Video: Montalegre, Portugal, 10.03.2024 / Music excerpt: Hissing 'Burning Door' from the LP Burning Door, released in 2019 on Utech Records.
Who Owns The Dark?
Devised To Resonate. Noise is Resistance.
We have worked in fashion for 20 years and have experienced first hand what it is to live in a near constant state of cognitive dissonance, in a ruthless culture of non-stop consumerism, where needless, useless new products are churned in with every scroll of a screen, where distinguishing the good from the bad and the ugly is becoming an alarmingly difficult task.
Verge Advanced Modular Optimised System
Introducing V.A.M.O.S. (Verge Advanced Modular Optimised System) - our disruptive, shape-shifting, modular system that showcases our ongoing approach to circular and sustainable production, combining our know-how with the drive to see through our contribution to change in consumerism, waste and re-utilisation of raw materials and end products.
With this effort we invite our target audience to think needs rather than wants, to dramatically reduce consumption and prioritise their products quality and longevity.
The V.A.M.O.S (Verge Advanced Modular Optimisation System) program is the core of our approach to fighting the evil of consumerism. An initiative that highlights the pressing need for change and the adoption of sustainable routines and practices in new product development and production.
Stemming from our own experience as makers, we became first-hand witnesses of the broken, immoral capitalist-endorsed relationship between industry and market and have decided to do something about it.
The important keywords to take away are: Standard and Timeless. Upcycle and Recycle. Repair and Reuse. No Over Production.
We are grateful for the chance we have to contribute to change, doing the stuff we love, in our very own community, with the makers we have known for years and can call friends. All our materials are sourced with supply chain traceability, most of them available in a 5 km radius. All our materials are hand picked and upcycled from existing stocks in these very same factories we are making the product, chasing the arcadia of circularity.
We make products through optimistic eyes, not trying to reinvent products every season which will entail needless design, sampling and selling efforts. Putting out garbage for the sake of newness, to generate newsletters and worthless social media. To desperately pay mounting bills at the expense of exploited staff and interns.
Returns will be repaired, resold or donated. Our products will have little marketing material, no hand tags, no exaggerated labels, we don't use what we don't need. Consumerism is an environmental disaster and a spiritual void. Do not stress about it. Do something about it.
The RIVER FERRO photo session for the Sutekh Hexen Boot project, 18 October 2025.
This image shows part of the abandoned corn grinding complex that thrived here from the turn of last century until the 60's, in Jugueiros, Felgueiras, district of PORTO. It's a landmark of the village, and part of many journey plans of a growing number of visitors to this rural area, which is also rich in late Roman empire remains from the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. The FERRO river (translates to Iron in English) consists of a now gentle stream of spring water that has been running for many centuries and adds greatly to the area's beauty.
The Sutekh Hexen Boot
October 2025
Verge is our ongoing collaborative project with the artists that we admire and inspire our work. It is also the precursor to our modular V.A.M.O.S system.
Ten Albums Manifesting The Verge
It’s sometime in August 1993. Another lazy Sunday afternoon, no a.c. 35 celsius, at Pedro's house. Some guy plays a very different record. It’s Bathory’s ‘Blood Fire Death’.
I had listened to inspired intros, from Classical to Vangelis to Bauhaus - I even had several tapes filled with short, mostly atmospheric and instrumental, often eerie pieces I called (and still do) "intermissions" that I stitched right after an abrupt close or just carefully used as inspired fillers to reach a tape's full capacity - but listening to ‘Oden Ride over Nordland’ while staring at the beautiful cover art of the album (for a metal release) sends chills down my spine. This is one of these (ever so scarce) experiences when you find yourself listening to an album for the very first time and you already know it will go down as a special one, because you're already replaying the first, and reluctantly moving to the second.
Back in January 2025 I sent an email to Kevin Gan Yuen of bay area noise favourites SUTEKH HEXEN. This email was just a 'Hello, this is the guy who's been engaging with you on IG'. Then I realised that since I started posting my weekly mixes via portcorner.com at the beginning of Covid 19, I had featured SH tracks in 7 mixes... its up there with some of my all time favourite bands such as Coil, Sunn o))) or Autechre.
So around May I asked Kevin if he'd be interested in putting together a playlist of some of his favourite music for a new mix, and what would be the first guest curated entry in more than 5 years and 200+ mixes. Clocking at almost 2 hours, this is a surprising compilation of songs, and a novel challenge. Stitching together such a disparate medley goes against the grain of my kind of mixes which are always mood/thematic/genre specific. I'd never mix breakcore with black metal (sorry Igorrr) but there's always a first.
Going through the songs, there's hymns of teen angst reveries and romance, forever classics and as you'd expect, a bunch of contemporaries to the sound of Sutekh Hexen. A list became a mix, it weaves between dreamy and ominous, the reference and the unknown, the enjoyable and the unsettling, a testament to Kevin's rich tapestry of influences and sensibilities, balancing what is in his own words: 'that grey area which is the shadow from the light'.
Listen to the mix here.
Images are courtesy of Kevin, from his personal photography collection, with significance to what is presented in the mix.
Mixes
Updated October 2025
Soundtracking The Verge
Sometime between the onslaught of Covid-19 and the growing dissatisfaction with dysfunctional streaming platforms (specially, fuck you Spotify and their algorithms), I decided it was time to focus on the essential: taking some time off to filter through all the noise and build my ultimate digital collection. Bourne from a fascination with the experimental and challenging this music is the very sonic fabric that informed our taste since the 80's, through to the artists that matter for us today.
Click on 'tracklist' to play right away or the + sign to load the individual mix page and dig a little deeper.
