Dominik Fernow's Bed Of Nails venture welcomes his longtime co-conspirator Kris Lapke with three tracks of haunting Gothic Techno produced as Bronze Age. Kris used to run the Hospital Productions studio when it was operating in Manhattan. It was there that he galvanized seminal records including Kevin Drumm's 'Imperial Distortion' and Prurient's 'Arrowhead' with his signature post-production and recording techniques, beside corrosive solo work as Alberich and as part of guitar/noise duo Northern Cross with Geoff Mullen. As Bronze Age he's arrived at a murky reflection of Vatican Shadow's recent exploits - albeit lashed with a bruxist brand of Mid-Western Techno and Teutonic Trance arrangements - best heard on the razing Techno weapon 'Surviving Cultural Impedance' or the marching B-side epic 'Modal Ingenuity', two stoically funktional and black klad takes on strains of Acid Techno wrought by Lory D, Speedy J or Woody McBride, only amped with lip-biting Gothic drama. However, the record's finest moment is the slower missive 'Coupling Symbols': a majestic, militant Techno sensation redolent of classic Marc Arcardipane productions and blessed with a rare, positively dystopian atmosphere that's sadly all too absent in much of the contemporary Techno scene.
