Agent Whiskers – “Abstract forms of Solace” Review

Essam Ghamadi aka Agent Whiskers has been part of the Saudi music scene for a while now. I’ve been following his band, Creative Waste (  the only grindcore band from Saudi Arabia) for a few years. The debut album by Creative Waste has been scheduled to be released for the past year (even longer I think) hence I was surprised when Essam released a solo album a couple months ago under the moniker “Agent Whiskers”.

Agent Whiskers  is very different musically from Creative Waste. The best way I could describe it is “Ambient electronica“, the kinda music you would hear in the soundtrack of a video game and maybe even in a movie.

“Abstract forms of Solace” is a short listen, clocking in at less than 30 minutes. It starts off with the “The Great Beyond (Secret Window)“, a piano driven track. My favorite tracks on the album are “Almost Home” and “Virtual Cleansing“. “Almost Home” reminds me of the how the journey home feels even longer after a exceptionally long day at work.  Essam described the album by saying,”At its core, the record evokes hope, despair, harmony and eventually solace”. I don’t I could describe it better.

Each song on the album is story in itself. The descriptive song titles make up for the lack of lyrics. The production is minimal and really suits the music, however better drum samples could have been used. Check out a couple of tracks from the album along with unreleased tracks here.  Download “Abstract of Solace” from itunes  here and from bandcamp here .

There are few similar artists in the Arabian Gulf region that I am aware of, stay tuned for more music from Agent Whiskers to be released before the end of the year.