Vatican Shadow – Kneel Before Religious Icons

Black vinyl edition of 300 copies. Mastered & Cut at D&M Berlin.

Hospital Productions reissue a killer 4 x tape boxset (2011) issued by Type on LP in 2012 and now finally available again on vinyl, before one final release in the series appears on vinyl for the first time early next year. This one features 8 tracks of early Vatican Shadow recordings, written during 2010, and highly recommended to all Muslimgauze, Prurient, Regis, even AFX fiends.

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. Originally recorded in 2010, the album’s eight tracks revolve around 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 with the way it eerily resonated with both the redrawing of geopolitical borders and those between industrial, ambient, noise and techno styles.

The album opens with the mighty ‘Chopper Crash Marines’ Names Released’ – perhaps the only time the VS project sounded like it could have been lifted off Aphex Twin’s first ‘Analogue Bubblebath’ EP, before one of the most valued VS outings in ‘Worshippers At The Same Mosque’ arrives with its pall of synth pads, needly harpsichord and stepping drums patently influenced by Muslimgauze. 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, before the set ends with the scudding, bombed-out terrain of ‘Gods Representative on Earth’ and ’Shooter In The Same Uniform as The Soldiers’.