Ex Agent: Cabaret Meltdowns, Queer Chaos & Sonic Refuge

One of the most electrifying acts to rise out of the UK’s experimental underground, Ex Agent are tearing up genre boundaries with a ferocity that’s both confrontational and deeply cathartic. Their debut EP New Assumptions… (out 30th July via Collapsing Drums) is a raw, exhilarating mix of no-wave abrasion, free-jazz wreckage, and spoken-word dissonance—held together by threads of vulnerability, queerness, and the strange beauty of collapse.

Lead single ‘Jessie’s Christ’ lurches between the scorched intensity of Swans and a Nick Cave-style cabaret breakdown, setting the tone for an EP that never settles and never lets up. Formed in Bristol in late 2021, the five-piece—Evo Ethel, Alfie Hay, Eve Rosenberg, Aidan Surgey, and Archie Ttwheam—cut their teeth in the city’s vibrant DIY scene. Since then, they've collaborated with the likes of Lee Ranaldo, Deb Googe, and Mark Stewart, and shared stages with Moin, Drahla, and Squid.

Ahead of their UK tour and the release of New Assumptions…, we caught up with the band to talk improvised chaos, performance art, and why the mess matters.

Melding no-wave skronk, free-jazz abstraction, and spoken-word fury, [Band Name]’s new EP New Assumptions... doesn’t so much play out as it erupts. The Bristol-based five-piece—known for their immersive, often chaotic live shows—channel queerness, neurodivergence, and DIY spirit into a sound that’s both cathartic and cerebral. We caught up with them to talk about narrative dissonance, performance-art freakouts, and collapsing under their own weight.

‘New Assumptions…’ is described as a collision of no-wave, free-jazz, and spoken-word—how did the five of you go about shaping such an intense and layered sound without it collapsing under its own weight?

It came about rather naturally. Starting out as more of an improvised project meant that we could freely experiment with sound palettes and styles that excited us. We all have wildly different tastes, so those flavours just appeared organically through expressionistic playing and collaging. That said, we’d love to collapse under our own weight someday—it feels like a fitting goal.

‘Jessie’s Christ’ veers between noise-rock and cabaret—can you talk about the emotional or narrative journey behind that track, and how it sets the tone for the rest of the EP?

That one went through a lot of incarnations before landing where it is now. We use narrative prompts as a way to explore emotional texture—this track is like a blurry dream collage, stitched together from fragments of journaling, poetry, and improvisation. It’s messy on purpose. That approach really lets us mimic the peaks and troughs of daily life, and it’s ended up becoming a distilled version of who we are sonically.

Your live shows incorporate performance art and you’ve improvised with the likes of Lee Ranaldo and Deb Googe—how do you channel that kind of raw, in-the-moment energy into your recordings?

It’s something we’re always refining. Lately we’ve started dedicating recording time to capturing improvised material—then we cut, stitch, and manipulate those into new sonic narratives. We’re also experimenting with graphic scores and interpreting non-musical mediums: books, plays, visual art. It’s about translating feeling as much as sound.

There’s a strong thread of queer and neurodivergent identity throughout the EP. What role do refuge and chaos play in expressing those themes?

Both are essential. There’s so much beauty and joy in finding comfort and community in who you are, especially when you’re living outside of dominant systems. But that comes with frustration too—those systems aren’t built for us. Refuge and chaos are how we express that duality. These themes weren’t necessarily planned, but they came through because they’re part of our lived experience.

You’ve built a following in Bristol’s DIY scene—how has that community influenced your practice, and what are you hoping to bring to audiences next?

Bristol’s DIY scene is wild—in the best way. Improv nights where jazz players jam with noise artists, poets working with metal bands… it’s all cross-pollination. We’re definitely inspired by Bristol’s history too: Rip Rig and Panic, The Pop Group, Glaxo Babies. That said, the community hasn’t shaped our sound as much as it’s given us space to exist and grow without compromise. Looking ahead, we’re excited to go further with performance—mixed media, film, art, collaboration. Anything that stretches what a “gig” can be.