Slug Altar

Slug Altar is the new project of trans and queer noise-pop glitch-ambient musicians Erin Corbett and Laura Dickens (leucrocuta). Slug Altar is based out of Tkaronto and so-called Ottawa, and their songs and sizzling beats are about the fear and euphoria of queer love, tech induced isolation, objects and human labor, and intrusive childhood memories. They sound like lumbering, clunked and smashed-out synth and vocal layers skittering down a dark wet hole.

Slug Altar are writing a new album to be released.

Photo credit (below, left): Courtesy of the artist

Photo credit: Emilie Azevedo

“Our project seeks to explore the relationship between memory and identity, in particular the challenges with building a coherent sense of identity when memories erode and distort over time. As queer/trans people, our connection to memories can be fraught. There are the memories formed before “coming out” or formed during times when queerness must be suppressed out of safety. When looking back at these memories, it can often feel like they were experienced by a different person entirely. At the same time, memories formed after full queer self-acceptance, though often joyous and uplifting, are still re-visited through the trauma of living in an age of widespread homophobia and transphobia. As such, memories can be weaponized, they can be tools for growth, and often they can be forgotten, repressed, or altered beyond recognition, both intentionally and unintentionally.

Narratives built from memories are how we understand who we are, but if memories are lost, then who are you? And what kinds of memories remain – muscle memory, embodied memories?“

-Erin Corbett and Laura Dickens | Slug Altar, 2023