Nine Seconds – Agent Provocateur (CD Album – Infacted Recordings)

Genre/Influences: EBM, body-pop.

Background/Info: You take the former singer of Swiss dark-electro formation Sleepwalk and the German duo of No Comment and you get Nine Seconds. The band previously released two albums on Space Race Records and a few self-released EP’s. The trio is now back on track and have joined hands with Infacted to unleash this new work.

Content: “Agent Provocateur” sounds harder than the previous albums. The songs are more inspired by EBM elements although still polished with electro-pop arrangements. The vocals of Oliver Spring are powerful, but clearer than during his Sleepwalk period.

The album also reveals a few little surprises such as the more disco-pop driven title-song and a few cuts moving into reverie.

+ + + : “Agent Provocateur” reveals a renewed sound for Nine Seconds. The band seems like having inspired by harder electro influences and particularly by EBM. The songs are well-crafted and reveal some complexity, but the final result remains pretty accessible. I like most of the bass lines and also noticed a few cool industrial-like sound arrangements. The vocals perfectly fit with the harder song approach.

– – – : Globally speaking this album took me by surprise and I really like this new approach. The only element I’m (still) missing maybe is a more melodic touch during the choruses.

Conclusion: Nine Seconds was just an interesting band so far, but “Agent Provocateur” will definitely increase the band’s popularity. This is a work that will appeal to lovers of EBM and electro-pop music.

Best songs: “Plastic Fantastic”, “Agent Provocateur”, “Somnambulist”, “Borderland – 3^rd Chapter”, “Lost Love – Part 1”.

Rate: (8).

Band: www .nineseconds .de / www .facebook .com /nineseconds

Label: www .infacted –recordings .de / www .facebook .com /pages /Infacted –Recordings /124099254321690

Since you’re here …

… we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading Side-Line Magazine than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. And unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

Side-Line’s independent journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we want to push the artists we like and who are equally fighting to survive.

If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, our future would be much more secure. For as little as 5 US$, you can support Side-Line Magazine – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.

The donations are safely powered by Paypal.