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Agriculture

by Agriculture

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $8 USD  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Second pressing! Available on Orange with Black Splatter Vinyl (500 units) and Orange Vinyl (500 units).

    Includes unlimited streaming of Agriculture via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $25 USD or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Includes unlimited streaming of Agriculture via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $12 USD

     

  • Cassette + Digital Album

    Professionally replicated cassettes.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Agriculture via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $11 USD or more 

     

  • T-Shirt/Shirt

    Printed on Gildan Heavy Cotton "natural" stock.

    Artwork on the front and back of the shirt.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $30 USD or more 

     

  • T-Shirt/Shirt

    Medium sized shirts are currently back-ordered. Kindly note that orders containing back-ordered items will be held until everything in the order is available to ship.

    Back-ordered sizes are expected to ship in mid-May, 2024.

    Printed on Gildan Heavy Cotton stock.
    shipping out on or around May 13, 2024
    Purchasable with gift card

      $35 USD or more 

     

  • Agriculture "Logo" Patch
    Other Apparel

    Woven patch featuring the Agriculture logo. Roughly 6 inches x 2.5 inches in size.

    Sold Out

1.
Glory! I saw the ocean from up on a hill And I looked out upon The waves I looked out upon the waves Become individual things out of the mass Eternal Breaking all over themselves I looked at the waves And felt surrounded I felt the water deep in my lungs I felt the water deep in my lungs And I let myself slip away Glory! Taking it in… My body – give it away. An empty space With nothing after all Yes! This it! This is the Ocean! My body – give it away. Nothing to begin with And nothing after all (Rise and Fall and rise and fall rise and fall ∞ ) Time held me green and dying In the mercy of it’s means Though I sang in my chains like the sea Time held me green and dying Though I sang in my chains like the sea
2.
The Well 01:54
A mother Reaching out with a tiny mouth “I can’t just watch the boy die All alone, and both of us crying” The sand gets wet Two little salty piles Mother and child alone Then God Reaching out with mighty hands “The well was always there Fill the skin and give the boy a drink Let the sand get wet” There is always plenty of water The mother and the child
3.
Look, Pt. 1 02:09
A mother Reaching out with a tiny mouth “I can’t just watch the boy die” All alone, and both of us crying The sand gets wet Two little salty piles Mother and child alone Bright eyes Opened up by mighty hands The well was always there “Fill the skin and give the boy a drink” Let the sand get wet There is always plenty of water Mother and child alone
4.
Look, Pt. 2 05:47
In Dallas plain— A wide vector of thing You call a big empty— Warm, hovering in situ. And in this sand, An endless pain Of judgment and self- Reckoning, The same stiff air All my life Down. And through it all, You call my name, Welcoming. And, seeing me, You, divinity, call A car engining, Dead Road, Slendering— All alone, ride. You pull my arm. You, calling me. You suffer fate And self— And through it all, You call my name, Welcoming. You turn around. You’re hollowing. You couldn’t find me in the dark.
5.
Look, Pt. 3 06:23
Reach in your chest and pull out your heart Reach in your chest and pull out your heart Reach in your chest and pull out your heart Reach in your chest and pull out your heart Righteous Man Dreaming on an airplane Of light conversation Light conversation Righteous Man Dreaming on an airplane High above it all Light conversation and laughter
6.
Relier 06:51
Relier, Relier, Relier. Outside my window is a tree I look forward to seeing it in the morning when I rise. Relier, Relier, Relier This is the holy dark: outside choices that you can’t make how it’s beautiful to accept you are part of everything With no control. Trust! Trust! Trust! I call it God… God in ______

about

For something to be “ecstatic,” the feelings and emotions it evokes must transcend what we tend to experience most regularly in our lives. Ecstatic joy isn’t just happiness; it’s a feeling of jubilation which impacts us emotionally and in a metaphysical, arguably spiritual sense too. Although it has long been associated with connotations of the dark and macabre, extreme music has the ability to be a powerful mode of expression for these feelings of absolute bliss, overwhelming love, and awe-inspiring sublimity. Extreme emotions no less and those which black metal quartet Agriculture evokes with its ecstatic subversion of the subgenre’s tropes.

What was initially a meeting and subsequent series of jam sessions between Kern Haug and Daniel Meyer, two musicians in the Los Angeles underground noise scene, would eventually manifest as a shared vision to portray the sublimity of the human experience through the vehicle of heavy music. Following the additions of veteran guitarist Richard Chowenhill and bassist/vocalist Leah Levinson to the band’s lineup, this idea would crystalize into the “ecstatic black metal” backbone of Agriculture’s music, first heard on the band’s 2022 debut EP, The Circle Chant.

With Agriculture’s self-titled record and first full-length LP, it’s abundantly clear that the band’s use of heavy music to showcase the most resplendent emotions and moments of the human experience has a far deeper meaning. Woven between the flurries of soaring tremolo picking, crescendoing guitar harmonies, celebratory screamed vocals, thoughtful improvisation, and meditative atmospheric passages is the record’s mission statement to experience the wonders and joys of both the esoteric and physical world. From examinations of self-acceptance, identity, and finding strength in others on “Look Pt.2” to depictions of deep communion with nature, the self, and the people we surround ourselves with in “The Glory of the Ocean” and “The Well”, the concepts and thematic questions previously planted by the band have blossomed into powerful, fully-realized artistic and philosophical statements. To put it in the band’s words, “...Where The Circle Chant is like a finger pointing at the moon, the self-titled LP is like a whole body screaming at it with reverence.” Through the extreme splendor of ecstatic black metal and the improvisational, experimental, and cathartic elements it embodies, Agriculture illustrates these otherwise incomprehensible questions with a poignant beauty that makes its music as much of an artistic statement as it is a transcendental experience.

credits

released July 21, 2023

Daniel Meyer-O’Keeffe: Guitar, Vocals
Leah B. Levinson: Bass, Vocals
Richard Chowenhill: Guitar
Kern Haug: Percussion

Pauline Lay: Violin
Patrick Shiroishi: Saxophone
Nick Levine: Pedal Steel Guitar

Music by: Daniel Meyer-O’Keeffe, Leah B. Levinson, Richard Chowenhill, Kern Haug
Lyrics by: Daniel Meyer-O’Keeffe, Leah B. Levinson

Produced by: Richard Chowenhill, Daniel Meyer-O’Keeffe, Leah B. Levinson, Kern Haug
Recording Engineer: Jack Shirley, Colin Knight, Richard Chowenhill, Kern Haug
Mixing Engineer: Richard Chowenhill
Mastering Engineer: Richard Chowenhill
Assistant Engineer: Kern Haug

Cover Design: Leah B. Levinson
Cover Photo: Sean Ryan Pierce
Insert Photo: Ramona Apthorp
Band Logo: Mario Luna
Layout: Suzanne Yeremyan

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Agriculture Los Angeles, California

Agriculture is an ecstatic black metal band from Los Angeles.

Inspired by the glory of the ocean.

Contact: Agriculturemusic@gmail.com

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