mordant music / shackleton

Picking O'er The Bones

We can barely contain ourselves over this compilation album from the eccentric bunch behind the Mordant and Skull Disco imprints. Over the past few years both labels have kept us highly entertained with their intertwined paths creating some of the weirdest and most brilliant music out there from a cast including Shackleton, Admiral Greyscale, Vindicatrix and artist Zeke Clough. You're all probably very aware of Shackleton's Arabesque bass movements by now, but only the sharpest of heads picked up on his debut 7" 'Stalker' released through Mordant Music in 2004 and included on that years Rough Trade Shops round-up, well this is the first time it's been available on CD since then so it's a good start! Next, Shack's devastating bass plummet from the limited 10" 'I Want To Eat You' rolls up before Mordant's psyched Goblin-style beast 'Hummdrumm', and both tracks from the labels other 10" get an inclusion with Shack's 'El Din (Part One)' and Mordant Music's superb darkside roller 'Olde Wobbly'. MM's '24 Million Or Sell Neverland' still sounds like a 2 week comedown with turbulent breaks bass smothered in ill affected atmospherics, but the albums bleakest moment is reserved for their collaborative reversion of Vindicatrix's 'Private Places', existing in a barely conscious soundscape of echo chamber dub FX and ghoulish vocal apparitions whose only tie to this side of waking life are the voodoo rhythms set by Shackleton. The stoic revision of Supertramp's 'The Logical Song' as 'The Hauntological Song' from MM is another must have highlight, but it's the three previously unreleased cuts that should seal the deal for any fence sitters. Shackleton turns up the "Previously Disabled" 2nd part of 'El Din' which turns out to be much more psyched than the first, while the disturbed original version of Vindicatrix's 'Private Places' and MM's black metal meets dark-ambient shocker 'Marston Moor' should leave all heads in tatters. It's certainly one for lovers of the "other" side of life, so if you're looking for an album of unremitting darkness, fill your boots here. Highly Recommended!