FIVE FAVOURITES: Leah Levinson (Agriculture)

Bassist and vocalist Leah Levinson from Los Angeles black-metal noise merchants Agriculture is a potent voice in the heavy music scene. Sharing songwriting and vocal duties with guitarist Dan Meyer, Leah’s guttural screams permeate the band’s diverse, doom-laden sounds; now coined as “ecstatic black metal”. It’s not just the physical volume and sheer power of her voice that has garnered Agriculture such a loyal following though. On the band’s most recent album, The Spiritual Sound, Leah’s raw lyricism tackles transphobia, queerphobia and misogyny; highlighting how vital her voice as a trans woman truly is.

Released via The Flenser in October this year, The Spiritual Sound is a culmination of both Leah and Dan’s dismantling of the human experience, in both its most simplistic and most complex forms. Take the deeper, more personal cut ‘The Weight’ for example, on which Leah explores both the triumphs and the traumas of queer life.

“‘The Weight’ was written reflecting on a particular month last year when so much seemed heightened,” Leah explains. “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.”

We think one of the best ways to get to know an artist is by asking what music inspired them to write in the first place. We caught up with Leah to ask about her “Five Favourites” and she picked five albums by an eclectic range of artists who have inspired her songwriting techniques. Check out her choices below and scroll down to watch the official lyric video for Agriculture’s single ‘The Weight’ too…

 

1. Lou Reed – Transformer
I don’t shut up about this album. I discovered it when I was about thirteen and have regularly rediscovered it throughout my life since. The songs here are odd, lopsided, messy, and sometimes overly simple. I think they reflect Lou finding himself as a solo artist and coming to understand (alongside the society and culture around him) many aspects of himself, from gender and sexuality to drug use and spirituality. It’s an album about being in the world that sounds like it comes from the pitch black of nowhere. The production and arrangements by David Bowie and Mick Ronson hardly nod to rock music; letting chamber, jazz, and symphonic instrumentation flirt alongside Lou’s gravelly voice while more traditional rock instruments are mainly used in less conventional ways. I sometimes think of these songs as nursery rhymes and lullabies for addicts and queers, and, in that way, so many lyrics from this album exist in my mind as riddles, koans, and mantras that I’m sure I’ll never solve. This album has shaped my life and output as an artist in immeasurable ways.

2. Laurel Halo – Quarantine
This album came out when I was at the formative age of eighteen and hasn’t left me in the decade-plus since. I think it has one of the greatest covers of all time and somehow manages to live up to it. As a collection of deconstructed ambient pop songs, I find this album difficult to ever really grasp. At the same time, that ungraspable, atmospheric quality feels at odds with its earworms and its moment-to-moment intrigue. It’s a beautiful instance of an album that feels like an entire world, perfectly paced and thoroughly explored. Any time I hear it I feel I am home without ever really knowing (or having to know) what it’s about in the first place.

3. The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground & Nico
I have a hard time choosing a favourite between The Velvet Underground’s first three albums, so I’m going with this one because it was my introduction to them and in many ways, it feels like it’s got it all in one. The repetitive, minimal song structures on this album influenced me at a pretty young age; an early lesson that less can be more. Moe Tucker’s drumming is an important contributing factor for that, and I think deserves greater acknowledgement as a major innovation in rock, pop, and underground music. Beyond that, the arrangements on this album showed me both how little you need to make something work, and how much noise and complexity a listener can tolerate when there’s a strong song at the center of it. I’ve also always loved that the album has multiple voices on it, with Lou Reed and Nico alternating leads. That’s something Agriculture has and something I try to do in some way on most albums I make. I think it makes an album more vibrant and less lonely and monolithic. This album laid the format for so much music I love that comes after it, from the Ramones to My Bloody Valentine to Godflesh and others. It’s the foundation.

