ALBUM REVIEW: PRURIENT - RAINBOW MIRROR

PRURIENT
RAINBOW MIRROR
Profound Lore / Hospital Productions
Drone, Dark Ambient, Noise, Electronic.
Listening Format: Digital



Prurient is just one of the recording aliases of US Noise artist Dominick Fernow. Over the past 15 years the man has put out a labyrinthine discography touching upon Noise, Power Electronics, Death Industrial, Techno, Industrial and Dark Ambient. But the one thing they mostly have in common is that Fernow's music is nails hard, aggressive, in your face and loud. His live performances often culminate in walls of suffocating harsh noise, whilst he stumbles about the stage screaming his lungs out. Prurient's own discography can roughly be navigated in two different ways. There are the self-released noise tapes that crop up frequently through his own label Hospital Productions, often his rawest and shortest in length releases. Then there are his projects on other labels such as Profound Lore, Cold Spring and Hydra Head, which tend to have a slightly higher production value and artistic scope, usually following some sort of concept. His 2015 double album 'Frozen Niagara Falls' brought a lot of attention and critical praise to Prurient. At the time this was considered to be one of the most ambitious projects attempted within the Power Electronics realm, which tends to favour shorter length releases. Little did we know Fernow had even more ambitious ideas in mind...

'Rainbow Mirror' spans 4 CDs or 7 LPs or 3 hours and 20 minutes of new music. It's safe to say that alone would test the patience of even the most hardened music fans, let alone fans of extreme underground art. Before anyone had even heard a second of this album, fans and critics were already left bemused, with one publication even claiming the album was "too long" before even hearing any of the material. Perhaps Fernow is looking to axe the stereotype that Power Electronics is only suited to short, chaotic bursts. Or perhaps it is because the 3+ hour 'Rainbow Mirror' opus isn't really Power Electronics at all. The album is made of 15 tracks or movements averaging 10 minutes in length. The press release I got for this album described it as "Doom Electronics". I'm not sure whether this was conjured by the label, the press agent or Fernow himself, but it totally hit the nail on the head. All of the pieces here are long, minimalist, sparse, bleak and very melancholic driftworks built on slow tempo pulsing electronics, lonely synths, iced with brittle layers of noise gradually seeping in. The end results have much more in common with Drone or Ambient music than Noise or Power Electronics, and should be approached by the listener as such.

If we take just disc 1 alone, over the 4 tracks here, the first two movements are the most subtle, reminiscent of Dark Ambient musician Lustmord, with the icy, alien atmospheres that made up Autechre's 'Amber' album. 'Barefoot God' and 'Walking On Dehydrated Coral' are incredibly sparse and build ever so slowly, working into a very gradual crescendo with finales approaching something noisier and more intense. These pieces of music are built on a simple, haunting and sad repeated melody that hypnotises the listener as they loop and repeat. By the time Disc 1 reaches it's climax on massive highlight 'Chaos - Sex' we have certainly reached much noisier and abrasive textures like seasoned Prurient fans would want. Except, this time around Fernow isn't interested in shocking your body or mutilating your ears with harsh, visceral blasts of noise. Here Prurient uses noise to enhance the atmosphere and intensity of these long pieces of music. Even when 'Rainbow Mirror' reaches its loudest peaks, it always remains a very solemn and downbeat journey. It is also important to note that this entire disc is entirely instrumental. In fact I only remember hearing vocals on one track across the entire project, 'Naturecum', and even these vocals were more like whispers or murmurs as opposed to his violent screams of previous releases.

