When I first discovered Vatican Shadow, one of the key things that brought me in was how there was absolutely no information to be found on the project. Nothing. Upturned webpages revealed nothing. No known files existed for quite some time. It was as though it was all redacted information. For all I knew these tapes could have been newly unearthed and made by a Iranian noise artist in 1983. Which might be exactly what Dominick Fernow want’s you to believe. Vatican Shadow is industrial instrumental music based on the conflict in Iraq. Yes. I’m going to say that again, industrial instrumental music based on the conflict in Iraq. Kneel before the religious icon after the jump
Vatican Shadow is the new offering from Dominick Fernow, mastermind of Prurient and one half of Cold Cave. (I assume everyone here is familiar with both of those groups so we don’t need to go over them do we? No? Alright carrying on) The music is not abrasive or pummeling (a la Prurient), nor is it Synth-sweet and marketable (a la Cold Cave), it plays on a more psychological level. It’s a quiet intel room nestled in a rundown hamlet. It slinks around dark walk ways, taking note of major traffic areas. It doesn’t let you forget that the hum you hear in the sky is something watching you. It’s predatory, on a mechanical level. It’s clad in a balaclava, M-A1 Bomber, Adidas Track Pants and Combat Boots.
The amount of work Dom’s turned out in the past year is staggering, from the a haunting, stalking drone of USS Carl Vinson Night Tide Burial, which moves from house to house under cover of night to the powerhouse fervor of Staccato Burst Of Gunfire with it’s driving synth lines and salvo drum beats, and now London powerhouse of bleakness, Blackest Ever Black is set to release a new 12″ entitled Iraqi Praetorian Guard, which is slated for release in late March. As well as featuring two original tracks – ‘Gunmen With Silencer’ and ‘Cairo Sword Unsheathed’ – is also set to include a Regis reinterpretation of ‘Church Of All Images’. The 12″ is already sold out even though it’s still in pre-order but you can still purchase the digital copy from Blackest Ever Black.
I personally can’t wait, especially to hear someone else’s interpretation of such a byzantine and complex idea. Vatican Shadow keeps it straight militant with images of Nidal Hassan (Pictured above; Ft. Hood Gunman), General Sckwartzkopf, and Pakistani Commandos because as he says on the Hospital Records website its:
“Music for assassins on the world-scale board game upon which it isn’t clear who is winning or what side you are on”.
Yet for all their fundamentalism, for all their very real induction of fear and paranoia, the tracks, much like the reality that inspire them are fatalistic, nihilistic, extreme and yet somehow, hopeful.
New Comments