4. Entombed – Left Hand Path
This is my obligatory metal choice for this list. It’s unlike any other metal album I’ve ever heard, but in such a subtle way. Entombed formed in 1987 from members of Nihilist and helped establish the early Swedish death metal scene. This album is sort of the ultimate demo of the drop tuning and “Swedish chainsaw” sound of the maxed out HM-2 pedal that together came to define the Swedish death metal sound. To me, that sound is heavy in a warm way. Feelings of both dread and comfort coexist on this album, like there’s this push and pull around a fear of death and a complete acceptance of mortality and fate. I think this is emphasized by the material on the album which feels much more serious and mature than the slasher, sword and sorcery, vampire, and simplistic satanist imagery that permeated metal at that time. This is one of the few metal albums that feels like it’s about death in a real way. That its guitar solos, demon growls, and headbanger riffs don’t detract from that, but rather add to it, makes it all the more special.

5. Albert Ayler – Love Cry
The Albert Ayler Trio’s Spiritual Unity was one of the first and furthest out pieces of experimental/avant garde music I was introduced to. The song ‘Ghosts’ was kind of an anthem for Ayler – there’s two versions on that album alone and he continued to revisit throughout his career – and it’s the song that drew me to Ayler for years and years to come, while I puzzled over the cacophony that surrounded it. Ayler’s project is one centered around collective improvisation and the asynchronous comingling of spirits through music. What makes ‘Ghosts’ so great is its tuneful, almost naïve melody that is defiantly bright and strong. It provides coloration and structure to the unbound playing that delivers it while giving a strong footing for its improvisers to take off from. That song is revisited early on Love Cry, an album that adapts Ayler’s early vision and imagines a way forward with it. Love Cry has some of the most innovative arrangements in jazz for its time in a way that still sounds fresh today. Beyond that, it expands on the compositional conceit of ‘Ghosts’ in its many songs without ever repeating itself. It’s an album that shows Ayler searching spiritually in every direction and finding answers only transmissible through music.

Thanks to Leah for sharing her favourites with us!
Watch the lyric video for Agriculture’s single ‘The Weight’ below.

Follow Agriculture via bandcamp, bluesky, Facebook & Instagram
Check out Agriculture’s official website too

Photo Credit: Olivia Crumm

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Five Favourites: Girl Friday

Set to release their debut album next month, LA’s Girl Friday create genre-bending indie rock, reflecting on life on as young musicians in the 21st century. Juxtaposing dystopian leanings and feminist ideals with a scuzzy optimistic spirit, with grit and sparkle in equal parts, they represent an upcoming unique, empowering force and a new favourite for sure.

We think one of the best ways to get to know a band is by asking what music inspires them or influences their writing. So, we caught up with the whole of Girl Friday – Libby, Sierra, Vera and Virginia – to discuss the five albums that have made the biggest mark on them. Check out their choices below, and watch Girl Friday’s new video for ‘Public Bodies’ at the end of this article.

Libby:
Beck – Odelay
Definitely not any deep cuts here, but I definitely feel like Beck’s Odelay has had a huge influence on me personally. I remember sitting in my high school’s library eating lunch alone and feeling so emboldened by the bassline in ‘Minus’ and the really nonchalant vocals in ‘The New Pollution’. This album is so special to me. I think it was a benchmark of my adolescent years when I felt so ugly, out of place, and generally full of doom. It was kind of the start of when I started to feel like I could actually pursue the making of my own music.

Sierra:
Tonight Alive – The Other Side
I was completely dumbfounded when I discovered Tonight Alive in middle school. I remember sitting in the back of my English class, thinking I was very cool with my hood up, playing their music videos on repeat from my phone and daydreaming that I was in the band. Jenna McDougall is a huge hero of mine in terms of songwriting and vocal performance, and this album is the prime example for me. She blends merciless vitriol with an emotional vulnerability that lends her so much power. I’m convinced no one could ever stop her from doing exactly what she wants. Yes, this album brings me back to being 15 in my Sleeping with Sirens t-shirt with the sleeves cut off (bless); yes, I listen to it now and still hear snippets from my own life echoed back at me; yes, I am crying as I play it and write this.

