Although an initial parse of the album might leave one with the distinct feeling that not much is actually going on in Under A Single Banner, such reactions are misleading, and it turns out that Shifted’s new material is indeed an excellent match for Bed Of Nails’ fusion of ambient atmospherics and hard-edged techno.
Dominick Fernow’s Bed of Nails imprint first opened its doors with Vatican Shadow’s September Cell EP in 2011, followed by a number of atmospheric and generally techno-oriented releases from the likes of Christian Cosmos, Bronze Age and Violet Poison. Together with this focus on 12″ single and EP releases, it was this emphasis on atmosphere rather than industrial or noise that initially separated Bed of Nails from its big sister, Hospital Productions.
One had assumed, then, that the debut Vatican Shadow album Remember Your Black Day would be the debut album on Bed of Nails, but what materialized instead was Under A Single Banner, an incredibly strong but initially elusive entry from Alexander Lewis as Shifted.
Although an initial parse of the album might leave one with the distinct feeling that not much is actually going on in Under A Single Banner, such reactions are misleading, and it turns out that Shifted’s new material is indeed an excellent match for Bed Of Nails’ fusion of ambient atmospherics and hard-edged techno.
On the one hand, you have deeply atmospheric pieces like the opening “Core Of Stone,” a cool, whistling drone of stone slowly scraping against stone in some giant silicon-based machine backed with scalding electrical feedback and scything gusts of gale-force wind. The title track features eighties horror movie electrical drones, exquisitely produced and stereoscopically quirky percussion, an extremely subtle application of vinyl crackle and a distorted bass drop. An the penultimate “Story Of Aurea” kicks off probably the album’s most hypnotic and melodic moments with an Alva Noto meets Byetone style thrum, binary transmission and digital signal squeal before launching into “Wash Over Me.”
The atmosphere on “Wash Over Me” is palpable as 808s flit above deep trenches of pounding toms and crumbling bass. Just when you think that variations on this form are all the track will offer, a warm, dark pad melody soaks the soundstage and the tracks shifts between moments of calm and storm before finally melting into silence. It’s a canny move, leaving this track until last as it prompts the listener to revisit earlier tracks, revealing new depth in their production and prompting further reevaluation.
Another of Under A Single Banner‘s defining moments rests at its blackened center in “Burning Tyres.” The dark whispers of whirling, coiled, mist-enshrouded spirits wind their way through the rise and fall of subway train-track squeal and feedback in a reverb-drenched, atmospheric tour-de-force.
“Chrome, Canopy & Bursting Heart” sets the other template for the album: minimal, booming and extremely tightly looped techno bursts that very slowly evolve and devolve over five minutes. Here, vinyl crackle, a collapsing bass-line and deep growl predominate. The adrenalin-fueled, amplified heartbeat of “Pulse Incomplete” is pushed to its limits by rattling printing-press machinery and clattering, peppered hi-hats.
At this end of the spectrum Under A Single Banner arguably suffers from occasional moments of excess: the incredibly tightly-looped glitching blips and clipped beats of “Suspended Inside” sound like a pressing-fault, locked groove or indeed a PC graphics card crashing mid-game prior to a blue screen of death or angry, user-initiated hard reset, while “Contract-0″—however well produced—is a tad too minimal, repetitive and lacking evolution for its own good, becoming almost bludgeoning.
But such moments are genuinely few and far between. Shifted’s sound has indeed evolved since his debut LP Crossed Paths on Mote-Evolver, making this is absolutely essential listening for fans of Blackest Ever Black, Sandwell District, Regis, Vatican Shadow and all things Hospital Productions alike. It’s killer.
Under A Single Banner is available on Bed of Nails.