The biggest talking point to address though... Is it too long? Did this album need to be over 3 hours long? Sure it demands a lot of patience and you will need to set aside a lot of spare time if you want to tackle this in one sitting, but the run time is justified. I got an advance on this album and in the space of two weeks I was more than happy to listen to the entire opus twice through. I then went back and just listened to Disc 1 a further two times. The length is justified because this project is so rewarding. What Fernow has achieved perhaps more than ever is that he has put so much emotion and raw feeling into these pieces. The addition of slightly more melody and distinct chords is a welcome addition that does wonders to enhance the mood of his music. This is a very sad and ghostly album that even has a few hummable chord phrases tucked away within it. If you take out the running time, 'Rainbow Mirror' is one of his most restrained works to date. It doesn't have that "shock factor" to it. And yet in complete juxtaposition, it is an extreme and hard going work because it so challenging, so moving and so lengthy. Prurient is making extreme and boundary pushing music still, just his methods of doing so having completely changed.

'Rainbow Mirror' is a true opus that doesn't need to be rushed or listened to in one sitting. The way the 4 discs have been broken down is very suitable and each disc feels like it's own album, each with a logical beginning, middle and end. Fernow is a very prolific musician, always writing and recording music, a lot of which is built on improv, documenting a mood probably based on what he is feeling as a musician at the time. But even though he puts out a lot of recordings very frequently, the overall quality of the end result has not been hampered. 'Rainbow Mirror' speaks as one of the most personal and heartfelt journies Fernow has ever expressed. Not only is it his masterpiece, but it stands as a late-coming album of the year contender. 9/10.

ALBUM REVIEW: DALEK - ENDANGERED PHILOSOPHIES

DALEK
ENDANGERED PHILOSOPHIES
Ipecac Recordings
Industrial Hip Hop, Illbient, Noise.
Listening Format: Digital



Dalek is a Hip Hop outfit with a twist who have been active since the late '90s. Dalek have always strived to bring something different to the sphere of Hip Hop, combining hard hitting boom bap beats and politically charged rapping with elements of Industrial, Drone, Noise and Dark Ambient. They are also considered a strong part of an obscure and short-lived subgenre "Illbient", combing elements of Ambient music and Hip Hop alongside the likes of DJ Spooky, Scorn and Techno Animal. Because Dalek is such an experimental, noisy and abrasive act, it comes as no surprise that they have actually found an even bigger following in the Metal and experimental music communities than in Hip Hop. Their long standing relationship on Mike Patton's Ipecac Recordings has also helped to cement their cult status.

'Endangered Philosophies' is Dalek's second full length album following their hiatus after 2009's 'Gutter Tactics' LP. In 2015, the legendary act began touring again, culminating in their 2016 comeback mini-LP 'Asphalt For Eden'. If their previous outting was the band testing the waters, then this one is them fully re-emerging themselves into their craft. Dalek's most critically acclaimed album, 2005's 'Absence' was by far their droniest and darkest effort, often removing itself from Hip Hop entirely. But with 'Endangered Philosophies' Dalek have made one of their most direct and cohesive albums yet. In a way it follows on from the more immediate 'Abandoned Language' album from 2007. This time around, Hip Hop has taken a much more prominent role, with all the tracks being centred around the beats and MC Dalek's politically charged rhymes. Straight from the gut punching opening track 'Echoes Of...' Dalek make their mission statement. Pounding looped beats, booming bass and shoegazy layers of noise that threaten to overwhelm MC Dalek's fiery verses. I've always really liked the way the vocals sit in the middle of the mix, sometimes making the words indecipherable, but allowing them to truly add to the atmosphere. Whilst the mix of this track definitely favours the Hip Hop parts of their sound, it is still fairly noisy, with a sample that sounds like a swarm of bees! 'Weapons' is less abrasive allowing the beats and rhymes to really lead the way. Massive standout 'Nothing Stays Permanent' feels like Dalek's attempt to make a dark and eerie Hip Hop banger, reminiscent of RZAs dark and grimy production in early Wu Tang joints. The cold and haunting piano on this track is a touch of magic. 'A Collective Cancelled Thought' is a slow building 7 minute epic that escalates in menace, finally exploding into a raging performance from MC Dalek as a droning siren threatens to swallow up the whole track. Closing track 'Numb' elevates the vocals far more prominently, leading to one of MC Dalek's most passionate performances as he raps 'This is gonna change you / This is gonna change me / This has gotta change".

