Sister</strong>'s no-wave dissonance. <em>Buffaloes </em>is the first of the revisited songs, and it's again a highlight, with its two-part structure of restrained first half followed by driving second, combined with various vocal hooks, turning it into a mini epic. <em>Senseless</em> and closer <em>Citizens Alone</em> (the other revisited song) return to the relentless assault of <em>Long Gone</em>, although this time with perhaps even more venom. Sandwiched between them, however, is <em>Sensitive</em>, a reminder that Agency are adept at more than just guitar-based punk-rock. Featuring a spoken-word turn from <strong>The Nation Blue</strong> and <strong>Harmony</strong>'s <strong>Tom Lyngcoln</strong>, it's a sub-two minute wash of ambience and the perfect respite from the rest of the record's intensity – even though, in its own way, it's just as tense.</span></span>
<span><span>Clocking in at under twenty minutes, Wild Possession is a short and sharp jolt of thoughtful fury. Sure, after four years since their last major release a few more songs would have been great, but ultimately I'm just happy to have something new from a quality band to help tide us over during these... unprecedented times.</span></span>
<span><span>- Cameron Smith.</span></span>
<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3601939077/size=large/bgcol=f…; seamless><a href="http://agencycbr.bandcamp.com/album/wild-possession">Wild Possession by Agency</a></iframe>