Following the demise of Needlework, who we absolutely loved here at Aural Aggravation, front man Reuben Pugh has been keeping busy and keeping creative, with the swift emergence of lo-fi slacker country act Troutflies.
Ahead of an imminent debut album, The Dancing Years, they’ve dropped the song ‘Cross on a Hill’, which has hints of Pavement and Silver Jews, blended with the drawl of Mark E. Smith, and is accompanied by a video that matches the loose, low-budget feel of the song. We dig.
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Sporting a new-look line up, a long-awaited second studio album, its lead single, and a smattering of rare live shows too, the universe of Hello Cosmos is thriving right now.
With Come Out Tonight slated for release this Autumn, the band’s ambitious sophomore album is confirmed to feature over a long list of collaborators, and takes influence from all corners of the globe with its studio recording sessions taking place in New York City, Los Angeles, Kampala, Leeds, Stockport and Manchester. Produced by Jamie Lockhert at Greenmount Studios in Leeds, who has produced all of their studio records to date, it arrives as Hello Cosmos’ first studio album proper in over 5 years, following their acclaimed debut Dream Harder in 2020. Of the upcoming record, frontman Ben Robinson teases:
“A lot of the upcoming record is about finding the strength to switch off digital screens and go out and live. It’s becoming more and more normalised to stay in, comatosed by ultraprocessed food and algorithms firing shallow dopamine hits, keeping us all hooked on a short wavelength, gradually becoming dumber, hopeless and unhealthy… We all need to wake each other up, get off the cool aid of digital apps, social media and algorithmic scrolling.”
Come Out Tonight is preceded by the single ‘Grind Into The Shrine’, an insurgent statement of searing post-punk and sneering lyricism that rails against the banality of imposed social structures.
“The single is about adulting, parenting and looking for those slim moments of paradise that take a lot of the daily grind to find. It’s about not letting the world get on top of you and finding the time to live, to get out of the house and celebrate life… Life can be so visceral if you get off your arse and go enjoy it. It’s literally there waiting for you. As with most my lyrics I’m telling myself this as much as anyone else” explains Robinson.
HELLO COSMOS – LIVE DATES
AUGUST
23 – Solfest (Main Stage), Cumbria
SEPTEMBER
13 – YES Pink Room, Manchester
OCTOBER
10 – Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds
11 – Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal (w/ special guests Seven Seals)
FÏX8:SËD8 unveil the nightmarish video clip ‘Oathbreaker’ as the next single taken from the forthcoming sixth album of the German dark electro act. Octagram has been slated for release on October 3, 2025.
FÏX8:SËD8 comment: “The track ‘Oathbreaker’ builds up menacingly over four minutes before it explodes in a thunderstorm of metallic distorted drums and a bass-line that rattles your bones”, mastermind Martin Sane writes. “This song is somewhat unusual in its heaviness for us and it represents the future development of the project – while it also keeps all the elements that have characterised our sound until now such as atmospheric pads and pleasing sequences.”
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KHNVM drop the visually lush lyric video ‘Purgatorial Pyre’ as the final advance single taken from their forthcoming new full-length Cosmocrator. The fourth album of the German death metal act with Bangladeshi roots has been chalked up for release on August 29, 2025.
KHNVM comment: “A celestial masquerade collapses into ash as mortals kneel, deceived, their cries devoured by a silent, indifferent deity”, singer and guitarist Obliterator oracles. “The album’s opening track ‘Purgatorial Pyre’ does not sing of redemption, but of the cruel theater that mankind mistakes for grace – where each prayer drips with despair and the divine remains an elusive phantom.”
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Stockholm’s heavy rock titans Lugnet have recently released a brand-new single titled ‘Fading Lights’, now available worldwide on all major digital platforms through Majestic Mountain Records.
Stretching across an awe-inspiring 11 minutes, ‘Fading Lights’ is far more than just a single, it’s a musical odyssey. With guest contributions from Dr. Carl Westholm (Candlemass) on keyboards and Hilda Norlin on vocals, the track weaves together towering riffs, soaring vocals, and sprawling instrumental passages. The result is a colossal opus that showcases Lugnet’s remarkable ability to channel the primal energy of the ’70s while forging something that feels undeniably vital today.
Louisiana-based ‘industrial bass’ pioneer, SINTHETIK MESSIAH has unveiled their latest EP, Beneath The Surface.
Beneath The Surface is a descent into the undercurrent — a raw, unfiltered excavation of the chaos, cruelty, and confusion that define the world we live in. Each track is a spade hitting the dirt, digging deeper into the systems, histories, traumas, and human instincts that keep everything so relentlessly messed up. It’s not about offering answers. It’s about refusing to look away.
