The first Culver tape is entitled “The Virgin’s Shadow: Virgin Queen”. And the first side long track is called “Virgin Queen part 1”, this first side finds Stokoe building a muffled and ill-at-easy mixture of stuck grim guitar harmonics and bleak guitar feedback that builds up a wonderfully feeling of melancholic and filth chocked despair. The track brings to mind watching a rag hung male or female figure wondering through endless dank and  rubbish strew underground archways and passageways.  Later on in the tracks life deep, gothic & dread filled church organ sustains are added to build the track to even greater bleak, yet unwell splendour.
 

Flipping over to side two and we have “Virgin Queen Part II” and this side starts out with very fuzzed & muffled organ grim harmonics that follow a similar path to the first sides track- but with a slightly faster pace. With in a few minutes the track starts to get filled with reverberating and grim  guitar noise clouds, and the harmonic organ runs get more & more diffcult to make-out. The track really takes on a noisy and morose plod/ simmer, giving a feeling of utter despair, lost beauty and deep sorrow. The remainder of the track finds Stokoe weaving out the ultra bleak & roaring guitar textures in a gloomy yet raggedly appealing manner, with the organ grim weave appearing ever so often. The track bleakly fades out with a mixture of grim organ sustain, guitar muffle ‘n’ bleak haze and distant radio voices.

So onto the second C40, the Inseminoid tape (the project takes it’s name from the great ‘n’ chessey low budget early 80’s  UK Alien rip-off movie that was directed by Norman. J. Warren, who  also direct other great late 70’s early 80’s micro budget gory flicks like Satan's Slave, Prey  and Terror). This tape is just called “The Virgin’s Shadow” and once more features one track per-side. side ones track is entitled  “Bell Tower Shadow” and it starts out with this weird automated machine sawing tone that’s under run by slow drill tones, doomed voodoo drum dwells & 50’s or early 60’s twinking & sinister vibe like electronics. The track feels like a  mixture of  unhinged & ultra paranoid cinematic ‘reds under the bed’  1950’s sci-fi  moive soundtracking, meets early voodoo linked zombie picture- then it's badly recorded and sent through reverb and muffle overload. The track becomes more undefined and bent as it goes on, yet  in it’s last quarter or so it’s drops into stuck and looped turntable almost funkiness, uneasy and beats- which is a rather surprising turn of events, but it does work.

Over onto side two of tape two and we have “ In love With  Lady Bare-back Rider”. This track starts out with a sinster, slightly wavering and stuck organ tone which is followed by sustained boiling and atmospheric guitar textures. Mid-way through the track it turns  grim 'n' barren blacked metal guitar  meets more rocking yet repellent guitar drone, plus slight organ wavering- these elements are mixed together into a sustained and roaring drone matter. It’s ok, but it really feels a  little too hopeful & almost playful in places compared with the other tracks.

So the two tapes of  “The Virgin’s Shadow” offer up nearly eighty minutes worth of often dense and uneasy drone matter from Mr Stokoe. I have to say that while Inseminoid tape tries out some interesting ideas and elements, my favourite of the two is the often gothic and melancholic dense tracks that are featured on the first tape.