Frozen Niagara Falls

Last updated
Frozen Niagara Falls
Frozen Niagara Falls.jpg
Studio album by
Prurient
ReleasedMay 12, 2015 (2015-05-12)
RecordedWinter 2013 – Winter 2015 in New York City [1]
Genre
Length91:34
Label Profound Lore (PFL–152)
Producer
  • Dominick Fernow
  • Kris Lapke
  • Arthur Rizk
Prurient chronology
Washed Against the Rocks
(2014)		Frozen Niagara Falls
(2015)		Unknown Rains
(2016)

Frozen Niagara Falls is a double album by the American musical project Prurient, the performing name of Dominick Fernow. It was released on May 12, 2015 through Profound Lore Records. [2] Leading up to its official release date, Frozen Niagara Falls was promoted with online streams of "Dragonflies to Sew You Up" [3] and "Greenpoint". [4]

Contents

Background and composition

Fernow originally intended to create Frozen Niagara Falls with sounds from non-musical acoustic sources with no electronics at all, including materials being broken and destroyed. Regarding the concept, he said in an interview with The Quietus :

"Not acoustic instruments in particular but any acoustic sound we could generate, even at a high volume. Things being destroyed, rocks being cracked in half and hurled around and that kind of stuff ... I felt I kind of needed a necessity to try and return to the idea of noise committed with the physical." [5]

The album was originally conceived in Italy [5] and was eventually recorded in New York City, in what Fernow deemed "spirit of homelessness". [1]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic 84/100 [6]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [7]
Alternative Press Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [8]
Pitchfork 8.5/10.0 [9]
Revolver 4/5 [10]
Spin 8/10 [11]
Sputnikmusic4/5 [12]

Frozen Niagara Falls received widespread acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic (a review aggregator site which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 from music critics), based on 16 critics, the album has received a score of 84/100, indicating "universal acclaim". Pitchfork wrote that "With Niagara, he's taken strengths from his entire oeuvre to reach deeper into himself and produce what may be his best record yet, one that brings all the fulfillment of noise and transcends them all the same. [...] He offers an endless, probing self-exploration that simply isn't found in noise, metal, hardcore, power electronics, whatever harsh music you can think of." [13]

The Quietus were positive in their assessment of the album, writing that "Rushing static, distant growls, and harsh noises duel on top of the dramatic central theme, yet it remains more beautiful and tragic than harsh or angry. It's a compellingly emotional and driven tone that permeates several of the album's key tracks." [13]

Track listing

Music arranged by Dominick Fernow, Kris Lapke and Arthur Rizk; lyrics by Fernow. [1]

Disc 1
No.TitleLength
1."Myth of Building Bridges"10:17
2."Dragonflies to Sew You Up"5:19
3."A Sorrow with a Braid"4:53
4."Every Relationship Earthrise"3:13
5."Traditional Snowfall"5:16
6."Jester in Agony"7:14
7."Poinsettia Pills"3:16
8."Shoulders of Summerstones"5:16
Total length:44:46
Disc 2
No.TitleLength
1."Wildflowers (Long Hair with Stocking Cap)"0:32
2."Greenpoint"10:09
3."Lives Torn Apart (NYC)"3:23
4."Frozen Niagara Falls (Portion One)"7:02
5."Cocaine Daughter"5:01
6."Falling Mask"1:57
7."Frozen Niagara Falls (Portion Two)"7:19
8."Christ Among the Broken Glass"11:21
Total length:46:47 91:34

Personnel

Frozen Niagara Falls adapted from CD liner notes. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dominick Fernow</span> American experimental musician

Ian Dominick Fernow is an American experimental musician, poet and multimedia artist. He is best known for extreme music released under the stage name Prurient, as well as numerous other aliases including Vatican Shadow, Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement and Christian Cosmos. His first releases date back to 1998, the same year in which he founded the record label Hospital Productions.

<i>Industrialnation</i> US underground music magazine

Industrialnation was an independent international underground music magazine based in Oakland, California. The magazine was founded in Iowa City, Iowa in 1991 by Paul Valerio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clandestine Blaze</span> Finnish one-man black metal band

Clandestine Blaze is a one-man Finnish black metal band from Lahti, formed in 1998 by Mikko Aspa. Aspa cites Darkthrone, Burzum, Beherit and Bathory as key influences. Aspa is also currently involved in many other projects, such as Stabat Mater, Creamface, Fleshpress, AM, Grunt, Clinic of Torture, Alchemy of the 20th Century, and Nicole 12.

