Agriculture’s ecstatic new LP The Spiritual Sound out this Friday, new visualizer “My Garden” out now
See Agriculture on tour Oct-Dec: record release show 10/8 in NYC, + AUS, ATL, PHL, PHX, SEA, PDX, SF, LA + more
"...an ever-shifting exploration of spirituality that's as informed by Zen Buddhism and familial love as it is queer art, history, rage and resilience." - Decibel Magazine
"a thrilling shot across the bow from one of heavy music’s most fearless acts" - Premier Guitar
"one of the year’s best albums" - Stereogum
Photo by Milan Aguire
The forthcoming full-length from Los Angeles–based band Agriculture, The Spiritual Sound, traces a narrative arc through extremes. Ahead of its release this Friday on The Flenser, the band shares a final preview in the form of album opener, "My Garden."
The band comments on The Spiritual Sound as a whole: "This is an album about the really fundamental human experiences of suffering, joy, and love. We find a lot of the profound in these basic experiences. To us they are by definition spiritual and worth singing and screaming about. With this record, we wanted to make music that connects the intensity of daily life with the intensity of an encounter with Spirit."
The Spiritual Sound is largely a fusing of the visions of its two principal songwriters: Dan Meyer and Leah Levinson. Though distinct, their voices converge in a singular spiritual grammar—one that defines the totality of The Spiritual Sound, not as separate parts, but as one unified expression.
Dan writes like someone clawing toward the divine through noise, channeling Zen Buddhism, historical collapse, ecstatic grief. Leah’s songs move differently: grounded in queer history and AIDS-era literature, amid the suffocating fog of the present, they carry the weight of survival as daily ritual.
Agriculture’s formation mirrors their duality. What began as a loose collaboration between Kern Haug and Dan Meyer in the Los Angeles noise scene evolved into a shared pursuit of the sublime through heavy music. With the additions of Richard Chowenhill and Leah Levinson, the project solidified into the band’s current form. The ecstatic black metal foundation that was laid on 2022’s The Circle Chant expanded into something more precise and far-reaching on their 2023 self-titled full-length, and deepened further with 2024’s Living Is Easy: a record that embraced devotional intensity and radiant heaviness in equal measure.
Agriculture’s writing process is built on dismantling and revision of self. Dan and Leah bring songs to the band and then allow them to be pulled apart and rebuilt communally: reshaped through conflict, repetition, and deep trust. Richard adds guitar melodies and solos, and Kern constructs rhythms which are sometimes familiar but often unconventional. Finally, with Richard producing, the final form of each song is realised through intense collaborative work in the studio. Although a time consuming and ego-frustrating process, this allows the band to find the spirit of the songs not through inspiration, but through persistence.
Yet, even in its most ambitious moments, The Spiritual Sound remains rooted in the ordinary and in the day-to-day relationships between the people who made it. Gas station snacks. Inside jokes. Sleeping on floors. Playing shows in rooms that smell like mildew. The spirit here isn’t abstract, it’s live. This is spiritual music that starts with imperfect gear and a long-in-the-tooth tour van.
Agriculture doesn’t offer salvation. The Spiritual Sound isn’t a map out of the fire. What it offers instead is presence: a confrontation with the moment, however unbearable, however divine. It insists that meaning is still possible, even in a world hell-bent on reducing everything to content, and where suffering itself can be conducive to recovery. As the Buddhist saying goes: “the only way out is in.”
Agriculture, on tour:
Oct 8 Brooklyn, NY — Union Pool (Record Release Show)
Oct 27 San Antonio, TX — Paper Tiger $
Oct 28 Austin, TX — Mohawk $
Oct 30 Atlanta, GA — Masquerade $
Oct 31 Saxapahaw, NC — Haw River Ballroom $
Nov 01 Silver Spring, MD — The Fillmore $
Nov 02 Philadelphia, PA — Union Transfer $
Nov 04 Louisville, KY — Zanzabar
Nov 06 Oklahoma City, OK — 89th Street
Nov 08 Albuquerque, NM — Launchpad
Nov 09 Phoenix, AZ — Valley Bar
Nov 11 Denver, CO — Hi-Dive
Nov 13 Salt Lake City, UT — The State Room
Nov 14 Boise, ID — Neurolux
Nov 16 Seattle, WA — Madame Lou’s
Nov 18 Vancouver, BC — Fox Cabaret
Nov 19 Portland, OR — Mississippi Studios
Nov 21 Sacramento, CA — Cafe Colonial
Nov 22 San Francisco, CA — The Chapel
Dec 04 San Diego, CA — Soda Bar
Dec 05 Los Angeles, CA — Lodge Room
$ with Boris
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