ALTAR OF FLIES - FÖRRUTTNELSEN LP (RTB#57) First vinyl fullength from Mattias Gustafsson aka Altar Of Flies. Since the start in 2006, this prolific artist from Mjölby, Sweden, has done releases on Cipher, Husk, Hästen & Korset, Nil By Mouth and 905, just to name a few. Förruttnelsen is the first new release on RTB since the split LP with Sewer Election which was released early 2008. More organic and mostly recorded live to tape, Förruttnelsen shows a side of Altar Of Flies more reminiscent to the sounds of his live shows. This is more minimalistic in it's approach, weaving together tapeloops, field recordings, junk abuse and raw disciplined electronics creating an claustrophobic and bleak soundscape. Everything slowly builds up towards the abrasive 14 minute long title track closer, making this an monumental journey in all it's gloomy glory. Recorded between April and December 2009. 5 tracks, 41 minutes. Mastered by Viktor Ottosson (Ättestupa). Full colour artwork by Daniel Fagerström. Tracklist: 1. Abandon Skin, 2. Allt Som Föds Skall Också Dö, 3. Frozen Forever In Time, 4. Trikiner, 5. Förruttnelsen. ----- PRESSING INFO! 270 copies. REVIEWS Foxy Digitalis The Sound Projector #20 You’ll also receive quite a lasting sensation of wintry desolation and deathritude from Altar Of Flies, currently emerging as quite a righteous talent in the area of chill-zone ambient horror noise, and whose work for me just gets better with each release. This Förruttnelsen (RELEASE THE BATS #57) album is his first full-length after various anthologised tracks and split releases, and it’s got a punchy precision and starkness that you may have missed on his earlier, noised-out affairs. Paying close attention to dynamics and evolving ideas, he lays out one ghastly buffet and blast after another, doing so with a stately slowness and icy calm, exhibiting a restraint which some of your hotly-pumping promiscuous table noise crowd could learn from, as they rush to ejaculate their slippery discharges of electronic jiz. What’s impressive is that most of this material was recorded direct to tape. Since the UK has been undergoing one of the coldest May months on record, this particular helping of stern, cold gravy fits in perfectly with our mood of grey and deathly oppression. Only 270 copies were pressed. - THE SOUND PROJECTOR Swedish free jazz mainstay Mats Gustafsson puts aside his saxophone and delivers a monstrous and fucking creepy album of distorted tape loops, damaged field recordings, and shorted-out electronics. Each track consists of a crunchy sub-bass loop, with what sound like additional loops of slowed-down, backward human voices, piercing feedback, and other unidentifiable high pitched electronic noises piled on top. Early industrial music seems like it must have been the inspiration for this record, but Förruttnelsen never seems to directly reference anything, doomed to exist in its own nightmare world. The fourteen-minute closing track is really remarkable in it’s pacing and use of dynamics, with a creep factor so high that it goes beyond mere musical comparisons, winding up in the middle of your nightmare, only to find demons with razor sharp claws crashing through your bedroom walls ready to rip your heart out and show it to you while you die. Recommended! 270 copies. (Chris Strunk) - DUSTED Altar Of Flies Hästen & Korset