Dominick Fernow’s Vatican Shadow has announced the imminent release of a new album through the Manchester-based Modern Love label, an interesting signing for a label which has recently been making moves towards noisier territory with records by Andy Stott, Miles and GH. Entitled Ornamented Walls, it’s due for release on 8th October, and combines one LP side of live material with a series of brand new tracks.
Vatican Shadow has frequently proved an exhilarating proposition, a sinister and abrasive whirl of sandpaper percussion, industrial techno and Middle Eastern war imagery. Though he has previously released a number of cassettes under the name, this year has found a series of vinyl LP issues of VS material, including Type’s pressing of Kneel Before Religious Icons and the metallic hailstorm of the September Cell EP.
Ornamented Walls is split into two halves. The A-side is a recording of rehearsals for Vatican Shadow’s first ever live show, which was previously released on cassette/digitally as Operation Neptune Spear. It’s nice to see it being released on vinyl – far from being a carbon copy of existing recorded material, it’s a freaked-out and mixed-on-the-fly document of Vatican Shadow’s noisier side. When we reviewed it, we described it as "a glimpse into the raw and obsessive noise/techno collages of the project’s more aggressive side, subsuming the grace of September Cell into an acid bath of wracked steel percussion and throbbing synth figures. Calls to prayer, chants and broadcast snippets weave through the mix, lending the 20 minute recording all the hoarse fervour of a wild-eyed preacher loudly heralding the apocalypse from a street corner." Click here to read the full review.
The second side features six brand new tracks that were recorded in the aftermath of that live session and using the same set-up – cassettes and a mixer – including an alternate version of September Cell‘s ‘Cairo Is A Haunted City’.
Ornamented Walls‘ tracklist runs as follows:
A1 – Operation Neptune Spear Part 1
A2 – Operation Neptune Spear Part 2
A3 – Operation Neptune Spear Part 3
B1 – Cairo Is A Haunted City (Mythic Chords)
B2 – Nightforce Scopes
B3 – Yemeni Telephone Number
B4 – India Has Just Tested A Nuclear Device
B5 – Chuch Of All Images (Church Of The NSA)
B6 – Boxes Were Wired To Batteries Then Loaded Into A Brown Toyota Cargo Truck
Vatican Shadow is also set to play his UK debut show next week at Blackest Ever Black’s Corsica Studios showcase. It takes place on Saturday October 13th, and also features, among others, Cut Hands, Russell Haswell, Bruce Gilbert and Raime.
