Vatican Shadow

Vatican Shadow

SR-71 Blackbird Survivors

Hospital Productions

never reveal the secrets of the world's most ominous bird.

Vatican Shadow

(colored) Persian Pillars Of The Gasoline Era

20 Buck Spin

NOW ON LIMITED NEON GREEN / WHITE / RED TRI-COLOR MERGE W/ RED SPLATTER VINYL!!! For a decade now, Vatican Shadow, one of the many guises of Dominick Fernow, has blurred the lines of rhythmic industrial, ambient and soundscapes to weave throbbing frontline communiques of war, terror, media manipulation and anxiety disorder. One of the most prolific underground artists of the 21st century, living his art down to minute detail, Fernow’s penchant for seamlessly spanning underground sub-cultures finds Vatican Shadow now aligned with 20 Buck Spin for the first time. On the new full length album Persian Pillars Of The Gasoline Era, the deconstruction continues, with layers of collaged synth stabs, low end pulsing dread and ominous sand-swept melodies. And where Vatican Shadow often sets a rigid musical focus with each release, here the full multi-faceted embodiment of the project comes to fruition from hypnotic dance floor repetition, cold metallic percussion, martial bass strikes, and dark melodic noise. To further intensify the album Fernow brought aboard Justin Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu, JK Flesh, etc) for the painstakingly detailed mastering process, adding the mysterious vibrance of cold morning mountain light that presages a conspiracy about to unfold. An unquestionable heaviness permeates the organizational structure of Vatican Shadow, never more apparent than on Persian Pillars…, and while prior devotees of the scripture will continue to find it approachable, here now the doors have been flung wide open to an entirely new realm of memorialist iconography.

Vatican Shadow

Persian Pillars Of The Gasoline Era

20 Buck Spin

***BAKC IN STOCK!!!  For a decade now, Vatican Shadow, one of the many guises of Dominick Fernow, has blurred the lines of rhythmic industrial, ambient and soundscapes to weave throbbing frontline communiques of war, terror, media manipulation and anxiety disorder. One of the most prolific underground artists of the 21st century, living his art down to minute detail, Fernow’s penchant for seamlessly spanning underground sub-cultures finds Vatican Shadow now aligned with 20 Buck Spin for the first time. On the new full length album Persian Pillars Of The Gasoline Era, the deconstruction continues, with layers of collaged synth stabs, low end pulsing dread and ominous sand-swept melodies. And where Vatican Shadow often sets a rigid musical focus with each release, here the full multi-faceted embodiment of the project comes to fruition from hypnotic dance floor repetition, cold metallic percussion, martial bass strikes, and dark melodic noise. To further intensify the album Fernow brought aboard Justin Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu, JK Flesh, etc) for the painstakingly detailed mastering process, adding the mysterious vibrance of cold morning mountain light that presages a conspiracy about to unfold. An unquestionable heaviness permeates the organizational structure of Vatican Shadow, never more apparent than on Persian Pillars…, and while prior devotees of the scripture will continue to find it approachable, here now the doors have been flung wide open to an entirely new realm of memorialist iconography.

Vatican Shadow

American Flesh For Violence

Hospital Productions

As part of the series of the 9th anniversary of the project arrives ‘American Flesh For Violence’, featuring both moody and dense unreleased tracks from the archives as well as a companion of remixes throughout the projects history featuring: Alessandro Cortini, Ancient methods, CUB, and JK Flesh.

