New Assumptions...
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https://collapsingdrums.bandcamp.com/album/new-assumptions
'...a perfect microcosm of why Ex Agent are among the most exciting bands to emerge to a wider audience this year. The whole group hop around frantically in tandem, shapeshifting constantly; a fire-breathing noise-rock unit one minute, scratchy vaudevillian theatre the next. A collage structure sees an intro of chugging, industrial guitar clang and frenzied percussion, which then settles into a dark, piano-led art-punk galumph, and then a spiralling Slint-like post hardcore section – the perfect platform for Ethel to lay down some banshee cackles and howls.'
— Cal Cashin, The Quietus
Ex Agent’s debut EP New Assumptions… is a collision of no-wave beauty, improv-adjacent disorder, and spoken-word poetics that teeter on the edge of collapse. Within this exquisitely precise disarray lie carefully constructed moments of fragility, repeatedly unsettled by bursts of sudden, free-jazz chaos. Across five tracks, the Bristol-based five-piece explore queer and neurodivergent identity through sonic themes of refuge, instability, and resistance.
Available with this pre-order is the single “Jessie’s Christ”, with the full EP streaming from 30 July 2025.
credits
released July 30, 2025
EX AGENT ARE:
Aidan Surgey (drums, percussion)
Alfie Hay (guitar, FX, Vox)
Archie Ttwheam (piano, woodwind, glockenspiel, Vox)
Eve Rosenberg (electric bass, FX)
Evo Ethel (guitar, woodwind, Vox)
All tracks produced by Ex Agent, mixed & engineered by Alfie Tyson-Brown at the Louisiana, Bristol, with additional mixing by Evo Ethel.
Additional engineering by Archie Ttwheam & Evo Ethel at St Anne’s Church, Bristol; PRAH Studios, Margate; and by Jack Doyle at Bliss Community Studio, Bristol.
GUEST PLAYERS:
Esther Pollock, Laura Kristapaite, Natalie Whiteland, Oliver Kadouchkine (choir on ‘Credit Song’)
Tom Connolly & Sam Greenwood (violin on ‘New Assumptions’)
Llŷr Adeline (cello on ‘New Assumptions’)
Harry Furniss (cornet on ‘New Assumptions’, ‘Jessie’s Christ’ & ‘Credit Song’)
Painting by Nell Ttwheam
Design by Charlie Behrens
Photo by Jess Agnew
Mastered by Shawn Joseph at Optimum Mastering
Distributed by State 51
Special thanks to Ollie Judge, Noods Radio and John Doran
LAPSE 06 | © 2025 Ex Agent
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