Hospital Productions US Vinilo y CD

Review: Downwards co-founder Peter Sutton has spent the last 25 years carving his own dark, heavy and intense niche within UK techno. Yet despite achieving cult status within techno circles, he has never received the wider acclaim that has rightly been bestowed upon his Birmingham contemporaries Regis and Surgeon, despite a trademark style that closely resembles theirs. Pleasures That Kill, an expansive five-disc box set that contains pretty much every track Sutton has released on Downwards and Sandwell District, is a much-needed attempt to redress the balance. Packed to the rafters with pulsating, twisted, all-action techno slammers, the set also contains an entire disc of previously unreleased music - specifically a rare recording of Sutton's 2000 live collaboration with Regis. For diehard fans, the set is worth buying for that CD alone.

Review: Here's something to excite those of an experimental techno bent: a collaborative set from veteran producer Function and drone/industrial sort Vatican Shadow. Given the qualities' of both producers, it's perhaps unsurprising that Games Have Rules is rather good. Like any good collaboration, it tempers the more outlandish aspects of each producer's work, delivering a set bristling with icy textures, bittersweet ambience, dreamy atmospherics and, perhaps most pleasing of all, sprawling techno (see the brilliant "Bejewelled Body"). Highlights are naturally plentiful, from the crystalline mood of "A Year Has Passed" (reminiscent of Selected Ambient Works era Aphex Twin) to the murky textures and spooky electronics of "The Nemesis Flower".

Review: It's fairly hard to keep tabs on all the various artists and projects that make up the bewildering Hospital Productions discography, but along with Dominick Fernow's own material one of the few label constants is Lussuria. Since first appearing on the label with the Silk & Honey cassette some four years ago, the elusive Lussuria has gone on to contribute a further eight cross format releases to the Hospital cause, all of which roughly operate in the dark ambient and industrial-influenced end of the spectrum. Industriale Illuminato is Lussuria's second LP for Hospital yet his first to be conceived as a standalone piece (2012's American Babylon LP compiled three cassette releases) and is apparently inspired by Deconstructionism and "an overriding sense of anxiety". Investigate if you are a fan of Demdike Stare's cultish Tryptych releases!

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: Ninos Du Brazil is an enticing prospect. Formed by Italian experimentalists Nicolo Fortuni and Nico Vascellari, the duo fuses live Brazilian percussion with the low-slung pulse of New York post-punk rock and the droning electronics that Hospital Productions is most famous for. The result is a humid, feverish set that gleefully moves between murky intensity ("Sombra Da Lua"), tropical minimalism (the rain forest hypnotism of "Legios Du Cupins"), full-throttle percussive wigouts ("Sepultura") and loose carnival freakery ("Miragem"). For the most part, the electronic elements are subtle, with densely layered percussion and occasional chants taking centre stage. It's a mixture that makes for riveting listening.

Review: How one appropriates themselves is allegedly what Guy Brewer looked inwards and asked himself regarding his current penchant for techno and experimental music and covering up a somewhat secretive past as part of drum and bass duo Commix. The Appropriation Stories LP addresses this subject head on, for his second full length release on Hospital Productions since 2013's Under A Single Banner. The Berlin based producer conducts experiments merging the worlds of harsh and textural techno (as heard on his respected Avian imprint) with industrial noise mayhem as executed under his Covered In Sand or Alexander Lewis aliases. All in all a compelling listen that provides moments of cerebral listening with adrenalised dancefloor fodder.

Review: Given his prolific nature, we were rather surprised to find that "Shadows of Death & Desire" is actually John Juan Mendez AKA Silent Servant's second album for six years. It's an impressive set, with Mendez offering up a stony-faced, steel-eyed shuffle through industrial-fired machine chug ("Illusion"), mind-altering EBM workouts ("Damage", "Harm In Hand", the throbbing "24 Hours"), icy electronic soundscapes (the vintage Autechre style dancefloor IDM of "Loss Response"), early '80s style Cabaret Voltaire industrial funk (the brilliant "Glass Veil"), and moody compositions where razor-sharp guitars and foreboding electronics envelop particularly skittish electro drums (closing cut "Optimistic Decay").

Review: Hospital Productions have been around for a hell of a long time, with releases dating back to 1998. For the last fifteen years they've progressed impressively and have grown by expanding their catalogue as far as black metal. Silent Servant, one half of the now defunct Sandwell District label, makes his comeback for the American label with sheer elegance and emotion. Negative Fascination is a true LP, with all the productions representing an entity rather than a collection of dancefloor tools. Tracks such as "Invocation Of Lust", which sway effortlessly across desolate plains of synths and distant melodies, fall neatly into place with others; "Moral Divide (Endless)" being its natural epilogue as ghostly sounds and transmuted effects are caught in a whirlpool of rough, analogue beats. Only certain parts such as "The Strange Attractor" could be bracketed as belonging to the techno realm, with most other tracks containing much more than just club antics. "Temptation & Desire" could only be considered techno in so far as its dark approach, but it's the ingenious sound arrangements that fall between their spaces which make this album a true gem. Highly recommended.

Review: Thus far, Vatican Shadow (AKA techno misfit Dominick Fenrow) has built a reputation as a politically charged maverick, delivering a slew of limited edition 12" singles and cassettes that flit between collage-based oddities, clandestine compositions and intense techno workouts. Remember Your Black Day is being billed as "his first proper album", and sees him shift focus towards a more listener-friendly sound. Of course, he's lost none of his anger and rage - check the breathless intensity of the title track, for starters - but there are more world-weary melodies and subtle musical touches amongst the bleak atmospherics (see standout "Tonight Saddam Walks Amidst Ruins"). Hardcore fans may see it as a compromise, but that would be harsh; in truth, it's arguably his best work to date.

Review: The prodigious Dominick Fernow is a one-man production line for paranoid, scratchy, intense industrial techno, drone and dark ambience. He released three albums in 2012, and this is a swiftly issued collection of alternate versions and outtakes from his most recent outing, the Iraq War-inspired Remember Your Back Day. While "Not The Son of Desert Storm By The Child of Chechnya" and "Remember Your Back Day (Bouthayna Traditions)" are particularly bleak and uncompromising, there's some evocative warmth and plenty of tear-jerking melodies to be found on "Al Qaeda", while "Atta's Apartment Slated for Demolition (Bouthayna Engineering)" is a shuffling, atmospheric delight.

Review: First released as a very limited 2 x 10-inch vinyl package in 2017, Luxor Necropolitics is widely considered to be one of Domimic Fernow's most accessible albums as Vatican Shadow. It was produced in collaboration with Teflon Tel Aviv member Joshua Eustis and, as this first ever CD edition proves, boasts more relatively straightforward moments than we're used to from the American experimentalist. Of course, his usual influences and sonic traits are still present - an obsession with geopolitics and the Middle East in particular, shards of melancholic melody, dark and dystopian techno grooves - but this time packaged into accessible, often rhythm-driven chunks rather than abstract ambient excursions and sample-heavy sound collages.