n.racker: flock toxicant

After delivering a limited edition cassette release that sold out in a couple of hours, N.Racker unveils his vinyl debut for Pre-Cert Home Entertainment, a label run by Demdike Stare and Andy Votel. We're not at liberty to divulge his real identity for fear of the Pre-Cert wrath, however, we can tell you he hasn't previously appeared on the label; his roots reach further back into one of Cottonopolis' most cherished imprints. The sound he makes is full of rumbling gloom, misery and arcane folk mystery, think somewhere between Sunn O))), The Haxan Cloak and Morricone/Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza -- albeit with a distinctly Northern English slant. The material on Flock Toxicant is based on an imagined alternative history of a sinister, pre-industrial pestilence among the ovine population and the people who work in wool processing, ending in complete devastation and dereliction. The atmosphere is chokingly heavy and nocturnal throughout, making use of self-constructed devices, antique electronics and altered acoustic contraptions made by the artist himself, designed to blacken every surface. You could think of it as a soundtrack to a low-rent steam-punk-sci-fi-horror, or just the latest in a line of immersive, conceptually-opaque transmissions from this ever-intriguing label. Cut by Lupo at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. 700 copies only.