MP3: Agent Side Grinder - The screams
To borrow the lexicon of the financial pages: I am downgrading Cold Cave to a Sell¹ while upgrading my rating on Agent Side Grinder to Strong Buy. I believe that Cold Cave's market has reached saturation and become overvalued while Agent Side Grinder has nowhere to go but up, especially considering the upcoming Q4 release of both "Irish recording tape" and "The transatlantic tape project" (via Enfant Terrible, vinyl-only). The former is of primarily interest to me, as it shows tremendous growth over last year's self-titled release and I must also commend them for the recruitment Alexander Blomqvist (on live bass) as he appears to have brought many new strengths with him to the executive team. The fine qualities that first caught my attention when I rated them a Buy (ie, the driving, dirty industrial beats) are still very much in place, only now far more refined and developed. I expect 2010 to be a very good year for Agent Side Grinder and don't expect them to face much serious competition for market share.
Now as for other companies in this sector, I'm downgrading Cut City from Buy to Hold as their stock appears to have stagnated recently, but am bullish on both Kite and Tamaryn.
¹ I really am selling Cold Cave. If you want a mint first-press copy of "Where trees grew and emotions died", give me a shout.
Agent Side Grinder - The screams