How AGF became one of my favorite labels (one of many) is how in the Leeds-based label’s curation. It’s a quality over quantity that drives the label’s aesthetic, dropping only the best ideas from emerging musicians in need of this selective process to drive home just how great their art is. I know, it sounds elitist and I know that’s not the thought process behind AGF, which is why it works. So when Leaaves hit the ol’ mailbox, I was ready. It felt like a package that waited 15 years to come to me, and the music matches that suspended anticipation. Forest Words moves at a calculated pace, as if Nate Wagner began building this in a silo, in isolation, waiting for the right time for it to blast off. But it’s a glacial rocket, moving with little effort but even less visibility. It waits from tectonic shifts to propel it from its launch pad into the frozen sky. It climbs the heavens one star at a time. It came from the wormhole of Carl Sagan’s Contact; a message of peace and prosperity delayed until the moment it could make the most noticeable impact. (I’m sure there’s another Matthew McConaughey movie to reference here.) We have proof of intelligent life, be it of Earth or mysterious environs. However it got here and however long it took, this trajectory found its mark. And it’s always been stamped with ‘AGF’.
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