Announce new LP ‘The Spiritual Sound’ incoming October 3 on The Flenser. See Agriculture on tour in North America Sep/Oct/Dec.

The album’s first single, arrives now. Dan Meyer says of the track: “Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism, was an Indian monk who famously stared at the wall of a cave for nine years. He even cut off his eyelids in order to prevent himself from falling asleep. At one time, another monk approached him in his cave and pleaded ‘master, my head is on fire with anxiety, can you pacify my mind?’ Bodhidharma just kept staring at the wall and Huike waited outside of the cave all night until he was buried in snow up to his waist. Finally, as a gesture of desperation he cut off his arm and offered it to the great master. Huike later became Bodhidharma’s successor.’” There’s a kind of quiet violence in how music is consumed today—flattened into background noise, sonic perfume fed into algorithms, sold as lifestyle. It’s entertainment as anesthesia. Sound without the weight. ‘The Spiritual Sound’, the new full-length from Los Angeles–based band Agriculture, stands as a pointed refusal of this condition. This is not a playlist. This is not a vibe. It is a demand. Across its runtime, new album traces a narrative arc through extremes and the album is largely a fusing of the visions of its two principal songwriters: Dan Meyer and Leah Levinson—distinct voices, deeply complementary. 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. 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. See group on the road (November 4 through December 5 dates on sale July 11 at 10am local time):

Sep 3 Bristol, UK — The Exchange
Sep 4 Brighton, UK — Dust
Sep 5 London, UK — Oslo
Sep 6 Manchester, UK — White Hotel
Sep 7 Newcastle, UK — The Cluny 2
Sep 9 Leeds, UK — Brudenell Social Club
Sep 11 Dublin, IE — Workman’s Club
Sep 12 Cork, IE — Nudes
Sep 13 Belfast, NIR — Voodoo
Sep 14 Glasgow, SC — CORE. Festival
Sep 16 Paris, FR — Point Ephemere
Sep 17 Kortrijk, BE — Wilde Westen
Sep 18 Haarlem, NL — Patronaat

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

‘The Spiritual Sound’, tracklist:

My Garden
Flea
Micah (5:15am)
The Weight
Serenity
The Spiritual Sound
Dan’s Love Song
Bodhidharma
Hallelujah
The Reply

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.” Yet, even in its most ambitious moments, LP 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.

Photo by Olivia Crumm