Agung Mango today continues his rap-rock carving with a brand new single, ‘The Moth Prefers The Moon’, drawn from his upcoming album IN BELLY WE TRUST due for release on August 1. LISTEN HERE.

IN BELLY WE TRUST marks the next phase of Agung Mango’s fascination with sonic experimentation, threading together a defined sense of originality and versatility with the philosophy of the brain-gut connection – the enteric nervous system. Much like his acclaimed 2022 EP, MAN ON THE GO, his forthcoming album acknowledges the ever-evolving nature of music making however is in turn led by a breadth of trials and tribulations guided by his Indonesian and Italian backgrounds, with contributions from travels in Bali and inspired audio recordings from friends and family to enhance technical depth.

Of the forthcoming record, he shares, “This album is a reflection of a pivotal moment in my life where I learned to trust myself and embrace authenticity. I was going through a lot during that time and music seemed to be the only release that was helping me. It’s a raw expression of my journey in the last year and a bit.”

Following this year’s steadying releases ‘PEMECUTAN NAPOLETANA’, ‘GUT’ and ‘Fluent‘, today’s single ‘The Moth Prefers The Moon’ is a sharp edge that expands on Agung Mango’s embrace of culture through the transformative eyes of a spiritual ghost-like figure. “It was created with my brother Violet inside a little warehouse in Brunswick East” he reveals. “It tells the story of a ghost who’s lost the power to inspire fear. While working on it, I wanted to put myself in the ghost’s perspective and whilst dissecting the character it led to unexpected insights I learnt about my own life. To break down the title of the song, the moth is a motif for the ghost in which in many cultures, the moth is seen as a spirit conducting at night, attracted to the moon. The moth symbolises rebirth and transformation of the ghost.”

Flipping the script from his usual free-flowing R&B jazz fusion showcased in his MAN ON THE GO EP and SON OF AGUNG collaboration with Nikodimos, ‘The Moth Prefers The Moon’ adopts a sense of industrialism grounded with visceral vocal tones, taking sonic cues from Paris Texas – whom he recently supported on their Laneway Festival sideshows – to N.E.R.D. in an overt rap-rock stream that lays the full spectrum of his cadence and range. IN BELLY WE TRUST is a deeply personal release for Agung Mango, circling the outskirts of intuition and faith through his magnetic presence and fearless experimentation as a rising underdog continuing to triumph as a rap sensation.