MOTHER LODE by Zaffer 9

Zaffer 9 brings tenderness into aggressive chaos, crafting a sound that is as confrontational as it is emotive. Their live performances erupt with aggressive beats, witchy synths, and visceral vocal delivery that oscillates between an embrace and a slap in the face. The duo—comprising Helena Hájková and Viktor Jenčuš—straddles the edge of experimental electronics and dark club aesthetics with audiovisual work that masks its painfully and openly intimate nature behind overall disruptiveness. Their latest work incorporates vocals reminiscent of spiritual chants, leaning towards folk singing traditions.

In March 2023, the Czechoslovak duo released their debut EP MILK. Since then, Zaffer 9 has developed a strong visual identity that complements the intensity of their music. This is especially evident in the music videos accompanying the tracks “ALLURE” and “DEPART,” which blend haunting imagery with raw emotional force.

MOTHER LODE is Zaffer 9’s most ambitious project to date—their most personal and radical work—a map of their own fictioning landscape that bends the boundaries between harsh dystopian sound and the soothing promise of redemption. It is a drilling probe into the depths of long-lost collective trauma and intimate rage, refracted through the lens of the digital era. Here, Zaffer 9 mine not gold from the ground, but something far more precious: an elusive and weighty raw material translated unfiltered into layers of distorted synths, screams, pulsating beats, and disturbingly beautiful moments of silence between notes. In addition,
MOTHER LODE features two collaborations—one with long-established Slovak musician Viktor Ori, and another with the equally talented Czech up-and-coming producer BoLs/sLoB.

The LP’s cover is the result of a long-term collaboration between Helena Hájková, visual artist Kristýna Sidlárová, and photographer Safiia Makzhanova. The artwork itself references the drowning and burning of an effigy of Morana—a Slavic folkloric ritual symbolizing the end of winter.

Witch house // doom hyperpop from Prague.