Cassette version released by Already Dead Tapes (
alreadydeadtapes.bandcamp.com/album/agita)
As mentioned in Rolling Stone's Best Music of 2023: Staff Picks
www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/best-music-2023-rolling-stone-staff-albums-1234936165/
"Burly noise-prog — emphasis on the noise — that combines the live-wire charge and DIY virtuosity of the great early-to-mid-2000s avant-rock duos (Hella definitely come to mind) with the massive asymmetrical groove of Meshuggah and sprinkles of Battles-y sleekness. Abrasive as hell yet also unabashedly fun and compulsively body-moving."
-- Dark Forces Swing Blind Punches blog
"The Chicago band again in its original instrumental configuration. Drums, guitar and always an incredible density of sounds, a guitar and its effects which confuse you as much as it hypnotizes you, a sound which scratches, hooks, scratches and caresses at the same time. The loops that follow one another, the intensity crescendo, the breath that grows, the drums that get carried away and the madness that lurks like on Convulsive ESP, it's the unique alchemy of Imelda Marcos striking once again and hard. Caught in an infernal spiral that will not be denied by the ferociously gripping and grating final five minutes of (Noise of City)."
-- Perte & Fracas (translated from French)
"...the new EP Agita by Chicago act Imelda Marcos is awash in blinding brightness. The trio’s newest music since last year’s enigmatic Albularyo, this release is faster, sharper around the edges, white-hot riffs all jagged and buzzing with nonstop energy. The first track “desert concentrics” is centered around labyrinthine melodies, angular rhythms circling like vultures overhead as frantic notes distort and fry to a crisp under the blistering sun. The following track “convulsive ESP” reminds me of when I got heatstroke in Mexico, fuzzy guitar tones all playing over each other, until the wooziness reaches a breaking point and gives way to delirium. The most chaotic song on this release, “diamond.pin.vertigo” is djenty and disorienting, intricate percussion and choppy guitar loops set to off-kilter time signatures that threaten to collapse under their own complexity. The final track “(noise of city)” starts quietly, building up layers of drum patterns and chugging riffs until all the details blur and fade together."
-- Outside Noise
"Listening to this album is like letting someone with a hook for a hand play with your hair because it's intense, yet still comforting."
-- Issues Magazine