Scheduled for launch through The Flenser on October third, Agriculture have introduced their new album, The Non secular Sound. Pre-order the album HERE.
”That is an album in regards to the actually elementary human experiences of struggling, pleasure, and love. We discover plenty of the profound in these primary experiences. To us they’re by definition non secular and value singing and screaming about. With this file, we wished to make music that connects the depth of every day life with the depth of an encounter with Spirit” – Agriculture.
When the founding father of Chinese language Zen, Bodhidharma, was requested by the emperor of China ”What’s the true that means of the holy fact?” He replied, ”Huge vacancy. Nothing holy.” This isn’t background music. This isn’t for vibe. The Non secular Sound is music that asks.
”Bodhidharma, the founding father of Zen Buddhism, was an Indian monk who famously stared on the wall of a cave for 9 years. He even lower off his eyelids so as to stop himself from falling asleep,” Dan Meyer says of the primary single, additionally shared at the moment. ”At one time, one other monk approached him in his cave and pleaded ‘grasp, my head is on hearth with anxiousness, are you able to pacify my thoughts?’ Bodhidharma simply stored staring on the wall and Huike waited outdoors of the cave all night time till he was buried in snow as much as his waist. Lastly, as a gesture of desperation he lower off his arm and provided it to the good grasp. Huike later grew to become Bodhidharma’s successor.” Take heed to Bodhidharma HERE.
Throughout its runtime, The Non secular Sound traces a story arc by way of extremes: searing, sky-cracking catharsis on aspect A; a slow-burning, devotional undercurrent on aspect B. The album is basically a fusing of the visions of its two principal songwriters, Dan Meyer and Leah Levinson: distinct voices, deeply complementary.
Dan writes like somebody clawing towards the divine by way of noise, channelling Zen Buddhism, historic collapse, ecstatic grief. Whereas, grounded in queer historical past and AIDS-era literature, amid the suffocating fog of the current, Leah’s songs transfer in a different way. They carry the burden of survival as every day ritual. Her writing asks learn how to honour queer group and collective wrestle with out turning it into identification branding or private mythmaking—learn how to keep sincere, learn how to keep current. Although distinct, their voices converge in a singular non secular grammar—one which defines the totality of The Non secular Sound, not as separate elements, however as one unified expression.
Agriculture’s formation mirrors this duality. Whspirat started as a free collaboration between Kern Haug and Dan Meyer within the Los Angeles noise scene developed right into a shared pursuit of the elegant by way of heavy music. With the additions of Richard Chowenhill and Leah Levinson, the mission solidified into the band’s present type. The ecstatic black steel basis was laid on 2022’s The Circle Chant, expanded into one thing extra exact and far-reaching on their 2023 self-titled full-length, and deepened additional with 2024’s Residing Is Straightforward: a file that embraced devotional depth and radiant heaviness in equal measure.
Agriculture’s writing course of is constructed on dismantling and revision of self. Dan and Leah deliver songs to the band after which permit them to be pulled aside and rebuilt communally: reshaped by way of battle, repetition, and deep belief. Richard provides guitar melodies and solos, and Kern constructs rhythms that are generally acquainted however typically unconventional. Lastly, with Richard producing, the ultimate type of every music is realized by way of intense collaborative work within the studio. Though a time consuming and ego-frustrating course of, this enables the band to seek out the spirit of the songs not by way of inspiration, however by way of persistence.
But, even in its most bold moments, The Non secular Sound stays rooted within the extraordinary and within the day-to-day relationships between the individuals who made it. Fuel station snacks. Inside jokes. Sleeping on flooring. Enjoying reveals in rooms that odor like mildew. The spirit right here isn’t summary, it’s stay. That is non secular music that begins with imperfect gear and a long-in-the-tooth tour van.
Agriculture doesn’t supply salvation. The Non secular Sound isn’t a map out of the fireplace. What it gives as a substitute is presence: a confrontation with the second, nonetheless insufferable, nonetheless divine. It insists that that means remains to be doable, even in a world hell-bent on lowering every little thing to content material, and the place struggling itself might be conducive to restoration. Because the Buddhist saying goes “the one means out is in.”
There’s a type of quiet violence in how music is consumed at the moment—flattened into background noise, sonic fragrance fed into algorithms, offered as way of life. It’s leisure as anesthesia. Sound with out the burden. The Non secular Sound stands as a pointed refusal of this situation. This isn’t a playlist. This isn’t a vibe.
~
The Non secular Sound tracklist –
1 – MY GARDEN
2 – FLEA
3 – MICAH (5.15AM)
4 – THE WEIGHT
5 – SERENITY
6 – THE SPIRITUAL SOUND
7 – DAN’S LOVE SONG
8 – BODHIDHARMA
9 – HALLELUJAH
10 – THE REPLY
Agriculture | Web site | Bandcamp | Instagram
{Photograph} | Olivia Crumm ©
A Plea From Louder Than Conflict
Louder Than Conflict is run by a small however devoted impartial group, and we depend on the small amount of cash we generate to maintain the location operating easily. Any cash we do get is just not lining the pockets of oligarchs or mad-cap billionaires dictating what our journalists are allowed to suppose and write, or hungry shareholders. We all know occasions are powerful, and we wish to proceed bringing you information on probably the most fascinating releases, the newest gigs and anything that tickles our fancy. We’re not pushed by revenue, simply pure enthusiasm for a scene that every one in every of us is captivated with.
To us, music and tradition are eveything, with out them, our very souls shrivel and die. We don’t cost artists for the publicity we give them and to many, what we do is totally important. Subscribing to one in every of our paid tiers takes only a minute, and every sign-up makes a big impact, serving to to maintain the flame of impartial music burning! Please click on the button beneath to assist.
John Robb – Editor in Chief
