Review
Genre and Mood
Agoria and NOEMIE’s Remedy is electronic music on the pop side of the French producer’s work: the Five Minutes blog called it an electro-pop gem, and Universal later put it on compilations of deep house. Soulful and uplifting are this page’s words for what that review heard, NOEMIE’s soul voice lighting the track up.
Song Summary
Remedy is the eighth of ten tracks on Drift, Agoria’s first album in eight years, released on 26 April 2019 on his own label Sapiens with Virgin. Modzik described it as a digression from his instrumental Up All Night, in a sung version. The credits name Sébastien Devaud, Agoria’s own name, and Rami Khalifé as its composers and programmers, Noémie Cherki as the lyricist and NOEMIE as the singer. On the album it runs just under three minutes.
Musical Breakdown
No source describes Remedy section by section. What the reviews give is its two halves: a groove that first existed as an instrumental, and a voice added to it.
Intro
The track starts the way it was born, as a producer’s groove. Listen for how long Agoria lets it run before the voice arrives.
Main Section
NOEMIE’s vocal carries the song, the soul voice the Five Minutes review singled out. Listen to how it sits on the beat rather than fighting it.
Outro
Under three minutes leaves no room for a long club ending; that was left to the remixes.
Concepts in Focus
Remedy shows what a <a href=“https://korczis.github.io/sonic-playground/concept/featured-artist/” class=“concept-link font-medium text-primary-700 underline decoration-dotted underline-offset-4 hover:decoration-solid dark:text-primary-400” data-concept=“featured-artist” title=“A guest performer credited on another artist’s track, usually as “feat.”: a rapper’s verse, a singer’s hook or a second voice. Features bring together different styles and audiences and are central to hip-hop, R&B and dance music.“>featured artist does on a producer’s record. We Own The Nite reported it as NOEMIE’s first track ever, alongside more established guests on Drift such as Phoebe Killdeer, Blasé, STS and Jacques; the credit puts her name next to Agoria’s, and her voice turns a producer’s groove into a song.
It is also close to an alternate version: Modzik heard it as Up All Night given words and a singer, the same producer reworking his own material rather than handing it to someone else. Handing it over came next, as a remix package: in May 2019 Sapiens released a limited twelve-inch with a Manoo remix of 9:21 and a Cassius remix of 10:55, more than three times the album version’s length.
Artistic Context
Agoria is Sébastien Devaud, a French producer and DJ born in 1976, a co-founder of the label InFiné and of the festival Nuits Sonores, and later the head of Sapiens. Mixmag France described Drift, his fifth album, as a turn away from pure techno towards a mix of genres, and quoted his interview with Tsugi about a wish to enjoy himself and to accept choices perhaps more commercial than before. He was also a remixer of other artists’ vocal house, as on Santé, Richard Judge – Awake.
Impact and Reception
The Five Minutes blog reported that Tsugi made Drift its album of the month for May 2019, and Remedy went on to a second life on compilations. It is here as one of the owner’s songs of 2019. Play it as a short song first, then let one of the long remixes take it to the dance floor.