Vatican Shadow

Kuwaiti Airforce

Hospital Productions

“Back at the start of this decade the underground conversation between noise, techno and ambient music manifested definitively thru Vatican Shadow’s eerily evocative glut of tape releases for Hospital Productions in a manner that resonated with the subversive post-industrial music of Muslimgauze and Whitehouse - who were both key touchstones for Dominick Fernow (Prurient, Vatican Shadow, Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement).  The ‘Kuwaiti Airforce’ tape which lends this set its title was only available in an edition of 25 copies at Vatican Shadow’s September 29, 2012 show in LA with Silent Servant, Demdike Stare, Andy Stott, and Kangding Ray. Its two bombed-out blasts of rhythmic noise are now available on the first disc here for the first time, backed with two previously unreleased works written in 2012: a deep, rolling techno collaboration with Juan Mendez, lodged somewhere between his Silent Servant output styles for Sandwell District and the seminal ‘Negative Fascination’ LP; and a more messed-up, subbass-mired rework by Demdike Stare, who were still clearly in the mood surrounding their classic ‘Elemental’ LP.  The second disc however highlights cuts from earlier and more obscure releases, rounding up two powerful, even darkly romantic pieces of sturm und drang from 2010’s ‘Around The Dragon’s Broken Neck…’ 2 x cassette, plus his opiated half of a split with Contrepoison, and a cranky grinder that was only found on the ‘White Eye Of Winter Watching’ compilation, both issued by Hospital Productions in 2011.”—Boomkat

Vatican Shadow

Washington Buries Al Qaeda Leader At Sea

Hospital Productions

***An exclusive and outstanding Regis collaboration appears on the third volume of vinyl premieres for VATICAN SHADOW's early and highly sought-after tapes, as originally dispensed in 2011 during the peak years of the War On Terror. Holding all six sides from 3x hard-to-find tape "deck" issues of Washington Buries Al Qaeda Leader At Sea, plus the previously digital-only track "He Ambled Down The Dirt Road For Visits To A Market" and the aforementioned Regis exclusive; the third installment of the series definitively compiles Vatican Shadow's impressionistic take on a turning point in 21st century U.S. geopolitics.

Vatican Shadow

Pakistan Military Academy

Hospital Productions

***The best Vatican Shadow release, bar none, finally lands on vinyl for the first time as part of a long overdue remaster/reissue series for the project's earliest, fêted releases Originally slunk out on tape in 2011, Pakistan Military Academy sees Dominick Fernow (Prurient, Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement) calibrate his night-vision goggles to scan the most potent, affective visions of dark ambient and militaristic techno in his war chest. At the time of release, only months after the capture of Osama Bin Laden by US Army SEAL "Night Stalkers", the project really came into its own as a form of impressionistic reportage, daring to grasp the nettle of contemporary US geopolitics in a way that, as music and art history will only make starker, everyone else broadly avoided at the time. In place of literal lyrics, a mix of quotes from newspapers and official government communiques, together with evocative photo documentation, supply the song titles and narrative/aesthetic framework for what are essentially abstracted emotions related to American military and foreign policy. Depending on how much you read or buy into it, for us at least the music rarely fails to evoke the shadowy unease and precarity of that era, as the sound betrayed an underlying mood contrary to the positivity of Obama-era politics, and that also spoke to the realignment of borders between musicks and socio-economics. The A side is worth the cost of entry alone for "Whitewashed Compound Stealth Helicopter Crash", a spine-freezing tract of arcing synth pads leading to one...

Vatican Shadow

Byzantine Private Cia

Hospital Productions

***VATICAN SHADOW's impossible to find early tapes finally arrive on vinyl, kicking off a completist series of new Dubplate & Mastering remasters with a first volume featuring: Byzantine Private CIA (2010), Mural of Saddam (2011), and Yemeni Commandos (2011). Arriving under a shroud of anonymity in 2010 with the four tracks of Byzantine Private CIA, Vatican Shadow has since become one of the most vital projects manned by DOMINICK FERNOW (PRURIENT, RAINFOREST SPIRITUAL ENSLAVEMENT). Daring to grasp the nettle of US geopolitics at a time when nobody else would (and that hasn't really changed), Vatican Shadow hijacked imagery and text from a plethora of news articles, books and government publications, and used them to adorn and title his all-instrumental compositions, re-contextualizing U.S. foreign policy in a way that recalls how original industrial, noise, and post-punk mutants used their art and music to express feelings towards the cold war and western socio-economics during the late '70s and thru the '80s. The first LP contains all four cuts from Vatican Shadow's first release, Byzantine Private CIA, taking in the cold thuds and clamoring background noise of "Deny Military Involvement" alongside highlights in the militant trample of "Cairo Sword Unsheathed" and the sludgy industrial dirge of "Gunman With Silencer". Pressed on gold color vinyl.

