Vatican Shadow - Ornamented Walls (full album)

Описание: Vatican Shadow is the techno project/alias of Dominick Fernow, owner of Hospital Productions. He is well-known as his noise/power electronics monicker Prurient as well, but also for ambient act Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement and black metal bands Ash Pool and Departure Chandelier. He boasts collaborations with many historical names in the noise and experimental scene overall, such as Justin K. Broadrick, Merzbow and Macronympha, just to name a few. Vatican Shadow has been responsible (together with other acts of course) for reinventing the aesthetic of techno music, with a strong focus on militaristic themes and, specifically, the war on terror.

Ornamented Walls came out in 2012 and is one of the few records that didn't come out on Dom's own label, instead being released by Boomkat's sublabel Modern Love. The record at issue is very industrial-sounding techno (or very techno-sounding industrial) with ambient influences. The arabic chants you can hear in some of the tracks not only create the unique atmosphere only they can create, but also remind us of Muslimgauze, one of Vatican Shadow's primary influences. Compared to other VS records, this is much more industrial in approach too, favouring the use of samples and layering instead of having a strong focus on the beats themselves. Naturally there's gonna be beat-driven parts too but they aren't as prominent nor as straightforward as you'd expect from a techno record. With this said, it isn't even as ambient as, for instance, Pakistan Military Academy, thus ending up sounding like a weird mix of all of the project's different influences. An interesting record for sure, the experimental edge of which demands repeated listens to fully grasp the full picture of its vision.

Ripped from my own (dusty) vinyl.

Tracklist:
00:00 - Operation Neptune Spear Part 1 (Live Mix Rehearsal)
05:53 - Operation Neptune Spear Part 2 (Live Mix Rehearsal)
09:59 - Operation Neptune Spear Part 3 (Live Mix Rehearsal)
22:05 - [flipping side]
22:40 - Cairo Is A Haunted City (Mythic Chords)
30:42 - Nightforce Scopes
34:32 - Yemeni Telephone Number
35:42 - India Has Just Tested A Nuclear Device
38:27 - Church Of All Images (Church Of The NSA)
44:12 - Boxes Were Wired To Batteries Then Loaded Into A Brown Toyota Cargo Truck

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