Aural Aggravation

Christopher Nosnibor

A point I often return to is that music, and how we each experience it, can be intensely personal. Similarly, I’ve ventured into the domains of the highly personal when writing about music since I launched this site nine years ago. It’s not that I think my experiences or responses are unique, but that articulating how and why a song or an album has the effect it does is intrinsically linked to experience and emotionally-driven interior spaces. That really is, I suppose, a rather circuitous way of summarising that the appreciation of art, and in particular music, is subjective, and I can get buzzed by something which is objectively poor in its crafting, but which resonates despite, or even sometimes because of this.

This one, for me, is personal. I’ve had – to say the least – mixed emotions at the prospect of turning fifty, and wanted my first live music experience of my fifties to be one that meant something, something that would feel befitting of marking my half century on the planet, particularly in the context of my wife having not made it through cancer long enough to see it with me. In recent years, I’ve found growing solace in the more extreme reaches of metal, with its capacity for the purest of catharsis and the ultimate escape. On encountering Agriculture, and spotting that they were coming to Leeds, I knew in an instant I had found it.

Returning to the Brudenell, a place I’ve been coming for the last twenty years now, and still, without question, the best venue there is, I felt a rare peace drape itself around me like a shawl of comfort.

Tonight, the curtains are drawn around the edges of the room, shrinking it down, and I would estimate a turnout of a couple of hundred – which is more than respectable given that the tour is taking place almost a month before the release of The Spiritual Sound, and given that this is seriously niche. Given that nicheness, the diversity of the audience is noteworthy, and telling of the eclectic nature of the band’s style.

It’s dark, and apart from one guy booming on to his mates about how Batman movies are shit, it’s quiet when Machukha take to the stage. The internationally-spread, but Berlin-based act, on their first support tour, prove not only to be worthy openers, but a complete revelation.

They take their positions on stage, the music fades out and silence descends. And they remain, poised, motionless. We hold our breath, collectively… The suspense stalls time. And then they finally erupt in a volcanic rush. They play much of the set in near-darkness, the remainder lit primarily by strobes on stage. It’s nigh on impossible to make out clearly what’s going on, but it’s powerful and dramatic.

Machukha

There are lengthy, hushed instrumental sections, and when they go heavy, the pace is considered, and they favour detail over distortion. Vocalist Natalya spends most of the set rocking back and forth while facing the drummer, and each of the five players seems to be immersed in their own space as they crank out a wildly inventive mix of post-rock and post-metal, with black metal vocals and a dash of jazz, courtesy of some scratchy sax which really adds to the rich tapestry of their atmospheric set.

Agriculture take things to a whole other level, and it’s everything one might have hoped for and more. It’s rare that I will hear just one single and be hit so hard by it that I simply have to see the band live. Probably the last time it happened was when I heard Post War Glamour Girls’ debut. The sheer intensity of ‘The Weight’ floored me, and on the strength of this alone, it’s apparent that Agriculture are certainly not your run of the mill black metal act. And so it is that the upcoming second album The Spiritual Sound is a giant leap forward from their eponymous debut.

Tonight’s set draws significantly on the as-yet-unreleased album, and focuses more on the full-tilt, hard volume behemoths from their catalogue. Perhaps it’s being in such close proximity, but the technical nature of their playing is more apparent here than on the recordings, as is the interplay between the four of them. Witnessing what they each bring to the performance is a spectacle in itself. While there is a fair amount of stage to spread out on, they stay positioned closely together toward the middle, and they’re not the most mobile of bands, but the focus positively radiates energy beyond sound from the stage. It’s warming to see the way that, during any solos, the rest of the band step back a little, turn to watch whoever’s taking the lead, and nod and smile in appreciation. It’s a small detail, but one of the nicest things I’ve observed in some time. It’s clear they’re relishing being there, and, moreover, appreciate one another in the moment.

Agriculture

They drop that tsunami of a single, ‘The Weight’, as the second song of the set, but they’ve plenty more screaming force to follow, for the most part delivered hard and fast, and unlike Machukha, they do monster distortion, but not at detriment to the detail, of which there is plenty. Between songs, there is sustain, and sludge. There’s not much room for applause, and even less for chat, and so the spell remains unbroken.

Agriculture

Daniel Meyer-O’Keeffe only takes the lead on vocals on a few songs, but when he does, it tends to be near acapella, where he goes from goes from hushed, reedy vocals to soaring, bursting with soul, aching, spiritual. ‘Hallelujah’ is exemplary, beginning gently then yielding to immense drone. They break out bows for both guitar and bass to conjure immense, swelling drones.

There are jazz elements in the mix, too, particularly during the solo break by drummer Kern Hau, who has some of the most spectacular sideburns I’ve seen in years. He steps back from the kit and moves around behind the kit when not playing, and something about the way they all act on stage is about the music rather than performance. It feels natural, but that also means that it feels more raw and vital, closer to the essence of the music. This is a set that rips right to the core, cuts straight to the soul. And this is what we came for: screaming, guy-wrenching intensity with major chords. No theatre, no pretence: Agriculture give it all, and the impact hits like nothing else.