Vatican Shadow

Opium Crop Airstrikes

Hospital Productions

***Declassified militarist ambience from VATICAN SHADOW, finding DOMINIK FERNOW (PRURIENT donning his desert fatigues for a mesmerizing follow-up to his technoid outings with Ostgut Ton and Ancient Methods. It's also the last in a series of first-time vinyl editions of previously tape-only releases. Opium Crop"makes a return to what could be termed a vintage Vatican Shadow sound, steeped in nods to Muslimgauze and modern geopolitics and fringed with an aura of clammy, atmospheric terror. 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. Completely new artwork by Dominick Fernow.

Vatican Shadow

Luxor Necropolitics

Hospital Productions

***DOMINICK FERNOW's VATICAN SHADOW returns with a new double-pack for his own Hospital Productions imprint following on from the recent Rubbish Of The Floodwaters 12" for Ostgut Ton. Luxor Necropolitics was once again produced by JOSHUA EUSTIS of Telefon Tel Aviv, and it includes a super rare remix from FEMALE of Sandwell District fame. Clocking in at almost 40 minutes, this is the most substantial Vatican Shadow release since 2016's Media In The Service Of Terror LP and further develops Fernow's creative collaboration with Eustis, who provides a much more lean and dynamic sheen to those highly atmospheric foundations. The opening, title track provides evocative exposition; this is Vatican Shadow at its most cinematic and unreal; before "Intel War" jolts with increased propulsion and bass pressure and a killer soundsystem focus deployed with precision and depth. "Crown Prince Hamza" is much more squashed and feral, before a new "Red Headband" version of "More Of The Same" takes the original into even more anthemic terrain; this is surely the most memorable, enduring, and club-focused Vatican Shadow track of all. As if to further etch it on your mind, the vinyl edition offers a final exclusive track, a reworking of "More Of The Same" from Female, who takes the original and duffs it up, completely discarding that synth hook and instead intensifying the menace, heading down a Sandwell-shaped cave that will reminds you why you've loved pretty much every Female production. Edition of 700.

Vatican Shadow

Media In The Service Of Terror

Hospital Productions

***DOMINICK FERNOW laces up his VATICAN SHADOW boots for the project's first set of drills since 2014 and one of its finest ever transmissions, trampling in the wake of his fierce new PRURIENT record, Unknown Rains (2016), for Hospital Productions. Reflecting on a world much unchanged, even intensified since his last dispatch, Media In The Service Of Terror works classic Vatican Shadow signatures, measured with increased momentum and propulsive energy, divided into seven parts and imbued with that dramatic melodic arrangements that works beyond the club. Stepping farther away from the floor, he's in scowling, contemplative form with "Ziad Jarrah Studied Mathematics" and at his best when working between spheres, as with the industrial reggaeton roil of "Take Vows" in both its versions, and particularly the pensile atmosphere of "Interrogation Mosaic." One of the best Vatican Shadow drops, bar none. Originally released as a limited cassette in June of 2016, this is Media In The Service Of Terror's first vinyl edition. Features new artwork. Cut at Dubplates & Mastering.

Vatican Shadow

Death Is Unity With God (Complete Version)

Modern Love

BACK IN PRINT WITH NEW LOWER PRICE AND JEWEL CASE PACKAGE Death Is Unity With God finds DOMINCK FERNOW returning to the kind of feral, burned-out productions that dominated 2012's Ornamented Walls. This double LP includes 12 of the 20 tracks included on the original 2014 limited six-cassette release of Death Is Unity With God, in advance of Modern Love's triple-CD edition compiling all the material. It clocks in at an hour and a half and features some of the most compelling productions from Fernow yet. Nodding to classic Muslimgauze, but also inspired by the parallels between religious fundamentalism at home in the USA and abroad, the oppressive atmospheres and destroyed rhythms isolate the gutted toil and drone in "It's to Come," while "F.B.I. God" reduces the drums to scorched blasts against some harrowing, darkside chords. The quasi-speed torment of "Manufactured Silencers Under Direct Orders" ends the A-side with dread, flowing into the haunting chorales and chiming percussions of "Living On and Off At the Shadows Motel" and the scything techno roil of "Small Explosives and Blasting Caps Inside the Pages of a Phonebook," before a particularly effective chamber-like meditation, "McVeigh Figure," draws aesthetic lines between ambient black metal, Coil, and early Autechre. "Waco Postmortem (Murrah)" ends the set operating nearly out of earshot with those incredible, sashaying synth motifs persisting in their struggle against the patina of hiss and exasperated rhythms blurred around the edges.

