Alfarmania / Proiekt Hat – Astral Slaktmask

Astral Slaktmask

Very occasionally, there are times when you know everything will come together, just as it should and all in good time. The ducks line up in an orderly fashion, and all you need to do is sit back and watch as the elements join hands for the happy ending. So it is with Astral Slaktmask, a superb tape release from Chefsideologens Bolag, once again bringing together postmortem comrades Alfarmania and Proiekt Hat.

As far as I’m aware, it was Kristian Olsson of Alfarmania who coined the phrase postmortem music a few years back, but the concept, arguably, is not new. (Editor’s Note:  As elaborated upon by Kristian Olsson, “‘Postmortem’ was a term which was commonly used in the Swedish industrial underground scene of the 1980s (by Spanking Housewives and Pop N Roll Family). It got picked up again in the 1990s by a ‘zine called Soma. I began using the term again excessively in my own magazine, Shocktilt, in the early/mid-2000s.”) I suspect the intention behind the term is about much more than the sound itself (morbid sounds are a stock and trade of industrial music at large) and refers, additionally, to the overall aesthetic, the audio quality, and perhaps even the intention behind each track. Some of Mauthausen Orchestra’s best and earliest work, for example, was released thirty years before Astral Slaktmask, well before ‘postmortem music’ had been defined, but there’s a clear lineage there.

Kristian Olsson / Alfarmania

Olsson has been very busy as of late. There have been new releases and re-releases, live gigs, publications, and gallery shows. I’ve not kept up with it all, but his output is consistently strong, and Alfarmania is a perennial favorite. Proiekt Hat is decidedly less productive but has been ticking along at a steady pace since the late 1990s. He popped up again earlier in 2015 when XN Recordings released XX, Proiekt Hat’s debut full solo release for several years at least.

The two have worked together several times prior, and the projects share much in common. There’s lo-fi smear, analogue dread, and murkiness aplenty. Astral Slaktmask is so satisfying in part because you sort of know what you’re getting before you throw the tape in the deck. The men here are so comfortable and familiar with what they do, it’s like reacquainting yourself with an old friend. Top it off with Olsson’s ever-impressive artwork, and the tape is a guaranteed recipe for success if I’ve ever heard one. It’s hugely enjoyable. Interestingly enough, however, it’s not as postmortem murky as much of their individual releases have been. It’s dismal and muddy, to be sure, but it’s not as maudlin as you might expect.

Opening track ‘Unending Nothingness’ is all dirty synth wooze and flutter, metal clanging, and an indistinct vocal sample. Again, it’s familiar, simple, and effective: proof that the recipe works—one that crystalises beautifully in the title track with a saturated, slowly modulating synth line, faltering clang, and subtle white-noise wash. It’s a formula that, on paper, sounds easy to replicate—indeed, many have tried—but it’s really only the Tesco Organisation lineage of Genocide Organ, Anenzephalia, and Ke/Hil who do it this well. There’s plenty of variety here, however; Astral Slaktmask is not a formulaic release. It’s also a lot grubbier than the clinical delivery of Genocide Organ and their related projects.

Proiekt Hat

A number of tracks (‘Forcerat Livsal’ and ‘Eldförgängelsens Apostlar’, for instance) hark back to the grimiest, most soot-ridden postmortem filth the two projects have released prior, but there’s an immediacy here often not apparent in their more maudlin material.

‘Venom of Ages’, for example, starts with an urgent synth rhythm atop a distant horn sound, then degenerates into a muddy dirt racket. It’s full of strength and vitality, yet, in keeping with the two projects’ modus operandi, lies kicking and screaming in the gutter.

Everything about this release is a winning combination, and is pretty much mandatory for fans of lo-fi filth. Olsson recently embarked on a series of archive re-releases on cassette which includes Alfarmania and Proiekt Hat’s Furyfication split, originally released on LP by Harsh Head Rituals in 2007. It’s nice to have this material made more widely available, and with a split release of new material from the two projects slated for co-release in 2016 by Tesco Organisation (LP) and Chefsideologens Bolag (CS), there’s much goodness to look forward to.

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Track List:

A1) Unending Nothingness
A2) Sondmatad Med Blyhagel
A3) Cut Feeling I
A4) Astral Slaktmask
B1) Full Tank
B2) Forcerat Livsval
B3) Eldförgängelsens Apostlar
B4) Venom of Ages
B5) Cut Feeling II

Rating: 9.5/10
Written by: David Tonkin
Label: Chefsideologens Bolag (Sweden) / None / Tape
Postmortem / Industrial / Power Electronics