London label and powerhouse of none-more-brilliantly-bleak music, Blackest Ever Black, is set to release a new 12" by Vatican Shadow (aka Prurient’s Dominick Fernow), reports FACT. The EP, entitled Iraqi Praetorian Guard, is set for release in late March, and 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 two Vatican Shadow originals are both remastered from his original 2010 debut cassette Byzantine Private CIA.
You can listen to the original of ‘Church Of All Images’ below for some idea of what to expect. Fernow’s ongoing interest in techno shone through more than ever before on last year’s Prurient album Bermuda Drain. His Vatican Shadow output touches on that in a more direct, albeit very scuffed and murky, way. It makes sense, then, to enlist Regis to remix his work – a long-running British techno legend and member of the Sandwell District collective, it’s possible to strongly hear the influence of his work on Fernow’s music.
Interestingly, fellow Sandwell District member and Blackest Ever Black associate Juan Mendez (aka Silent Servant and one half of BEB goth-pop duo Tropic Of Cancer) is also set to release his debut Silent Servant album through Fernow’s Hospital Productions label some time this year. Given the consistent quality of his releases through Sandwell District, that’s something we’re looking forward to with baited breath.
In other Blackest Ever Black news, the label has just released Black Rain’s blinding Now I’m Just A Number, which sounds something like how you’d imagine Blade Runner’s rain-soaked cityscape to sound, if it was stripped of Vangelis’ glorious synth backdrops. You can read our review of it here.