Vatican Shadow

April Silencer

Hospital Productions

Vatican Shadow

Easing Of Our Task

Hospital Productions

Vatican Shadow

Elohim City

Hospital Productions

Vatican Shadow

Enduring Mysteries

Hospital Productions

Vatican Shadow

Fireball

Hospital Productions

Vatican Shadow

Oklahoma Military Academy

Hospital Productions

Vatican Shadow

When You Are Crawling

Hospital Productions

***When You Are Crawling is a 35-minute companion piece to VATICAN SHADOW’s recently released Remember Your Black Day album, the iconography and tracklisting concluding its narrative, with a musical focus more directly aimed at the club bolstered by additional production from JUAN MENDEZ aka SILENT SERVANT. The centerpiece of the EP is "Atta's Apartment Slated for Demolition (Bouthayna Engineering)," a previously-unreleased 15-minute production that builds from tempered percussion to a more driving denouement. The EP also includes the previously-unreleased "Al Qaeda," plus an alternate version of the album's title-track. Mastered and cut by MATT COLTON.

Vatican Shadow

Remember Your Black Day

Hospital Productions

***Remember Your Black Day is the debut album proper from VATICAN SHADOW, the first material conceived and produced as a full-length by DOMINICK FERNOW for the project following almost a dozen tapes (mostly released on Hospital Productions) and vinyl editions (released by the likes of Blackest Ever Black, Modern Love, and Type) over the last three years. None of the eight tracks included have been released before on any other format. At a time when the scene is saturated with "noise techno," the album is almost celebratory by contrast, balancing caustic licks of distortion and oppressive bass with cleanly mixed synth tones and ricocheting claps in a shell-shocked, surreal soundsphere. With production assistance from JUAN MENDEZ (SILENT SERVANT), 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. There is a functional connection to dance music here, honing in on the human element embedded within a subject matter so fraught with inhumanity.

Vatican Shadow

It Stands To Conceal (Special Edition)

Hospital Productions

Digital version, includes 40 min of bonus material!!! Militant religious industrial in a dub techno / ambient vein, leaning somewhere between Sandwell District and early Aphex Twin.

Vatican Shadow

It Stands To Conceal

Hospital Productions

***Militant religious industrial in a dub techno / ambient vein, leaning somewhere between Sandwell District and early Aphex Twin. It Stands To Conceal contains the most recent VATICAN SHADOW cassettes on vinyl. This set includes: Jordanian Descent, Ghosts of Chechnya, and Atta's Apartment Slated for Demolition. Total pressing of 911 copies with gatefold sleeves.

Vatican Shadow

Ornamented Walls

Modern Love

***Ornamented Walls is the most intense, brutal and, in many senses, most substantial work from DOMINICK FERNOW’s VATICAN SHADOW project yet. Released to coincide with his first tour of Europe, the album incorporates the live mix rehearsals of "Operation Neptune Spear" with tracks made in their aftermath, recorded straight to tape and mastered by MATT COLTON at Air Studios. Anyone familiar with Fernow's live set-up will recognize the distinct nature of this material—making use of stems and partial tracks separated into a cassette system which is then re-layered and mixed, effected with electronic processing. In short, Fernow uses his tape machines like turntables in a mix, weaving a hazy and intuitive narrative of sounds that never quite head in the direction you expect, all imbued with an almost feral attitude that's exhilarating to witness, their limitations (ever noticed how VS tracks end so abruptly? the tape ran out), and their mechanical machine qualities used to devastating effect. Side A features all three parts of "Operation Neptune Spear," originally made available in a measly edition of 17 cassettes and sold at the first-ever Vatican Shadow live show in L.A. back in May 2012. Side B features an additional 25 minutes of previously-unreleased work made in the aftermath of the show and using the same set-up, including an astonishing revision of "Cairo Is a Haunted City," dis-assembled and re-wired, lending it a shortwave quality that's nothing short of revelatory. Ornamented Walls is the fourth Vatican Shadow release to be made available on...