Not only do Dalek feel like they have barely been away at all, but they've come back all guns blazing, continuing to make abstract, experimental, forward thinking and outside the box Industrial Hip Hop. 'Endangered Philosophies' is an inspired record and whilst it isn't the most challenging in their discography, it's sheer direct approach works really well, with enough variation and weirdness to keep it interesting. There truly would not exist bands like Death Grips if it wasn't for pioneers like Dalek. And whilst Death Grips may be more visceral and demented in approach these days, Dalek have just as much darkness, horror and weirdness in their own right. 8/10.

#334: CROWHURST & CAINA + SUPPORT - LIVE IN MANCHESTER

This evening I was drawn to Fuel Cafe in Withington, Manchester, for a free show of Industrial Noise and Dark Ambient, tugging on the very furtherest threads of the leftfield Metal spectrum. The double headliners Caina showcased their new direction from their forthcoming album "Christ Clad In White Phosphorus". Crowhurst has come all the way from Los Angeles, California on a self funded world tour to perform his dense Harsh Noise. Plus there were 3 excellent support acts to open the show.

First up, apologies to HEXAGON TRAIL as I missed his performance, which I hear was only his 3rd ever live show. Though I arrived to the show on time, before he took the stage I had some kind of outer body cross dimensional shape shifting experience, where every atom in my body fragmented into the spectral ether, leaving me a ghost trapped in a alternate universe for about 20 minutes whilst he performed... (it happens!) This experience left me unable to catch his set. But I can at least tell you that there was a strong crowd upstairs in Fuel cafe from the start. The lights were dimmed and this one man entity from the decaying abyss of Salford (you know, the one across from Islington Mill on the Crescent, easily my favourite decaying abyss in the UK!) opened up the show. His face was covered with a black hoodie and he had a table in front of him with a laptop, a switchboard and an MPC. Hexagon Trail's music covers many genres, mixing Dark Ambient, Harsh Noise, IDM, Experimental Hip Hop and even a Black Metal finale with screaming vocals. Apologies again for missing more of this mysterious musician, but please check out his debut EP "A Beginning (Descent)", released by Legs Akimbo Records.

Fortunately my physical body managed to escape from the black hole in which I was kept prisoner to catch the second support act of the night, ROASES. This one man act is one of the band members of Manchester based Punk band band Sump. He had an array of pedals set up on a table, and what looked like 2 old laptops facing each other. His speciality was a large metal chain that he would scrape and clang around violently. His choice of microphone placements strategically added to the sound, using amp feedback and different pedal effects to build a cacophony of noise. He also added raw screaming vocals here and there to add menace to the chaos he created. Roases was hindered briefly when the sound cut out, probably because he was hitting his equipment with his chain (or was it the curse of Friday the 13th?), but he carried on in silence without losing his nerve and eventually the sound kicked back in, causing some confusion in the crowd. His set ended with him whacking all his equipment off the table and onto the floor! Roases successfully created a piercing and unsettling set of sounds.