Vera:
The Velvet Underground – Loaded
If we’re talking perfect records here. I mean that’s just an endless giving tree of joy. I associate it with a time in my life of freedom and youth and young love. 

All:
Kills Birds – Kills Birds
Sierra: We went to Kills Birds’ album release show at The Bootleg, and my mind was completely blown. I remember looking around and realizing that everyone else’s jaws were sitting comfortably next to mine on the floor. The drama! The percussion! The delivery! What more could you ask for?
Virginia: Kills Birds is one of those bands whose music is impossible to listen to without moving or singing along. Their songs are refreshing but have a familiarity that makes them feel like they’ve been around since the ‘90s.  The whole album is fantastic from top to stop, but my favourites are ‘Only Yellow’ and ‘High’. 

Virginia:
St Vincent – Actor
I’ve listened to this record so many times. I remember taking a trip to LA when I was 15 (which was a very foreign place to me at the time), stumbling into Amoeba Records and walking out with that pastel mess of a CD. From the start it’s filled with a ghostly choir, woodwinds galore, and slinky drums and guitar all topped by Annie Clark’s creeping vocals. There are increasing hints of agitation and noise throughout the song then at 2:33 the floodgates of distortion are opened and the song becomes incredibly glorious and huge. Every song has such rich textures and really takes you for a ride. I love to close my eyes and allow myself to get lost in the cinematic fever dream that is Actor. The feeling I get from listening to that album is the experience that I want to create in the music I make. I want people to listen to it in their headphones when they feel trapped and find an escape. I want them to blast it driving in their neighbourhoods and scream along and feel so cool. I want them to remember the first time they heard it and tear up because it’s brought them so much joy and comfort and courage over the years (which is the current situation that I’m surprised to find myself in oops). Thank you Annie, and in the off chance that you happen to hear Androgynous Mary, happy listening and enjoy. I think we’ve truly made a little treat and I’m proud to release it into the world.

Massive thanks to Girl Friday for sharing their Five Favourites!

Girl Friday’s debut album Androgynous Mary is out 21st August via Hardly Art. Watch the new video for latest single ‘Public Bodies’ now:

Photo Credit: Al Kalyk

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FIVE FAVOURITES: Low Hummer

Like most bands this year, Hull quintet Low Hummer are preparing to spend their summer in isolation writing new material, instead of gigging around the UK. Their latest single ‘Picture Bliss’ released via Dance To The Radio Records was written pre-pandemic, but its context is uncannily relatable during these (dare we say it?) “unprecedented” times. The track is a noisy, cathartic burst of guitars and crashing percussion, with dual vocalists Daniel Mawer and Aimee Duncan talking about two strangers who find each other moments before the world self-destructs.

We think one of the best ways to get to know a band is by asking what music inspired them to write in the first place. We caught up with Low Hummer’s Aimee & Steph to ask about their “Five Favourites” – five songs or albums that influenced the band’s writing techniques. Check out their choices below, and scroll down to listen to ‘Picture Bliss’ at the end of this post.

 

1. Pixies – ‘Gigantic’
Aimee: Although we all knew of each other before we started the band, it was only really a quick hello if we passed each other in the street! That meant we had, and still have a lot of different influences and backgrounds to our music and don’t often agree on liking the same bands. However, one band we all manage to agree on is Pixies. We don’t particularly make radio friendly music, but thanks to a band like Pixies we realised we can still aim to write pop songs, with hooky choruses even if they’re heavily disguised by odd chord choices, screaming vocals and distorted noises. Frank and Kim’s vocal styles are at odds with each other but work wonders together, whilst Joey’s guitar work often goes for odd riffs that are still instantly recognisable as his. Dan used ‘Gigantic’ in particular as a reference when we recorded ‘Picture Bliss’, joint vocals play a big part in what we do, and Pixies inspired us, they show its manageable to convey sensitivity vocally whilst still chucking in a load of distorted guitars!

