Aasthma - Arrival

Monkeytown Records

£20.14

Format: LP
Catalogue No.: MTR127LP
Barcode: 817231017543
Release Date: 16 Sep 2022
Genre: Experimental/Electronic

Arrival, the debut album from Swedish duo Aasthma, is big, bold, bright and utterly fearless. It’s described by its creators as a larger-than-life “secular rapture” that sounds like “Justin Bieber meeting up with Rotterdam Terror Corps to do an Abba cover at the Grand Ole Opry.”

The byproduct of a friendship, Aasthma is a collaboration between Pär Grindvik and Peder Mannerfelt, best known individually for their exploits in the techno realm. Calling Arrival it a pop album might serve as an effective shorthand, but sonically, it’s a high-fidelity whirlwind, occupying a dazzling soundworld where Top 40 ballads and breakbeat rollers gleefully canoodle with trap bangers, neon-streaked EDM and guttural dancehall.

Arrival is absolutely Aasthma’s vision, but it’s not exactly a solo effort. Few acts would dream of enlisting both the sultry melancholy of HTRK vocalist Jonnine Standish (“It’s Just Your Style”) and the swaggering rhymes of Swedish rapper Silvana Imam (“Soulhack”), but Aasthma did just that and more, lining up what they describe as a “dream mixtape” that includes the talents of Shout Out Louds frontman Adam Olenius (“Lights Out”), Equiknoxx co-founder Gavsbourg (“Nod”), and glittery pop crooner Casey MQ (“3am”).

Mixed by Aasthma together with Johannes Berglund (who’s previously worked with FKA Twigs, The Knife and Fever Ray), Arrival combines technicolor maximalism with the trademark sheen of Scandinavian pop.