Shadows

Shadows is a project of Andrew Bowen and Dimitri Poumplidis, a duo from Manchester, UK. They are perhaps best known as the deservedly-celebrated AnD. As their new EP implies, Shadows is a vehicle for Andrew and Dimitri to sidestep the techno-centric vision of AnD, and delve into sounds that don’t have to chase you in order to kill you. As a project, Shadows is about absolute commitment to raw sound sources and also a trip into the more psychedelic feeling of electronics. So far they have only a couple of releases out: the Where There Is Only Light single on Avian, and a brand new EP, released by Leyla Records on July 1st, 2016, and titled Fear of the Imagination. If this new EP is to be believed, then you should expect Shadows to put out quality noise/industrial music, slow and severe, but with a great sense of direction. This is masterfully crafted gritty stuff, that grips you from the very start and doesn’t let go. Shadows give us a taste of their sonic palette in this exclusive mix.

In the records

STM 192 is not a Sunday afternoon listen. With artists such as JK Flesh, Esplendor Geométrico, Mika Vainio, Wolf Eyes, and many other names in the same merciless vein, this one is for those who enjoy getting trampled by mammoth beats of stone and steel, and torn apart by shrieking guitar and synth noise. According to the artists themselves, this mix is a textural exploration of power electronics melting together with electronica rhythms and esoteric concepts. The mix begins with a foreshadowing of things to come – the DJ Stingray and Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Holy Mountain excerpt lead into frantic screams off Zahgurim’s classic 1985 Moral Rearmament LP. The flesh of the selection unfolds with a harrowing track off Puce Mary’s latest album into Mika Vainio’s Ø and the first taste of the Shadows’ own material – the futuristic and rather cool “Lights Out”. The mix builds in intensity throughout, much like Shadows’ tracks do. After asda’s “Killer of Men” we reach the point of no return and are thrown into this spinning cauldron with The Body, Wolf Eyes, and Gainstage’s “Sediment Two” – an excellent banger released on Portals Editions earlier this year. At the end, Autechre’s “Curvcaten” sounds almost like Brian Eno.

Heinz Mack’s kinetic art masterpiece „Veil of Light“ (1964) could work as a suitable visual interpretation of Shadows’ multifaceted oeuvre. Back in the days Mack sought to banish the darkness of Nazi rule and the horrors of World War II by developing a radical new artistic practice that harnessed innovative materials to redefine commonly-held preconceptions of what art is. The topics are different, however, we see a resemblance between these artists, in the sense that what Shadows are doing with their production is exceptionally different from 95% of the rest of the scene – it doesn’t stick with mass musical trends, brings fresh air into them. The central theme in Mack’s artwork is light, and you could say that Shadows’ mix is the same, because it requires at least one photon inside your imagination to fully uncover its raw and vantablack sound texture, which emotionally and ‘visually’ alters each time you change the position of the speakers or listen at a different time.