2. Lost in Translation Official Soundtrack
Steph: It’s one of our favourite soundtracks collectively, and definitely would have played a role in us working parts out for ‘Picture Bliss;. The inspiration of bands like Death In Vegas along with My Bloody Valentine would have helped us learn how to manage sensitive melody lines and lyrics with distortion and odd sounding riffs. Not forgetting Bill Murray singing along to ‘More Than This’ which helped us fall in love with cheesy riffs and catchy choruses, both of which we’d have written off when we were kids. The Jesus and Mary Chain are not a band we gravitate towards to a lot, but again, their song ‘Just Like Honey’ which features at the end of the film felt like a good reference point for ‘Picture Bliss’. It’s another song that has a joint vocal with plenty of reverb and distortion, our producer Matt played us a few 80s guitar bands whilst we recorded and we gravitated towards emulating scrappy sounding stuff from that era. Lyrically there’s plenty of melancholy, sadness, underpinned with determination which probably inspired us for ‘Picture Bliss’.

3. The Velvet Underground – ‘Femme Fatale’
Aimee: Navigating the dynamics between a male and female vocal was challenging for us at first, especially because of our style. It took a lot of discussion between me and Dan when I first joined the band. Prior to Low Hummer, I’d only ever really sang in my solo country-inspired style. I’d dabbled in some shouting in a few awkward teenage phases, but it didn’t stick. So, when I joined the band it took quite a lot of encouragement from Dan to nudge me towards a more assertive style. Admittedly, he was right, and I can enjoy breaking out of my comfort zone. (Thanks Dan).

One thing we always agree on, though, is a mutual love of The Velvet Underground. We use them frequently as inspiration as we explore the dynamic between our vocals. I sang ‘Femme Fatale’ on my soundcloud a few years ago – one of the reasons Dan asked me to join the band. It felt like a good reference point for me to grasp my vocal position within ‘Picture Bliss’. The song allowed me to find that point between pushy and delicate vocals, which is something I haven’t explored as much in our other releases.

4. Joy Zipper – ‘1’
Steph: This song was on a lot when we began writing ‘Picture Bliss’, we really admired how its neither a stereotypical quiet or loud song, it sits somewhere in the middle. Sometimes when we write simpler songs, we’re keen to throw them away as we don’t feel we’ve worked hard enough on them, it almost comes a little too easy! That’s how we felt with our new single and it took a lot of encouragement from our manager Sally to decide to release it. But sometimes the easiest ones to write are the best. Joy Zipper’s ‘1’ follows a familiar pop song format, but for a simple enough structure it has so many beautiful moments, from its playful, devilish and childlike lyrics to whirling feedback intro and grungy chord progressions, along with a hummable section during the bridge. It’s a really joyful melody line, with optimistic verses, but the chord progressions, and ending, send you off kilter just enough to feel a little unsettled,

5. Her Official Soundtrack
Steph: It’s never actually been released, so I’m not sure it counts! But the film score from Her definitely subliminally influenced the creation of ‘Picture Bliss’. As a band we’re all suckers for sad films, and that usually extends to the music that goes with them. The score was created by the people behind Arcade Fire, and, much like Lost in Translation, it feels other-worldly; full of elements you recognise but can’t always place or hold onto. Whilst stylistically, it’s almost the opposite to what we do, we really loved the way the simple, fuzzy, swaying melodies and carefully placed lazy keys capture the melancholy of the story. The film itself is futuristic and disturbing, which is something replicated in the post-apocolyptic world presented lyrically in ‘Picture Bliss’, and both are full of that all-too relatable sadness which seems to slowly creep up and bite you late on Sunday nights.

Thanks to Aimee & Steph for sharing their favourites with us.
Follow Low Hummer on Spotify & Facebook for more updates.

Photo Credit: Credit: Shoot J Moore 

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