Prurient Black Vase CD

Pitched somewhere between S&M fests -- a chunk of the album art might as well be Merzbow approximations if not direct outtakes -- and instrumental abuse that will prompt tinnitus checks while any dogs in the area dance wildly about, Black Vase shows that it just needs a day for Prurient to do what it does. Quite literally -- the whole album was recorded at a one-day session, with sole Prurient member Dominick Fernow occasionally helped by engineer Kris Lapke on drums and related beats. "Roman Shower" demonstrates that it's not only possible to create "ambient" music that irritates, but that even at low volume high-pitched squeals are just plain obnoxious -- and that to keep it going for 15 minutes is as perfect a way to find out just who will have the patience to listen to the rest of the album and who will run away screaming. At least after a while he breaks into extended periods of more conventional if frenetic feedback buzz, so by the time his anguished vocals appear at the end one can assume it's black metal without the beats and riffs. In contrast "Silent Mary" is almost power pop, though not many would call a song with near indeterminable lyrics, nervous squelchy drum hits, and sheets of trebly feedback and distortion ear candy power pop -- still, it does show how "noise" as concept even has its own rules and limits, and how aiming for catchiness can show them up. From there Fernow and Lapke make a joyful noise unto the Load Records audience, touching on everything from demi-tribal drumming and sudden klaxon buzzes that almost act as melody ("Sorry Robin") to near full-on high-volume rampages. The rising and falling swells of sound on the almost title track "The Black Vase" do show Prurient can create almost conventionally attractive songs, in a calmer, cyclical vein -- but not the majority of the time. ~ Ned Raggett

Recording information: Providence, RI (04/25/2004).

Photographer: Dominick Fernow.

Prurient: Dominick Fernow.

Personnel: Dominick Fernow (vocals, synthesizer, percussion, electronics); Kris Lapke (synthesizer, percussion).

The Wire (p.61) - "Fernow carves his dynamic from huge tombs of silence....BLACK VASE feels like the spiritual heir to Black Flag's epochal 1981 album, DAMAGED..."
The Wire (p.41) - Included in The Wire's "2005 Rewind: 50 Records Of The Year."