Sandwiched exactly in the middle of the show was RITUAL OBJECT in his debut live performance. Ritual Object is a new project by Caina's Andy Curtis Brignell (unless he has a spot on lookalike) favouring a calmer sound that draws from Electronics, Ambient and Modern Classical. From here on the acts performed in almost total darkness as night fell on Withington, meaning it wasn't possible for me to get any coherent photos any further. Ritual Object performed with just a laptop and he used the keys to trigger different layers, sounds and transitions. Though there wasn't much in an actual performance, thankfully the patient crowd all got involved and kept quiet during his set as you should at any Ambient/Classical performance, so it was lovely to see such respect from the audience. His music began with drawn out sorrowful synths and a hum of choral sounds drifted in and out of his music. Over about 20 minutes, his music grew in intensity ever so slightly, but without tipping into the extreme noise zones of the other acts. One of my favourite parts near the end was when more synthetic Electronic whirls and buzzes came into effect. His sounds were like a merging of Max Richter or Eno's "Music For Airports" kind of  sounds, but eventually grew into something more akin to Tim Hecker or Helm. There were a few glitches in sound and some of the transitions didn't quite hit, but nothing to majorly detract from the experience. In deep contrast to Andy's main act Caina, Ritual Object delivered something genuinely beautiful, relaxing and moving. The kind of music that allows you to close your eyes and relax, enterring a deep state of inner concentration. This could have easily been scoffed at by fans in the crowd wanting something more extreme and noisy, but thankfully it went down really well.

Our first of tonight's double headliners was Salford based CAINA. Though the band have performed as a 4 piece Black Metal band in the past, this tour has seen them reduced to the core duo of Andy Curtis Brignell on electronics and Laurence Taylor on vocals. If you caught my review of them supporting The Body at The Ruby Lounge last month, you'll know they put on a very awesome and intense show. Whilst their sound at The Ruby Lounge was incoherently vague, tonight's performance sounded fantastic and I could hear every part of their dense, layered sound. Andy had a whole table of various pedals, allowing him to manipulate waves of extremely harsh layers of fuzz, noise and blips and beats, backed up with Industrial synths from his laptop. Vocalist Laurence Taylor emerged from the darkness wearing a balaclava and black face paint, bare-chested with cuts on his body. Like Roases before, he grasped at chains, swirling them in a bowl to add eerie dungeon-like sounds to the mix. He then got right in the faces of the crowd, screaming like a mad man, with his microphone wrapped around his neck like a noose. There were times when he was flat on the floor screaming, and he even was hitting the microphone into his head in a display of utter rage and inner torment. His lyrics from what I could decipher sounded very abstract, political and thought provoking. What I love about Laurence is that in person he is a really calm and nice guy, but when he takes the stage he takes on a complete transformation into a disturbed and confrontational mad man, like he has just escaped from the asylum.

The highlight of Caina's set for me was a cover song (I'm told it was a Ministry cover). Above the pulsing Industrial chaos, both Andy and Laurence came together, adding blackened rasps and growls. The way the pair's vocals bounced off each other and traded off was magnificent and for me this was something that took their performance to the next level over their Ruby Lounge show. Caina is genuinely one of the most intense and extreme live performances I have ever witnessed in my life. Laurence especially is the ultimate physical performance, pouring everything into his craft. The way he gets right up into the faces of people in the crowd is genuinely terrifying. When you see Caina live it is more than just an experience of live music, but also something that verges on watching a Horror show unfold before your very eyes. Approach these maniacs with extreme caution!

Finishing a fantastic night of violent noise was CROWHURST (aka Jay Gambit), one of the modern masters of the craft. This extremely prolific Noise artist has already built up a vast discography over the last 10 years or so and is flying the flag set by artists such as Merzbow and Lustmord before him. Armed with just a microphone and a laptop, he sat before us, shrouded in darkness, building dense layers of buzzing noise and swirling layers of piercing static that seemed to grab at every corner of the room. Like most of the acts before him, he added in blackened shrieks over his music as well as ethereal tribal chanting. Just as I was really getting into it and zoning out into a hypnotic trance it ended way too briefly with a set that felt about 10-15 minutes long. This lovely dude from LA certainly left me wanting more and I hope that next time I get to hear more sides to his sound as my ears and my brain weren't quite molested enough!

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Big thanks to promoter Brandon Smith, plus an excellent sound engineer and Fuel Cafe for putting on this show. There was a great turn out and the best part was that people left this show having their expectations shattered by noises and sounds far into the leftfield of modern music. Tonight I saw some of the most extreme acts in modern music.
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May 13th 2016 @ Fuel Cafe, Withington.