Maurice Louca, Alan Bishop, and Sam Shalabi expand on their telekinetic fusion of North African rhythm, heat-haze improvisation, shaabi rawness, free jazz, and psychedelic groove, following acclaimed albums on Sub Rosa, Akuphone, and Nawa Recordings.
Sasquatch Landslide overspills with the Cairo-based trio’s signature trance-inducing explorative energies, anchored by Louca’s hypnotic beats and electronics, with Shalabi and Bishop deploying guitar and alto saxophone in a variety of signal-mashing modes. Comprising seven febrile jams across 42 minutes, this is the most focused and twitchiest album in the DOEA discography to date. Recorded by Emanuele Baratto (King Khan, Elder) and mixed by Jace Lasek (Elephant Stone, Sunset Rubdown, The Besnard Lakes), Sasquatch Landslide will be issued on 180gram vinyl and CD featuring artwork by Mark Sullo.
About ‘Titular’ Shalabi says; “This piece reminds me of the ‘after hours’ music I heard one night in a dark bunker-like jazz nightclub in Dakar many years ago… I’ve never heard that kind of music before or since.”
The forthcoming full-length from Los Angeles–based band Agriculture, The Spiritual Sound, traces a narrative arc through extremes. The album 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. Dan takes the lead on their next release, a quieter moment amongst the chaos. About the track, he says;
“This is a love song to a future child. It is so moving to me that even though this child does not exist in the form of a child yet, all of the matter that will one day make up their being is already in the world. And of course this is true of all things that have ever existed. So even though I’m talking about a kid that I want to have one day, I’m really talking about the principle that everything is totally connected.”
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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.”
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Photo credit: Milan Aguire
AGRICULTURE LIVE DATES 2025:
Sep 17 Kortrijk, BE — Wilde Westen Sep 18 Haarlem, NL — Patronaat
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
Following a record breaking Redux Kickstarter campaign, the first single taken from the forthcoming Magnetic Eye Records Redux Series release The Downward Spiral Redux is ready to be unleashed: Seattle, WA grunge metal trio SANDRIDER present their hard-hitting take on the NINE INCH NAILS classic ‘March of the Pigs’. This highly anticipated new Redux Series instalment is scheduled for release on November 28, 2025.
SANDRIDER comment: “Our choice for a tribute track, ‘March of the Pigs’, is a song that hits so hard”, vocalist and guitarist Jon Weisnewski writes. “It did when it first came out, it still does now, and it’ll be just as brutal in another 30 years. Trying to harness that beast and make sure that it still had the timeless impact, we all expect it to have, was a humbling challenge.”
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Parallel to The Downward Spiral Redux, Magnetic Eye Records will release their customary companion album entitled Best of Nine Inch Nails Redux that contains 13 cover renditions of deep cuts and all-time classics from across NINE INCH NAILS’ catalogue recorded by some of the heavy underground’s most exciting artists.
NYC singer-songwriter Jessie Kilguss presents her latest single ‘Howard Johnson’s’, previewing her sixth album They Have A Howard Johnson’s There, with an era-inspired nostalgic video by Deborah Magocsi. This album was engineered, produced, mixed and mastered by Charlie Nieland (Debbie Harry, Rufus Wainwright, Blondie, Scissor Sisters) at Saturation Point Studios in Brooklyn.
For this single, Kilguss is accompanied by John Kengla (David Byrne, Ben Kweller, Serena Ryder) on guitar, bass and keys, Rob Heath (Madison Square Gardeners, Julia Nunes) on drums and percussion, and Dave Derby (The Dambuilders, Gramercy Arms, Lloyd Cole) and Charlie Nieland on backing vocals. Other tracks on this album features Andrea Longato (Duncan Shiek, Jeremy Jordan, Alphonso Ribeiro), guitarist Kirk Schoenherr (Tegan and Sara, Elle King, Chet Faker), and Rembert Block (Rembert and the Basic Goodness).
“This song originated from some writing I did in a poetry workshop with performance artist Karen Finley. I had seen her read at the fantastic On The Verge Festival, which celebrates women artists of all disciplines at the Wild Project, produced and curated by my friend Heather Litteer. I was drawn to Karen’s writing and saw a post of hers on Instagram advertising an online poetry workshop inspired by the movie Dog Day Afternoon, as well as dogs in general. I had never taken a poetry workshop before but I am a huge dog lover and thought “what the hell”. I like pushing myself out of my comfort zone,” says Jessie Kilguss.
“In the movie, Al Pacino is speaking with his lover about what he’ll do to prove his love and he says something like “I’ll charter a plane to Algeria. They have a Howard Johnson’s there”. It stood out to me because it was so ridiculous and also, my father Howard had passed away a month earlier. So the song is a tribute to my father, Howard Kilguss, and is also inspired by Dog Day Afternoon. My father had a deep connection with dogs, so I thought it was even more appropriate to write this song for him".
Darkwave band, RELIGION OF HEARTBREAK delivers Lunate, a four-track EP blending detached romanticism with pounding EBM rhythms.