Vatican Shadow

Jordanian Descent

Hospital Productions

Vatican Shadow

Atta's Apartment Slated For Demolition

Hospital Productions

Vatican Shadow

Ghosts Of Chechnya

Hospital Productions

Vatican Shadow

Operation Neptune Spear

Hospital Productions

Vatican Shadow

September Cell

Bed Of Nails

***Bed Of Nails is a new label curated by DOMINICK FERNOW of VATICAN SHADOW and PRURIENT fame. Operating from his recently-consecrated L.A. compound, the label will focus on his reorientation towards industrial dancefloor rhythms and seductively isolated electronics. Fernow christens the label with September Cell, a four track 12" loaded with some of his most direct dancefloor assaults to date. Think hollowed industrial percussion, gloaming synths and caustic noise painting bleakly evocative visions.

Vatican Shadow

Kneel Before Religious Icons

Hospital Productions

"With his stream of releases as Vatican Shadow, Dominick Fernow (aka Prurient) has isolated a sense of bruised technoid dystopia that's been largely missing in action in electronic music since the the early '90s releases of Aphex Twin. Since militarizing his sound on the 'Byzantine Private CIA' tape in 2010 (imminently due a 12" reissue thru Blackest Ever Black) with stark machine rhythms and cryptic FM synth camouflage, he's produced some of the most acutely evocative material in his decade-long recording history. By resorting to largely minimal, conservative means, accompanied by war-on-terror imagery and track titles seemingly sourced from a secret dossier, his bunkered sound has encapsulated the underlying fear and darkness of our epoch in a way few others have managed. One of the best releases in this phase, 'Kneel Before Religious Icons' was just begging for a vinyl pressing and Type Records have commendably responded to the call of duty. It's practically essential for the breathtaking, cinematic centrepiece 'Worshippers At The Same Mosque' alone, but factor in the bellicose, code red Techno of 'Church Of All Images' (due a Regis remix for BEB) and the unshakeable, shell-shocked sound-sphere of 'Chopper Crash Marines' Names Released', or the Terminator-esque 'Harbingers Of Things To Come' and it's no less than a must have for any serious followers of electronic music. So so good…"--Boomkat

Vatican Shadow

Yemeni Commandos

Sans Issue / Hospital Productions

Vatican Shadow

Mural Of Saddam

Hospital Productions

"Another absolutely crucial Vatican Shadow (aka prurient) cassette instalment transferred to digital. Dominik Fernow aka Prurient's releases in this guise are rapidly becoming some of our favourite work by this artist, sating a need for a sense of dystopian electronic despair which we just don't get from the more conventional operators in this realm. This one opens with the compressed steppers mechanics of 'Schwarzkopf Arc Of Triumph', sounding like some scuffed and f*cked AFX track circa the Joyrex series but with a subterranean New York torque, while 'Saddam Statue Conspiracy' could be a long lost Muslimgauze gem, all Middle Eastern melodic inferences and hypnotic, looping drum machines. Again, this is just unmissable."--Boomkat

Vatican Shadow

Washington Buries Al Qaeda Leader At Sea: Decks 1-3

Hospital Productions

"Dominik Fernow (Prurient) presents three of his most recent Vatican Shadow cassettes in one digital collection. On 'Washington Buries Al Qaeda Leader At Sea Deck 1-3' the music feels even more mournful, dubbed-out and somehow sleeker than it's predecessor 'Byzantine Private CIA', with more space and definition given to his sounds and rhythm programming, brilliantly sustaining the feeling of impending terror in a more subtle manner than he's most known for. And while they never quite fall into 'floor gratifying syncopation, there's also a dryly keener, stern sense of funk shared with the likes of his fellow New Yorker, Traversable Wormhole, that could work on certain 'floors. Highlights of this batch have to be the steam-pressed dub darkness of 'Bin Laden's Corpse', the richly bass-layered, steppin' Techno of 'Supplying The Compound With Food And Medicine' or the chilling, etheric vapours of 'He Ambled Down The Dirt Road For Visits To A Market', but simply the whole package is just a genuine must-have for any lovers of darkside electronics. Highly recommended."--Boomkat