"A loose, absorbing collection, Vault makes a compelling album out of those private recordings and marks another strong release for Short Span."
Matthew Kent’s label Short Span continues to establish itself as one of the scene’s most attention-grabbing imprints with its latest release, Vault, a solo album from Miles Whittaker, one half of Burnley duo Demdike Stare.
Since its inception in February 2025, the Sheffield outpost has been delivering exceptional ambient and dub techno at a remarkable pace. After a flying start with releases including Sa Pa’s Ambeesh and the expansive double-CD compilation Short Tracks, an equally fruitful 2026 has brought releases from Picture and Yu Su, alongside debut albums from K Wata and Eden Aurelius.
Miles and Short Span make a natural pairing. The hazy, hypnotic and dark ambient album is, as the title suggests, a selection of six recordings pulled from Whittaker’s extensive private repertoire. They were made during dub-inspired warm-up jams, likely recorded onto digital audio tapes, that preceded the producer’s solo studio sessions over thirty years of practice. They showcase his instinctive experimentation, and their quality makes one wonder how many others there are. It is the first release under his Miles alias since 2013’s album Faint Hearted.
In his accompanying notes for Vault, Whittaker explains how these informal exercises leave room for chance: “The attitude of carelessness during this process (after all, it’s only a warm up jam) invites more enjoyment than seriousness ever could.”
He goes on to discuss how his jams are rooted in both ‘dub’ and ‘noise’, tracing his experiments back to an attempt to recreate Basic Channel’s ‘Phylyps Trak’ in 1996. The constellation of influences also includes the mixing techniques of Lee Perry and Mikey Dread, the industrial and post-punk experiments of This Heat and Throbbing Gristle, and the US noise scene. All of these can be felt throughout the recordings. Connecting them are the dark ambient sounds and obscure library-music samples that he and Sean Canty bring to Demdike Stare, making the music thrilling, edgy and gravelly.
Opener ‘Birth Of A Friend’ begins with a brilliant swirl of organ and an almost choral effect, creating an atmosphere that is both murky and light. This duality is maintained throughout the record, as in the trance riffs and thick washes of static on ‘Tractive’, for example.
This gradually drifts out of earshot before we’re introduced to some more unambiguous dub techno on ‘Homage’, where lush, sheet-metal-like textures wash over a gummy beat and the occasional hi-hat lightens the mood – one instance of Whittaker messing around and finding room for small details within the layers. ‘Channelled Aggression’ follows, building around a mesmerising, reverberating bassline, while washes of lighter percussion and metallic flares flicker in and out of view, possibly the record’s most absorbing and eerie soundscape.
Track four, ‘Swift Shift’, as the name implies, loosens up the mood, bringing in a crisp, skittering electro breakbeat to dance over that immersive, foggy atmosphere. Closing track ‘Motive’ brings a more restless, rusty, physical presence, its insistent beat recalling the ultra-minimalist Basic Channel influence Whittaker describes in his notes.
There is something intimate about hearing a producer at play, pushing stray sounds, effects, filters or delays to their limits and allowing them to become the substance of the music. A loose, absorbing collection, Vault makes a compelling album out of those private recordings and marks another strong release for Short Span.
Vault is out now via Short Span. Listen to clips and buy a vinyl copy from Inverted Audio Record Store.
TRACKLIST
A1. Birth Of A Friend
A2. Homage
A3. Channelled Aggression
B1. Swift Shift
B2. Tractive
B3. Motive