Mikal Shapiro and Dedric Moore perfect their dark disco formula across tracks like "Love Tourniquet" and "100 Degrees," creating ideal soundtracks for fog-drenched nightclubs. Desire becomes ritual and heartbreak transforms into dancefloor salvation.
The EP moves from intense desire to late night reflections replicating a night on the town filled with highs and lows and back. It is an honest look at the thrill of our night club experiences that end in reflection of what could have been.
As a taster, they’ve released a visualizer for the title track. Check it here:
AZURE EMOTE drop a new lyric video for the track ‘Into Abysmal Oblivion’ that features guest solos by James Murphy and Andy La Rocque. The song is taken from the current full-length Cryptic Aura, which was released on July 25, 2025. Cryptic Aura is the fourth studio album of the American progressive death alchemists.
AZURE EMOTE comment: “This song is about the ghosts of past generations that came before us, scrambling to navigate this labyrinth called life, all while tumbling towards the same forgotten oblivion we face today”, mastermind Mike Hrubovcak states. “Eventually, all the memories of anything we hold onto so passionately will be erased and forgotten to the abyss of time.”
Eville have come to be regulars here at Aural Aggravation. We rate them highly, and we rate their latest single, ‘No Pictures Please’, from their forthcoming debut EP Brat Metal, out next month. Check it here:
Bandcamp Friday or nay, September is always a busy month for releases, presumably in no small part due to the fact that the festival season is over, and artists can get to the job of plugging material to fans they may have picked up along the way, while music listeners are back home rather than in fields in front of stages, or on holiday, so are placed to listen to, and maybe purchase new music.
Sometimes, it can take a while to sift through it all, and there’s a real danger that some great stuff will slip through the cracks, especially from lesser-known artists. This, in many respects, is where the music press, such as it is these days, has not only a role, but a duty, an obligation, to seek out and highlight the acts who aren’t going to be pushed into the ears of the masses by algorithms, or by labels with hods of cash for promo (who aren’t necessarily averse to insidious campaigns claiming a ‘grass-roots’ story for an unknown group of middle-class posers who’ve barely played a gig or had more than a handful of streams / likes before landing airplay, huge support slots and going stratospheric overnight… and there are a fair few of these).
Moons in Retrogtrade is Kara Kuckoo, a German artist who does a nice line in dark alternative / gothic electronic rock, and who isn’t likely to be getting algorithmic / big label backing any time soon, not because her work isn’t good, but because, well, it’s a bit arty, and in the current climate of anti-intellectualism, it’s a hard sell to the mass market.
Take, for example, this, the lead single from her upcoming debut album The Third Side of the Coin. Released as a video single, the song is accompanied by highly stylised visuals, which feature an almost Tim Burton-esque ‘Mad Hatter’s Tea Party’ scene. It’s fitting that this shimmering dark pop gem should present images offering a twisted alternative reality, given the subject matter (again, a hard sell for commercial channels), as Kuckoo explains the concept behind the single:
“Carl Jung said, ‘Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.’ ‘Mirror Obscura’ is about facing one’s own darkness through the infinite mirrors of other people… The video portrays the perceived duality of black and white and the madness within us as we avoid our own darkness. The elements of color are glimpses into the spectrum of wholeness… I especially wanted to shoot at sunrise because those moments of dusk and dawn are the magical spaces between day/light and night/dark.”
On the project’s broader intent, she adds: “Moons in Retrograde is about digging up and reflecting on buried emotions… MIR weaves a soundscape which shines a light into the deepest corners of the mind and exposes the truth about the dark side of humanity while simultaneously discovering the core of the human soul.”
It’s one of those tracks which takes its time with a slow build (another thing which goes against the grain in our attention-deficient world, where intros and verses have got shorter and shorter to the point that most chart pop is seventy-five percent chorus), building atmosphere, Kuckoo’s vocals emerging through cavernous reverb and washing waves to arrive by stealth to an meet with an enticing beat and subtle instrumentation before a strong chorus that goes big on the final run, a burst of bold, even epic proportions.
Wisconsin’s industrial death metallers CRAWL dropped a new lyric video for the song ‘No Way Out’, taken from the album with the same name released on June 27th via THC: Music/Virgin Music Group.
Pioneering Midwestern Industrial-Metal act CRAWL initially formed in 1989 in Green Bay, WI, under their original moniker, Nothing Sacred. They recorded several well-received demos, before changing their name to BLEED. The band released its seminal EP Womb in 1993, marking a violent stylistic shift for the band, moving heavily into the realm of Industrial-Death Metal.
Showcasing bombastic drum machines coupled with grotesque samples, synthetic bass, ferociously growled vocals, and an ultra-modern down-tuned progressive thrash sensibility, making the band an immediate standout in the Glam/Grunge era of the early 90’s. Bleed quickly became a major draw throughout the Midwest, performing multiple times at the legendary Milwaukee Metal Fest, and becoming the go-to opening act for major Death and Industrial acts coming through Wisconsin, sharing stages with the likes of Godflesh, Entombed, Malevolent Creation, Grave, and many more.
