Declassified militarist ambience from Vatican Shadow, finding Dominik Fernow (Prurient) donning his desert fatigues for a mesmerising follow-up to his technoid outings with Ostgut Tonand Ancient Methods. It’s also the last in a series of first-time vinyl editions of previously tapeonly releases.
‘Opium Crop’ makes a return to what we’d term a vintage Vatican Shadow sound, steeped in nods to Muslimgauze and modern geopolitics and fringed with an aura of clammy, atmospheric terror, just how we like it.
The title piece pushes off across the front with a sort of stately, waltzing rhythm and druggy synth pads recalling John Foxx and DJ Screw as much as Bryn Jones. ‘Hellfire Hidden Tribes’ sinks into the B-side with lagging Dabke rhythm embedded in oily black backdrops, occasionally lit up with
vaporous synth stabs mirroring the arc and flash of distant artillery, and leading to an exquisite ambient devotional, ‘Loyal To The Deceased’.
Unmissable. More

Before another Vatican Shadow release appears on vinyl for the first time early next year, Hospital Productions reissue a killer 2011 tape release on a 2019 vinyl pressing after appearing on a long
sold-out LP edition for Type in 2012 Remastered and slightly edited from the original 4 x tape boxset, ‘Kneel Before Religious Icons’
reasserts its place in the pantheon of Vatican Shadow’s prized early releases which, with the benefit of hindsight, arguably amount to one of this past decade’s definitive projects.
Originally recorded in 2010, the album’s eight tracks revolve some of the first material recorded by Dominick Fernow in this mode, aside from his then better known work as Prurient. At the time, Fernow was still working under cover of anonymity and this release in particular only aided in heightening the intrigue and fascination surrounding this project and the way it eerily resonated with the both the redrawing of geopolitical borders and those between industrial, ambient, noise and techno styles.
The album contains one of the most valued VS outings in Worshippers At The Same Mosque’, with its pall of synth pads, needly harpsichord and stepping drums patently influenced by Muslimgauze,
while the parade ground trample of ‘Church Of All Images’ - which would form the basis for a now classic Regis remix issued by Blackest Ever Black - adds up to one of the project’s most militant
numbers along with the scudding, bombed-out terrain of ‘Gods Representative on Earth’ and ’Shooter In The Same Uniform as The Soldiers’.
As an historic document of the time and a gripping album in its own right, ‘Kneel Before Religious Icons’ holds tight among Vatican Shadow’s most crucial and convincing communiques. More

o Long awaited debut album from Mike Connelly and his wife, Tara, recording together as Clay Rendering.
o Additional production by Dominick Fernow, additional vocals by Becka Diamond
o Mastered by Paul Corley
o A delicate yet uncompromising set of songs drifting somewhere between Gothic, Ambient, Black Metal and Dream Pop.

Perhaps the most compelling of all the many projects started by one-time members of Wolf Eyes, Clay Rendering came to life in 2013 and have since released a trio of singles for Hospital Productions that have gained them the admiration of followers spanning both electronic and metal communities.

Their material occupies unique terrain, recalling The Cure's widescreen Disintegration-era instrumentals meets Cocteau Twins/Xmal Deutschland, cut through with a Black Metal palette and an appreciation of electronic music that imbues their production (notably assisted by Dominick Fernow) with an end-of-world quality that's impossible to pin down. Evoking Nine Inch Nails one moment, you find yourself in a smoke- filled, strobe-lit Road House the next; bleary-eyed, head spinning, coming down.

Guitar, Accordion, Piano and electronics underpin these songs, opening with the whirling death march of 'Maps on The Floor' and the funereal trudge of "Swallow The Century" before the grinding fuzz of "Sight From Up There" changes pace with the addition of a forlorn piano melody and Becka Diamond's distant vocal zooming in on half-remembered songs, rendered here with hazy definition.

"Fall Of The Bed" and "Memory Loses Momentum" find Clay Rendering at their most visceral and catchy; a reminder that they are first and foremost a band that write incredible songs, often submerged in fuzz and atmosphere, but here left exposed, bare, on display.

And yet the title track "Snowthorn", "River Without" and the incredible album closer "Night To Perish" edge the album from the bleak and into the sublime, turning away from the snowy landscapes their music so often evokes, instead pulling you deep into night...

