Released a few months ago on NER through Tesco, this last collaboration has been compared by some persons to the Scorpion Wind album 'Heaven Sent'. Although Douglas P. has precised that 'Alarm Agents' was a 'totally different recording/writing experience', the relation sounds quite obvious to my ears, with the exception of the 4/5 experimental-industrial tracks included on it.

Amongst the 18 tracks featuring on the cd, most of them are built upon monochord spoken words from Boyd Rice, Douglas P. on backing vocals, guitar and keyboards and John Murphy on percussions… 'Black Sun Rising', 'Tears Of The hunter', 'Storm On The Sea (Out beyond Land)', 'Symbols In Souls', 'An Ancient Tale Is Told Again' dig the same furrow...

'You Love The Sun', 'You Love The Sun Don't You' and 'You Love The Sun And The Moon' (three cut up forms of the same song) built upon a repetitive and timeless guitar melody, carillons, and film dialogues (that sound quite surrealist/absurd removed from their initial context) are subtly distilled and leave a special atmosphere floating over the proceedings...

As for 'Summer Is Gone', this song has a charm similar to 'Never' that features on the Scorpion Wind album, with a catchy melody, Boyd on vocals and a lively chorus... a song that can be played repeatedly.

'Deeper than love', based on film samples underlined by carillons, noisy background… suggests an immersion in a much more apocalyptic, colder and menacing atmosphere that is only delayed by 'An Ancient Tale Is Told'. The exploration of the 'industrial-experimental' facet of this project lasts only the time of the three following tracks ('Are You Out There? Dornier 17 mix', 'Sunwheels Of Your Mind', 'Get Used To Saying No!') based mainly on sound effects, noisy loops and strong but eventually wearisome lyrics...

What to say about the exclusive cd track 'The Man Who Laughs'...? One just hopes that Douglas and Boyd had fun in compos(ampl)ing and choosing to insert it in the final track list...

All that said, 'Alarm Agents' is certainly not as bad as what the most inveterate detractors of Douglas P. may have said but not as transcending and indispensable as most Death In June fan(atic)s claim it is. It is a pleasant album but eventually it sounds a bit monotonous.

As usual, the cd comes in a deluxe digipak with embossed metalic-foilblocked titles. Surprisingly, no booklet is included, this time. There is also an lp version limited to 1600 copies (half of which is on green vinyl).
As usual too, some tracks or different versions are exclusive to either the cd or the lp, making both formats indispensable to the person who would like to listen to the integrality of this collaboration...

Finally, maybe some of you will be sensible to the fact that, as mentioned by Douglas P. on his yahoo group, 'Alarm Agents' was written with the understanding that it would be the last Death In June & Boyd Rice recorded collaboration ever...
Those who are impatiently waiting for the new Death In June album 'The Concrete Fountain' could be quite disappointed to learn that the music on 'Alarm Agents' was originally destined for 'The Concrete Fountain' until Douglas started playing it during soundchecks on the Boyd Rice and DIJ 2002 tour... Boyd suggested that he had words that would fit perfectly with this new unheard material... Douglas agreed, and the release of 'The Concrete Fountain' is, once again, postponed to an unknown date...

I rejoin those who did not really appreciate the unequal 'All Pigs Must Die' or the past collaborative work 'Wolf Pact', and who have been waiting for a long time now for a real new Death In June album that would mark with a new golden seal a consequent and respectful discography.