As you may have noticed, the Quietus have been very much enjoying the ongoing transmissions from Dominick ‘Prurient’ Fernow’s Vatican Shadow project over the last couple of years, with each new cassette and vinyl LP matching his stark and static-addled techno constructions with provocative imagery drawn from news coverage of the last decade’s ‘war on terror’. Now, following around ten cassettes plus a string of 12"s, he’s announced what he describes as his ‘debut album proper’. Titled Remember Your Black Day, it’s set for release through Fernow’s own Hospital Productions label on 21st October, and none of its eight tracks have ever been released before.
The album was produced with assistance from Juan Mendez (aka Sandwell District’s Silent Servant), who released the excellent Negative Fascination through Hospital last year, and for it we’re promised something slightly different from previous Vatican Shadow material – something apparently "almost celebratory" compared to the glut of noisy techno that’s flooded the dance world in recent years. An additional record of additional material and extended mixes entitled When You Are Crawling will also be released later on in 2013.
"The album includes the most direct and propulsive Vatican Shadow material yet, continuing an evolutionary shift away from the complex, collage-based narrative of those cassette releases into more visibly direct contact with the listener," reads the text accompanying the album’s release. "There is a functional connection to dance music here, honing in on the human element embedded within a subject matter so fraught with inhumanity."
Remember Your Black Day‘s tracklist features typically bleakly humorous (and ever so slightly daft) Vatican Shadow-esque titles – see below – and its artwork is below.
‘Circumstances Quickly Became Questioned’
‘Tonight Saddam Walks Amidst Ruins’
‘Muscle Hijacker Tribal Affiliation’
‘Contractor Corpses Hung Over The Euphrates River’
‘Enter Paradise’
‘Remember Your Black Day’
‘Not The Son Of Desert Storm, But The Child Of Chechnya’
‘Jet Fumes Above The Reflecting Pool’