After signing to Olympic Records in 1994, the band changed their name to CRAWL, unleashing the classic LP Earth, showcasing a brutal industrial edge, married with innovative tunings and time signatures. CRAWL quickly found a niche in the burgeoning Industrial-Alt-Metal scene, with the rise of bands like Godflesh, Entombed, Prong, Pitchshifter, and Fear Factory, receiving glowing reviews from top Metal mags like Metal Maniacs. Crawl would follow-up Earth with Construct, Destroy, Rebuild, their first and only release without Danz, who exited the band at the end of the Earth cycle. Featuring several songs co-written with Danz prior to his departure, DeJardin assumed lead vocal duties for Construct, Destroy, Rebuild, and the corresponding touring, showcasing a more stripped-down, hardcore approach to the band’s sound, reflective of the burgeoning underground post-hardcore and nu-metal scenes rapidly developing at the time.
CRAWL stayed active for the better part of 2 years supporting the album, including several dates on the ‘97 Vans Warped Tour with Blink 182, Limp Bizkit, Social Distortion, and tons more, as well as tours alongside Acumen Nation, 20 Dead Flower Children, and more. After a successful run in support of the latest album, the band went on an indefinite hiatus that would last for almost two decades.
In 2018, the band reconnected with fellow Green Bay native and record industry executive Thom Hazaert, president of THC: Music, then managing the relaunched COMBAT RECORDS with former Megadeth bassist David Ellefson, who would go on to reissue Womb in 2019. The band would reunite with the classic line-up of Danz, DeJardin, Pantzlaff, Kabacinski along with drummer Josh Hovland for a handful of live shows. This included several dates supporting Ellefson and Hazaert and their band ELLEFSON, Taproot, and more.
Now, 35 years out from the band’s formation, CRAWL prepares to unleash their latest Industrial-Metal masterpiece No Way Out. The band’s first studio LP in almost 30 years, in stores June 27th 2025 via THC MUSIC/Virgin Music Group. With a sound that is instantly recognizable to fans of the band and remains true to the band’s groundbreaking Industrial-Metal roots, CRAWL sounds as relevant in 2025, as they did in 1995.
Bandcamp Friday may be a regular occurrence, but it is an event, and one which surpasses Records Store Day in terms of its tangible benefits – namely, that artists get paid. Who would have thought that this should have become such a topic for discussion? The sad fact is, artists haven’t been receiving fair recompense for a long time, but the Internet was supposed to herald the arrival of a new age of egalitarianism. But then the corporatisation of the Internet put paid to that. While the world was focussed on vilifying Napster and Soulseek and the like, streaming machines like Apple and Spotify erupted like Godzilla from the depths and created a new model whereby artists got paid, but by nowhere near enough, and only of they were already raking it in.
I’ve digressed already, but the flipside of Bandcamp Friday is that there are more releases in a day than I could listen to in a month, and my inbox is battered and overloaded with updates. Sometimes, I feel inclined to simply go and lie down rather than approach their contents.
But some releases remind me why I do, and it’s worth quoting here:
After much teasing and anticipation, US goth rock veterans Sunshine Blind at last release their first new songs in over twenty years: two driving goth rock bangers, ‘Ghost of You’ and the especially rousing anthem, ‘Unsinkable’. The new tracks are released together as the Scarred but Fearless single for Bandcamp Friday, 5 September 2025.
Twenty years. Twenty years! Time does, indeed, fly. People my age struggle to accept that the 90s were thirty years ago, or that when they were 21 was anything other than the definitive bygone era. Then again, Sunshine Blind’s sound was always very much rooted in the sound of 90s goth / post punk revival, when The Sisters of Mercy unleashed the altogether more rock-orientated Vision Thing, and acts like Sunshot were taking drum-machine driven gothy goodness in new and invigorating directions. It’s not just Caroline Bland’s vocals which invite favourable comparisons to Sunshot: Sunshine Blind’s catalogue is bursting with effervescent energy, and this new brace of tunes make a most welcome addition.
The janglesome intro to ‘Ghost of You’ calls to mind The Psychedelic Furs during their 80s pop phase, and there’s certainly a melodic accessibility to the song. However, it’s countered by a thunderous, driving bass sound and screeding feedback filling out the sound at the back, and captures the vibe of The March Violets, another classic act newly invigorated. What goes around comes around, and with certain parallels between now and the early 80s, it very much feels like this is the time for a goth revival, including crimped hair and hats. ‘Ghost of You’ brings the vibe, and well as guts and hooks in equal measure.
‘Unsinkable’ ups the rock leanings still further, with a brittle guitar chiming through the verses before going full tube crunch on the bold chorus, propelled by some sturdy drumming and another solid bassline. The sentiment is the perfect analogy for the band here, too. You can’t keep talent down, or buried forever.
With both songs of a standard, this is very much an AA-side single, making Scarred but Fearless a triumphant return.
Aural Aggravation 