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Review: 'Prurient'
'Frozen Niagara Falls'   

-  Album: 'Frozen Niagara Falls' -  Label: 'Profound Lore'
-  Genre: 'Post-Rock' -  Release Date: '18th May 2015'

Our Rating:
Over the course of a lengthy career and a bewildering array of releases, Dominik Fernow has, under the Prurient moniker, consistently proven to be a defining presence in the so-called noise scene. Often lumped in alongside the likes of Merzbow and Whitehouse, Prurient’s output stands apart in so many ways, not least of all in the variety of his output, and in its experimentalism. ‘Frozen Niagara Falls’ draws together many of the defining sonic elements of the Prurient catalogue, and while there are clearly electro grooves to be found, it’s a lot less overtly accessible or dance-influenced than its immediate predecessor, 2011’s ‘Bermuda Drain’.

The title has connotations of an immense power stilled, temporarily suspended but with its force still present and liable to be unleashed once more at any time. It also suggests incalculable power and beauty inextricably linked, and that’s a fair analogy for the album’s sonic contents.

The ten-minute ‘Myth of Building Bridges’ that opens this 90-minute double-album beast is exemplary. Extrapolating elements that defined the sound of the ‘Cocaine Death’ compilation of , as dark and brutal an album as you’re likely to hear, lush and majestic orchestral motifs are partially submerged by tidal waves of dark noise. Inhuman, distorted vocals crackle menacingly amidst it all to complete the densely ominous atmosphere.

Heavy industrial percussion piledrives through the heart of the snarling metal noise of ‘Dragonflies to Sew You Up’, through which a cold 80s electro-pop synth weaves with a lightness that contrasts with the mangled vocals. It’s by no means the only hint at pop accessibility, with ‘Every Relationship Earthrise’ offering a nod to blissed-out dance motifs, albeit with agonised screams over the top.

The rich layers of ambient synth that are recurrent features of the Prurient catalogue waft in and out variously, and come to the fore on ‘Jester in Agony’, and there are passages that are by turns mellow and mournful, ponderous and mind-expandingly spacious, the haunting echoes of ‘Cocaine Daughter’ evoking the creeping atmosphere of The Cure’s ‘Carnage Visors’, at least until the fractured vocal and cavernous reverberations roll in, dark and heavy.

Elsewhere, Fernow immerses himself in some the most abrasive skull-fucking noise committed to tape. ‘Poinsettia Pills’ features a rumbling monotone spoken word delivery, looped and echoed, against a blitzkrieg of distorting noise reminiscent of Merzbow or Kenji Siratori, before Fernow breaks out into a a frenzied vocal assault that’s enough to make you shit your pants.

Splintering electronic grind, sputtering static and flying sonic sparks, squalling feedback and speaker-ruining blasts of noise at all frequencies shudder and tear through the fabric that constitutes much of the album, and it’s not easy to grasp the lyrical content for the most part. That doesn’t make it any less disturbing: Fernow’s anguished howl is the sound of a human soul being torn to shreds.

It all culminates in the 11-minute ‘Christ Among the Broken Glass’, which is an expansive and majestic work that flows effortlessly through a series of movements and ultimately soothes the pain.

At times it’s agonizing and almost unbearable, but the success of ‘Frozen Niagara Falls’ lies in Fernow’s ability to balance extremes of brutality with extremes of beauty. While each distorts and pulls against the other, the polarities, conflicts and irreconcilable dichotomies are precisely the defining elements of the Prurient sound. It’s all here on this immense document, which belongs to not one, but many fields. In short, ‘Frozen Niagara Falls’ is a masterpiece.

Prurient Online
  author: Christopher Nosnibor

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Prurient - Frozen Niagara Falls