Macronympha is an American noise music and power electronics group formed 1990 by Joseph Roemer and Rodger Stella in Pittsburgh, PA. Tim Oliveira (Stimbox) and Dominick Fernow (Prurient) have occasionally appeared on Macronympha recordings and live performances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pantha du Prince</span> German musician

Hendrik Weber, better known as Pantha du Prince, Panthel, and Glühen 4 is a German producer, composer and conceptual artist for electro, techno, house, minimal, and noise, affiliated with Dial Records, and Rough Trade Records.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dead Congregation</span> Greek death metal band

Dead Congregation is a Greek death metal band from Athens formed in 2004. The band have released two full-length albums, two EPs, and a split release with Hatespawn. They released their latest full-length album Promulgation of the Fall on May 5, 2014, through their own label, Martyrdoom Productions, and on November 7, 2016, they released their EP 'Sombre Doom'. The band's name is derived from the title of a song written in their previous band Nuclear Winter.

Hospital Productions is an American record label founded in 1998 by Dominick Fernow, commonly known as Prurient.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sannhet</span> American experimental metal band

Sannhet is an American experimental metal band from Brooklyn, New York, United States. The band formed in 2010 by John Refano, Christopher Todd, and AJ Annunziata. They have released three full-length albums as well as a variety of EPs and singles which were collected together and released in their 2016 compilation album Young Death. Sannhet has become known for their elaborate live shows which combine their "dense" sound with lights, projected visualizations and rhythm-synced strobes. They are an instrumental band with a sound that combines black metal, sludge metal, and shoegaze with the structures and orders of post-rock and post-punk, though unlike other bands with similar influences, they tend to favor shorter song structures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Azar Swan</span>

Azar Swan is the musical project of singer-songwriter and musician Zohra Atash, co-produced by Atash and Joshua Strachan. After dissolving their previous band, Religious to Damn, Atash and Strachan chose to begin experimenting with electronic instrumentation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Algiers (band)</span> American post-punk band

Algiers is an American-English post-punk band from Atlanta, Georgia, United States, formed in 2012. The band consists of multi-instrumentalists Franklin James Fisher, Ryan Mahan, Lee Tesche, and Matt Tong. Algiers pulls from a divergent number of musical influences; the most notable of which being post-punk, hip-hop, Southern Gothic literature, and the concept of the Other. Their sound has been described as dystopian soul due to its somber mood, afrofolk inspired vocal approach, and heavy emphasis on atonal textures.

<i>Through the Window</i> 2013 studio album by Prurient

Through the Window is an album by the American music project Prurient, a performing name of artist Dominick Fernow. The three-song album was released on March 19, 2013 through the English label Blackest Ever Black. Though released in 2013, the tracks for Through the Window were recorded in October 2011 at the same time as Prurient's two Hydra Head Records releases — the studio album Bermuda Drain (2011) and the EP Time's Arrow (2011) — and were noted for musically showing more techno influences, akin to one of Fernow's other projects, Vatican Shadow.

<i>Worship Is the Cleansing of the Imagination</i> 2012 studio album (split) by JK Flesh & Prurient

Worship Is the Cleansing of the Imagination is a split album between experimental musicians Dominick Fernow under the pseudonym Prurient and Justin Broadrick under the pseudonym JK Flesh. Released on vinyl on December 11, 2012, Worship Is the Cleansing of the Imagination was the final release of new material by Hydra Head Records, the label founded by former Isis member Aaron Turner, during its existence as a full-time label.

<i>Bermuda Drain</i> 2011 studio album by Prurient

Bermuda Drain is a studio album by the American artist Prurient, the stage name of Dominick Fernow. The album was released on July 11, 2011 through Hydra Head Records, and was the first release from Prurient through the label. Prurient released a single for the opening track "Many Jewels Surround the Crown" for Record Store Day in 2011.

<i>Times Arrow</i> (EP) 2011 EP by Prurient

Time's Arrow is an EP by the American musical project Prurient, the performing name of the artist Dominick Fernow. It was released on October 25, 2011, through Hydra Head Records, and was described as "taking a bold step away from the sounds which drew attention his way in the formative years."

