Review: Alberich and Lussuria are no strangers to the deep, treacherous caves of the Hospital Productions portfolio, and we couldn't think of a pair more suited to the catalogue than these two shadowy characters. Classed as ambient/drone, we think that the duo's sound travels much deeper than that and in fact, we would place this sort of material in the same bracket as noise artists like Robert Turman or Aaron Dilloway. "Continuum" is an unsettling affair, a bundle of drones moving stealthily across a landscape of solitary distortion, and both "Antechamber" and "Anti-Renaissance" do their best to increase the momentum. "Untenable" opens the B-side with a dark cloud of sonics floating in mid-air, whereas "Alabaster" drowns in its own cool, meditative wave of smoke, and "Voice Of The Dagger" enters the abyss with the help of some truly cinematic swarm of unsettling, and beautifully archaic synths.
Review: Hospital Productions is a non-stop operation and following this year's long-players from Alessandro Cortini, Ninos Du Brasil and Ron Morelli, Vatican Shadow's latest swoop is this ambient album produced with Function. The seven-track LP was recorded between Berlin and New York, and it's described as best suited for after-hours home listening, but whether you really want to listen to this after a big night is up to you. Indeed "A Year Has Passed" and "A Year Has Gone By" are downbeat and melancholic, whereas other tracks lean more towards industrial ambient, similar to fellow Hospital artist Lussuria's work. "The Nemesis Flower" is a darker highlight while "Red Opium" and "Bejewelled Body" is where the house and techno beats lie.
Review: Given his stated role as curator at the head of the 'non-stop' LIES, it makes perfect sense that Ron Morelli would look elsewhere to issue his debut album. Gravitating towards the Hospital Productions label run by Dominick 'Vatican Shadow' Fernow makes equal sense given their shared appreciation of noise, ambient and industrial music. Apparently the first of three planned releases on Hospital from Morelli, it's no little surprise that Spit arrives with much expectation. Spend some time with the eight tracks that make up the LP and you'll begin to understand why Morelli has used such words as pressure, monotony and stress to describe the motivating emotions behind Spit. The corrugated growl of "Modern Paranoia" and the broken metallic rhythms of "Crack Microbes" are considered highlights!
Review: This far, US producer Phase Fatale aka Hayden Payne has released on pretty much every label focussing on the rougher, more post-apocalyptic dude of dance music. Techno, to be precise. With balls the size of industrial warehouses. After several outings on Jealous God, he lands on Hospital Productions with Redeemer, a wacky mini LP fit for those who like their cuts to be cooked raw and bitter, a flurry of dance sketches spanning everything from post punk to noise and EBM. Among our favourite tunes on here, "Operate Within" is particularly satisfying thanks to a looming, glacial bassline which engulfs anything in its path; "Order Of Severity" equally makes a mocking of traditional 'club' techno, and the likes of "Beast" add to the sense of mystery and doom through vast, crestfallen landscapes of hollow sound. Magnetic from start to finish. Another Hospital trophy in the making!
You Weren't Worth The Paper You Were Printed On (The Sun) - (12:42)
They Found You Shattered On The Concrete (The Moon) - (12:40)
Two Golden Stick Webs (The Day) - (12:39)
Annihilation Of The Vagina (The Night) - (12:38)
Review: This time Dominick Fernow takes the form of his Prurient guise, a project restricted to Fernow's considerably noisier frame of mind but one that still manages to evoke boundless emotion. As you would imagine from the title, "You Weren't Worth The Paper You Were Printed On (The Sun)" is ripe with anger and brimming with energy - a ten minute grind of furious drones and rising vocals form the depths of those booming noises. "They Found You Shattered On The Concrete (The Moon)" is no less menacing but Fernow moulds and rearranges the shapes of the oscillator waves to the point of total abstraction and rage, whereas "Two Golden Stick Webs (The Day)" takes a more hollow approach, fusing mounds of delays and effects with crumbling voices and metallic screeches. Last but not least, "Annihilation Of The Vagina (The Night)" upsets and disrupts with no hesitation thanks to its subdued screams dropping effortlessly into heavy, noisy drones built for the brave-hearted - it's noise at its purest form: honest, brutal and provocative.
