Leila Abdul-Rauf is a multi-instrumentalist based in Oakland, California who re;eased her latest, and sixth, studio album Andros Insidium on April 17, 2026 via 20 Buck Spin. The record, with its cinematically resonant titles, is like a mythical and ritualistic exploration of themes of resistance to oppression, external and internalized, and the liberation of self from the patriarchy in culture, psychology and our conceptualization of the universe and an embrace of concepts of the divine feminine. Its songs cast in ambient, industrial, dark folk and post-punk like something that sounds like it has drawn some influence and inspiration from late 80s Dead Can Dance, Jarboe and Diamanda Galas. It’s also reminiscent of older musical forms like medieval choral music, Middle Eastern classical, devotional and folk. The effect is an album that feels like its outside normal time and space but anchored in sounds and rhythms that feel familiar yet mind-expanding. With imaginative poetry Abdul-Rauf comments on the cycle of societal pressure to strive for unrealistic expectations as goals defined by one’s utility to the machinery of capitalism. The songs feel like a story arc like something out of the initiation rites of ancient mystery cults but with the end including the cultivation of a consciousness of the world as it is and how it could be. It all sounds like it has to be a recording project only but Abdul-Rauf has performed the music live.
Listen to our interview with Leila Abdul-Rauf on Bandcamp and follow her at the links below. Andros Insidium is currently available on vinyl, CD, digital download and for streaming via 20 Buck Spin.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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