<i>Mutilator Defeated at Last</i> 2015 studio album by Thee Oh Sees

Mutilator Defeated at Last is the sixteenth studio album by the American psychedelic rock band Thee Oh Sees, released on May 18, 2015, on Castle Face Records. The album is the tenth to be released under the name, Thee Oh Sees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irv Teibel</span> American field recordist and record producer

Irving Solomon "Irv" Teibel was an American field recordist, graphic designer, and photographer. His company, Syntonic Research, Inc., is best known for its influential environments psychoacoustic recording series (1969–1979) and The Altered Nixon Speech (1973). Teibel was also an accomplished photographer who worked as an editor for Ziff Davis and photographed for Popular Photography and Car and Driver.

<i>Rainbow Mirror</i> 2017 studio album by Prurient

Rainbow Mirror is a triple album by the American musical project Prurient, the performing name of the artist Dominick Fernow. It was released on December 1, 2017 through Profound Lore Records. Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the Prurient project, Rainbow Mirror was released as a 4xCD and as a 7xLP, which was distributed by Hospital Productions. This Hospital Productions release bundled Rainbow Mirror with a limited cassette version of Godflesh's 2017 album, Post Self. The 8-panel digipak version of the album includes a short story by Fernow and Scott Bryan Wilson.

<i>Death Is Unity With God</i> 2014 studio album by Vatican Shadow

Death Is Unity With God is a studio album by American experimental musician Dominick Fernow under one of his aliases, Vatican Shadow, released on May 31, 2014 as a cassette box set on Hospital Productions and later reissued as an album in February 2015 and on June 11, 2015 on Modern Love.

<i>Perfect World</i> (Uniform album) 2015 studio album by Uniform

Perfect World is the debut studio album by the American industrial rock band Uniform. It was released on July 8, 2015 by 12XU and Alter Records. Produced by the band's guitarist and programmer Ben Greenberg, it features contributions from former Coil member Drew McDowall.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Frozen Niagara Falls (booklet 2). Profound Lore Records. 2015. p. 23. PFL–152.
  2. ↑ Adams, Gregory (March 5, 2015). "Prurient Announces 'Frozen Niagara Falls' Double Album". Exclaim! . Retrieved May 16, 2015.
  3. ↑ Geist, Brandon (March 26, 2015). "Hear Prurient's 'Decadent' New Industrial Assault 'Dragonflies to Sew You Up'". Rolling Stone . Wenner Media . Retrieved May 16, 2015.
  4. ↑ McDermott, Patrick D (April 17, 2015). "Prurient's 'Greenpoint' Is As Bleak And Beautiful As Winter In New York". The Fader . Retrieved May 16, 2015.
  5. 1 2 "The Quietus | Features | In Extremis | Committed With The Physical: An Interview With Prurient" . Retrieved 2016-09-17.
  6. ↑ "Reviews for Frozen Niagara Falls by Prurient". Metacritic . CBS Interactive . Retrieved May 16, 2015.
  7. ↑ Simpson, Paul. "Frozen Niagara Falls - Prurient - AllMusic". AllMusic . Retrieved September 17, 2016.
  8. ↑ Ham, Robert (May 12, 2015). "Review: Prurient – 'Frozen Niagara Falls'". Alternative Press . Retrieved May 16, 2015.
  9. ↑ O'Connor, Andy (May 14, 2015). "Prurient: Frozen Niagara Falls". Pitchfork . Retrieved May 16, 2015.
  10. ↑ Ludwig, Jamie (May 18, 2015). "Review: Prurient - Frozen Niagara Falls". Revolver. Archived from the original on June 22, 2017. Retrieved September 17, 2016.
  11. ↑ Joyce, Colin (September 3, 2015). "SPIN Noise/Experimental Report: Methlab Explosion Loosen Bowels, Prurient Scares Your Mom". Spin . Retrieved September 17, 2016.
  12. ↑ Jones, Tristan (May 9, 2015). "Review: Prurient - Frozen Niagara Falls - Sputnik Music". Sputnik Music. Retrieved September 17, 2016.
  13. 1 2 "Prurient: Frozen Niagara Falls Album Review | Pitchfork". pitchfork.com. Retrieved 2016-09-17.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.