Sonically, the EP blends the smoky unease of 90s trip-hop with the rusted edge of 90s industrial — a fusion of broken textures, distorted synths, and dragging, dirt-covered beats. It’s jagged, emotional, and sometimes angry — the way truth sounds when it’s unearthed.
‘Caught In The Grip Of The City’ is representative of the EP’s dark atmosphere. Hear it here:
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At the risk of sounding like a stuck record – and we don’t care, Aural Aggravation exists to put word out about new music – the number of quality emerging acts to be discovered playing grassroots venues is mindboggling.
Historically – since the advent of contemporary / rock / alternative music as we know it – new acts have cut their teeth in these little venues. While the story of how Oasis were discovered playing at King Tut’s in Glasgow, so many people have an anecdote about how they saw Arctic Monkeys, or Editors, or Franz Ferdinand, or [insert band who went on to be huge here) in a 150-capacity venue, either to 30 people, or to 100 people who they whipped up in such a way it was clear that they’d not be playing 150-capacity venues on their next tour.
Glasgow’s Slime City might not be about to be touring the UK’s academies come the spring, but catching them in a cozy WMC in York recently, they showed significant potential, and ‘Do the Math(s)’ , the first single from forthcoming album National Record of Achievement, released in November only confirms that they’ve got that cut-above quality.
Don’t just take our word for it, though…
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This October, the indefatigably enigmatic trio The Necks will release Disquiet, their 20th full-length release, a triple disc via Northern Spy. It’s an absolutely intoxicating listen, over three hours of incredible music.
The band has shared the mesmerizing 26-minute ‘Causeway,’ as a first listen. Hear it here:
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Photo credit: Dawid Laskowski
Industrial rock insurgents Jesus on Extasy (JoE) are back – darker, heavier and more relentless than ever. Led by founding member Dorian Deveraux, the band has returned with an uncompromising sound that pushes their signature mix of industrial beats, searing guitars and raw emotion to the next level.
JoE have issued ‘Somewhat Happy’ as a new single today, with Deveraux deeeming it “the apocalyptic post breakup song you didn’t know you needed.” Describing the song as a paean to “how to move on after a traumatic relationship that left your world in shambles, when you’re starting to get clarity and see your ex-partner for who they really are,” the song can be seen as lyrically related to ’Soul Crusher’ its heavy-hitting predecessor released in July.
Like that single, ‘Somewhat Happy’ offers a further brutal preview of what is to come on the forthcoming new JoE album, Between Despair And Disbelief, which is out on 12th September via Metropolis Records. Giving fans a tantalising taste of their second coming with the single ‘Wide Awake’ in 2023, the band then signed to Metropolis Records to issue ‘Days Gone By’ VIDEO in late 2024, followed by ’Soul Crusher’ VIDEO. All three have been heavier, more intense and unapologetically aggressive than ever before. “It looks like the world is going to hell. We might as well deliver the soundtrack for that,” adds Deveraux.
Check it here:
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2025 shows with Die Krupps
27th August KORTRIJK (BE) DVG Club
2nd September WARSAW (PL) Hybrydy
3rd September KRAKOW (PL) Hype Park
7th September LJUBLJANA (SI) Orto Hall
9th September BUDAPEST (HU) Dürer Kert
11th September PRAGUE (CZ) Rock Cafe
16th September STOCKHOLM (SE) Nalen
17th September COPENHAGEN (DK) Pumpehuset
20th September UDEN (NL) De Pul
21st September LONDON (UK) The Dome
24th September PARIS (FR) Petit Bain
2026 shows with KMFDM
21st February OBERHAUSEN (DE) Kulttempel
22nd February EINDHOVEN (NL) De Effenaar
25th February LAUSANNE (CH) Les Docks
26th February WINTERTHUR (CH) Gaswerk
27th February MILAN (IT) Legend Club
6th March BERLIN (DE) Gretchen
8th March LEIPZIG (DE) Moritzbastei
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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. Levinson leads the charge on the album’s latest single ‘The Weight’ of which she comments:
“’The Weight’ is part of a series of songs on the album that bears witness to queer life. It was written reflecting on a particular month last year when so much seemed heightened. It seemed like many of my friends were being harassed in public—both verbally and physically—for being trans, for being queer, and/or for being women (it’s not always clear which). This was also a time when I was feeling a lot of love and a lot of community. I wanted this song and the songs around it to honestly reflect both these elements. I wanted to write about transness but didn’t want to rely on political aphorisms and indulgent images of suffering. I wanted to paint a holistic portrait of queer life.” – Leah Levinson
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Photo credit: Olivia Crumm
AGRICULTURE LIVE DATES 2025:
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 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
