VATICAN SHADOW レコード& CD

Review: Hospital Productions is a non-stop operation and following this year's long-players from Alessandro Cortini, Ninos Du Brasil and Ron Morelli, Vatican Shadow's latest swoop is this ambient album produced with Function. The seven-track LP was recorded between Berlin and New York, and it's described as best suited for after-hours home listening, but whether you really want to listen to this after a big night is up to you. Indeed "A Year Has Passed" and "A Year Has Gone By" are downbeat and melancholic, whereas other tracks lean more towards industrial ambient, similar to fellow Hospital artist Lussuria's work. "The Nemesis Flower" is a darker highlight while "Red Opium" and "Bejewelled Body" is where the house and techno beats lie.

Review: First released as a very limited 2 x 10-inch vinyl package in 2017, Luxor Necropolitics is widely considered to be one of Domimic Fernow's most accessible albums as Vatican Shadow. It was produced in collaboration with Teflon Tel Aviv member Joshua Eustis and, as this first ever CD edition proves, boasts more relatively straightforward moments than we're used to from the American experimentalist. Of course, his usual influences and sonic traits are still present - an obsession with geopolitics and the Middle East in particular, shards of melancholic melody, dark and dystopian techno grooves - but this time packaged into accessible, often rhythm-driven chunks rather than abstract ambient excursions and sample-heavy sound collages.

Review: Luxor Necropolitics is a 2017 album by Vatican Shadow, the alias used to explore ambient industrial and techno by Dominick Fernow. It is a superb exploration of minimal rhythms and eerie sound design that is evocative in mood and rich in texture. There are yawning and dubby slow-motion soundscapes and more driving deep techno cuts there are wide-open and expansive. This new long-player version comes on vinyl with a download code and insert having previously only been available on 10". It is as darkly alluring and intriguing now as it was five years ago.