Tracks: 1.Maps On The Floor 2.Swallow The Century 3. Sight From Up Here 4. Snowthorn 5. River Without 6. Fall Off The Bed 7.Patient Days 8. Memory Loses Momentum 9. Night To Perish
More

Shifted’s debut for Hospital Productions following an album for sublabel Bed Of Nails in 2013. Integrating his more searching work as Alexander Lewis and his increasingly introspective work as Shifted while eloquently addressing his past, ‘Appropriation Stories’ is a comprehensive statement of intent and
Brewer’s finest, most mature work to-date. More

Though known as a touring and recording musician associated with Nine Inch Nails, Alessandro Cortini has really come into his own via his Forse trilogy, and his 2014 Hospital Productions debut, Sonno. For his Hospital follow-up, he maintains the grittiness and intimacy introduced on his
debut, but expands on it, offering a wider spectrum of emotion and depth. Like Sonno, Risveglio was written and recorded while on tour. The drive to create intimate works during late-night downtime reveal Cortini to be committed to personal vision beyond the call of duty. While Sonno was created using only a 202 and delay, Risveglio adds a TB303, synced to the 202. In his own words, "The 303 can be such a haunting instrument used in a certain way, and I felt it completely fit the mood of the previous work I have done on the 202, especially when given a specific location in space....it's such a living instrument." The addition of TR606 gives one of the pieces a rhythmic pulse that separates it from the preceding synthscapes and renders Risveglio altogether a more dynamic affair than Sonno. With Risveglio Cortini emphasizes the imperfections and visceral textures of electronics absent from so much contemporary solo synthesizer music. He carves out a similar space to that formed by Kevin Drumm's releases for the same label in the worlds of Drone and Noise by finding the emotional and, ultimately, human voice within synthesis.
1. Stambecco
2. La sveglia
3. Rispetto
4. Dormiveglia
5. Lotta
6. La meta
7. La via
8. La guardia
9. Posso
10. Ricadere
11. La sveglia (drum version)
More

o Long awaited debut album from Mike Connelly and his wife, Tara, recording together as Clay Rendering.
o Additional production by Dominick Fernow, additional vocals by Becka Diamond
o Mastered by Paul Corley
o A delicate yet uncompromising set of songs drifting somewhere between Gothic, Ambient, Black Metal and Dream Pop.

Perhaps the most compelling of all the many projects started by one-time members of Wolf Eyes, Clay Rendering came to life in 2013 and have since released a trio of singles for Hospital Productions that have gained them the admiration of followers spanning both electronic and metal communities.

Their material occupies unique terrain, recalling The Cure's widescreen Disintegration-era instrumentals meets Cocteau Twins/Xmal Deutschland, cut through with a Black Metal palette and an appreciation of electronic music that imbues their production (notably assisted by Dominick Fernow) with an end-of-world quality that's impossible to pin down. Evoking Nine Inch Nails one moment, you find yourself in a smoke- filled, strobe-lit Road House the next; bleary-eyed, head spinning, coming down.

Guitar, Accordion, Piano and electronics underpin these songs, opening with the whirling death march of 'Maps on The Floor' and the funereal trudge of "Swallow The Century" before the grinding fuzz of "Sight From Up There" changes pace with the addition of a forlorn piano melody and Becka Diamond's distant vocal zooming in on half-remembered songs, rendered here with hazy definition.

"Fall Of The Bed" and "Memory Loses Momentum" find Clay Rendering at their most visceral and catchy; a reminder that they are first and foremost a band that write incredible songs, often submerged in fuzz and atmosphere, but here left exposed, bare, on display.

And yet the title track "Snowthorn", "River Without" and the incredible album closer "Night To Perish" edge the album from the bleak and into the sublime, turning away from the snowy landscapes their music so often evokes, instead pulling you deep into night...

Tracks: 1.Maps On The Floor 2.Swallow The Century 3. Sight From Up Here 4. Snowthorn 5. River Without 6. Fall Off The Bed 7.Patient Days 8. Memory Loses Momentum 9. Night To Perish
More

2LP LTD GATEFOLD - NON RETURNABLE EAN: 5060165481514

Tracklist: 1. Things Known 2. Things Unknown 3. The Nemesis Flower 4. A Year Has Passed 5. A Year Has Gone By 6. Red Opium 7. Bejeweled Body

Function and Vatican Shadow have combined forces on 'Games Have Rules' for Hospital Productions, simultaneously stripping back each producer's more prevalent production elements - the dancefloor-focused techno structures of Function; the experimental cassette-roots of Vatican Shadow - to create an album of dynamic electronic ambient music, equal parts rhythmic and atmospheric.
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Comprised of eight tracks, Periscope Blues is the culmination of a mission gone wrong. Music for the stranded, the lost, those backed into a corner with nowhere to go, or maybe a reflection of sad individuals panicking on a tropical vacation gone awry. Somber yet very tense drifting off radar machine electronics that feel like a blistering sun beating down on decaying beach remains as time crawls on. That or the equivalent to working the grill
summers at Jones Beach and stealing from the register just to get a little more...
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Ron Morelli returns to stare down the 'floor with four pieces written during the stress-busting sessions for 'Spit'. The muggy, droning welt of 'Public Consumption' kicks off with the sound of New York techno shot from the hip, while 'Another Hit' vents a vintage era-Regis style built on skull-chipping snares and effluent acid modulation. The album's writhing batacuda banger, 'Crack Microbes' reappears here as an extra-ferric extended Version, sustaining the hypnotic intensity for nine minutes of panic attack acid and febrile cowbells, while ''Rushing Again' escorts us to a close with triplet techno shook down by railgun
snares and a grotty synthline.
More