Review Summary: Somewhere over the ______
By no means is Dominick Fernow’s latest offering
Rainbow Mirror an easily digested record. Commemorating 20 years of the Prurient project, it’s a record that moves along at a glacial pace, clocking in at three hours in total; with three discs’ worth of new material, the listener is bound to get lost within the music’s vast depths or find themselves greatly exhausted at an album that far overstays its welcome. Fernow describes the music found on
Rainbow Mirror as “doom electronics” – a term appropriate for works such as the sluggish “Midnight Kabar” or the grating grind of “Chaos – Sex”, but not representative of the album in general. “Falling In The Water” finds itself brooding and exuding chirping rhythms as it progresses, a distorted backdrop awash with various electronic artifacts as a vague instance of a melody cracks through the seams and converges with the lower end of its blueprint. “Okinawan Burial Vaults”, hazy and always on the verge of becoming nondescript, ebbs and flows in unison with wavering oscillations before turning to more sinister realms; whereas the isolated plucking that opens “Cruel Worlds” contrasts with the following feedback that drives the remnant of the track, screeching and overtaking the light synth stabs and muted percussion before segueing into the droning horror movie-worthy “Naturecum”.
Rainbow Mirror does, at several points, lose steam – for a record so obnoxiously long, its own handicap is the severe indulgence that Fernow partakes in throughout all three discs, even on the more worthwhile cuts. His concept of “doom electronics”, while at first intriguing and indeed disturbing, wears thin quickly and is on the fringe of prosaic and wildly cumbersome in its execution, giving way to the uninspired side of what Prurient has to offer. “April Fool’s Day Aspect Sinister” meanders about without a trace of inspiration to be found, cluttering itself with an array of noises while attempting to fit Fernow’s “doom electronics” labeling but instead falling to a level of dark ambient mediocrity unfitting of modern-day Prurient. The humdrum of “Path Is Short” on the other hand, comes incredulously close to realizing the “doom electronics” concept and all that it entails, yet fails to even progress beyond the excessive trappings that have plagued this type of music for so long.
Rainbow Mirror is, for better or worse, a test of endurance and a display of unabashed technical self-indulgence to the highest and most monotonous degree possible. It’s not as if I’m saying it’s not worth your time, but unless you’re a hardcore fan who needs to sate your need for new Prurient or anything Dominick Fernow puts out, it’s just not worth the three hours necessary to trudge through
Rainbow Mirror’s monolithic slabs of pitch black, hulking noise masquerading as ambient masquerading as – ahem – “doom electronics”.
