Shane Aungst delivers his take on Phil Stiles’ latest studio album resulting in ‘The Anchorhold Dissolution’

Trepanation Recordings has announced the imminent release of “The Anchorhold Dissolution” by Leicester (UK) based Phil Stiles versus Seattle (USA) based DJ Shane Aungst on digital download and limited edition CD on 10th June. You can pre-order your copy, as well as a bundle featuring “The Anchorhold” and “The Anchorhold Dissolution”, right here from Bandcamp.

For this release the duo was influenced by the likes of Nine Inch Nail’s “Fixed” and Massive Attack Vs The Mad Professor. “Dissolution” is a fresh take on 2021’s “The Anchorhold” album with DJ Shane Aungst rebuilding the album from the ground up, remixing each of the pieces and adjusting the running order to create something entirely new. As we all know the splendid work Shane Aungst has delivered for our “Face The Beat” series, you can be sure that this album follows the same quality path.

Phil actually first encountered Shane via his remixwork for our very own “Face the Beat” series, produced in conjunction with Side-Line Magazine.

The result was not unlike the original Anchorhold collaborations, where each of the guest artists brought something wholly unique to the record, and the pair began talking. Initially, the idea was for Shane to remix one or two songs, but in the end ideas for a grander project formed – a full album remix that would allow Shane to put his own stamp on the whole record. The musical conclusion is “The Anchorhold Dissolution” billed as ‘Phil Stiles Vs Shane Aungst’.

Of the project, Phil said: “I honestly never expected that Shane would have the time or the interest to create an entirely new vision for the album. When we started talking, it was one of our various late-night rambles and we were chatting about some of the artists that we both love. Perhaps inevitably Nine Inch Nails came up, and we started talking about how amazing it was that Trent was able to present versions of his records that were substantially different and yet really added something to the experience.
The next thing I know, Shane starts sending through these amazing versions of songs from The Anchorhold. Each take offers something different, but what I didn’t release until the end was that Shane had a masterplan, creating a new sequence that saw the songs become increasingly splintered until the molten-vinyl finale of It Follows Me. For me, despite having worked for over a year on the original record, it was like hearing the album for the first time, and I am so happy that Shane was able to create something that took the intent of the original and filtered it through his own, highly individual vision.”

With new artwork, once again from Final Coil’s Jola Stiles, and additional mastering from Phil, “The Anchorhold Dissolution” is now available in pre-order. You can already check a first track, “C21H22N2O2”, right below.