Prurient

Dominick Fernow stands out as a leading American figure in the noise scene of the early 2000s, with Prurient serving as his most prominent outlet. The project's extensive catalog of releases and wide array of partnerships delivers abrasive, unpredictable, and unyielding material marked by shouted vocals addressing brutality, intimacy, solitude, and substance issues. Fernow has frequently delivered concerts while bare-chested, vocalizing through a microphone and amplifier while incorporating scavenged items as sound sources. Although rooted in harsh noise and power electronics, Prurient has expanded into black metal, industrial, darkwave, and techno. Fernow launched the Hospital Productions label in 1998 and ran a New York City record store of the same name between 2006 and 2011. Beyond numerous titles on his own imprint, he has issued respected full-lengths elsewhere, including Pleasure Ground on Load in 2006, the atmospheric and synth-driven Bermuda Drain on Hydra Head in 2011, and the wide-ranging epic Frozen Niagara Falls on Profound Lore in 2015.

Fernow, originally from Wisconsin, initiated both Prurient and Hospital Productions in 1998 at age 16. He promptly put out numerous limited cassettes and CD-Rs before moving into split releases and joint efforts with international noise artists such as Richard Ramirez, Government Alpha, and Sickness. The Body Language LP on Peel Back the Sky marked Prurient's first proper full-length in 2001. Issued jointly by Hospital Productions and Rhode Island's Armageddon in 2002, The History of Aids improved recording fidelity and elevated the project's visibility. Rhode Island label Truculent Recordings followed with Troubled Sleep in 2003 and Fossil in 2004. Ground Fault put out Shipwrecker's Diary the same year, while Load Records in Providence issued a split with Kites, both receiving positive notice. Load also handled the 2005 album Black Vase, among the earliest Prurient recordings to incorporate drums.

By then Fernow had moved to New York City and started multiple side projects and collaborations with artists from New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island, among them groups such as Vegas Martyrs, Smashed Femur Dance Party, and Football Rabbit. He released the Wolf Eyes collaboration The Warriors on Hospital, and Nihilist issued his joint effort with author Jean Feraca, The Baron's Chamber, in the same period. In 2006 Fernow opened the Hospital Productions store in Manhattan's Lower East Side, beginning in the cramped basement of reggae outlet Jammyland before assuming the primary space after Jammyland shut down.

Pleasure Ground, Prurient's 2006 Load release, began incorporating melodic yet heavily distorted synthesizers. Additional splits that year appeared with Hototogisu and Carlos Giffoni. Hospital Productions released the 2007 collaboration All Are Guests in the House of the Lord with Chicago guitarist Kevin Drumm, while Aaron Dilloway's Hanson Records issued the self-titled Prurient LP. A flurry of albums arrived in 2008: the particularly intense And Still, Wanting on Giffoni's No Fun Productions; the double-LP End of Autumn with Sutcliffe Jügend on Troubleman Unlimited; the widely praised Arrowhead on Austria's Editions Mego; the industrial-leaning The Black Post Society on Britain's Cold Spring; and Cocaine Death, a CD compilation of prior cassette tracks, on Hospital Productions.

Fernow began working with the darkwave and synth-pop project Cold Cave in 2009, issuing the joint EP Stars Explode, touring as the group's keyboardist, and remixing the 2010 single "Life Magazine." Hydra Head Recordings released the 2011 album Bermuda Drain, indicating a move toward more melodic synthesizer compositions that included drum-machine rhythms reminiscent of Cold Cave. The companion EP Time's Arrow followed on Hydra Head later that year. Fernow ended his involvement with Cold Cave in 2011, closed the Hospital Productions store, and relocated to Los Angeles.

By 2012 he shifted greater focus to Vatican Shadow, the Muslimgauze-inspired, politically oriented industrial techno alias. The project first issued several cassette-only titles on Hospital Productions before Modern Love released the LP Ornamented Walls at the close of 2012. Fernow also started the Bed of Nails label dedicated to dark techno and the additional side project Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement, which explores more abstract territory. As Prurient he kept releasing limited noise cassettes, and Worship Is the Cleansing of the Imagination, his split LP with JK Flesh (Justin Broadrick of Godflesh), served as Hydra Head's final release at the end of 2012. Blackest Ever Black, the British label that had earlier put out Vatican Shadow's Iraqi Praetorian Guard 12", issued the 2013 Prurient album Through the Window, which aligned more closely with that project's dark techno aesthetic than prior Prurient material. Another techno-oriented release, the 2014 collaboration Dial B for Beauty with Ugandan Methods, appeared on Britain's Downwards. The 2014 7" single "Washed Against the Rocks" on Hand Made Birds returned nearer to earlier noise explorations.

After returning to New York City, Profound Lore released the ambitious full-length Frozen Niagara Falls in May 2015; the Canadian metal label's edition incorporated every prior facet of the project's sound along with extra instrumentation and production from Kris Lapke and Arthur Rizk. Unknown Rains first surfaced on Hospital as a 2016 cassette before receiving a vinyl edition in 2017. Near year's end Prurient issued Rainbow Mirror, an expansive collection spanning four CDs or seven LPs. The more concise Garden of the Mutilated Paratroopers and the straightforward Noise for Halloween Night both appeared in 2019.