Capturing the immense power of Niagara Falls would be a fun task for any noise artist, but the slowly stilling image, and the seemingly eternal cold of the natural phenomenon freezing over, is a venture fit for the more inspired. Dominick Fernow succeeds with flying colors, or rather, deadening mono-drone, in the title track of Prurient’s forthcoming double LP, “Frozen Niagara Falls”. Frizzy, blaring drone feedback creates the desolation of the atmosphere of a frozen waterfall, putting the listener right in the middle of chilling nothingness, while static crash tones tumble in uncaring intervals, pummeling everything in its path. Menacing grumbles of electronics flutter underneath the frozen surface, the life of the water’s flow underneath being snuffed by the ice rink forming above. The track, which apparently is only the first of two “portions” on the nearly ninety-minute album, acts almost as a whole environment’s futile defiance against succumbing to winter’s oppressive force, the random chaos of the noise falling is slowly razed over with nuclear cold, until nothing remains except the numbing quality of drone, before the track’s inevitable close.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, it does freeze sometimes.
Frozen Niagara Falls is out May 12 via Profound Lore.
