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Dominick Fernow records and performs as Prurient and is a current member of Cold Cave. If you haven't already, check out Black Vase and Love Comes Close immediately- calling them modern day classics won't even suffice. Dominick also runs the incomparable Hospital Productions, a record label and shop based in New York. Today he shares with us ten of his favorite dance and industrial records.
DOMINICK'S TOP TEN DANCE & INDUSTRIAL
1. Core - STONE TEMPLE PILOTS
2. Confessions On A Dance Floor - MADONNA
3. Dome Of The Rock - MUSLIMGAUZE
4. Watermark - ENYA
5. Sheet One - PLASTIKMAN
6. Trance Nation America Vol. 3
7. Human After All - DAFT PUNK
8. This Last Night In Sodom - SOFT CELL
9. Bad - MICHAEL JACKSON
10. Lust - LORDS OF ACID
STRIDULUM - ZOLA JESUSIt's not Kate Bush or Diamanda or Siouxsie or all the other girls she gets mentioned with. Dropping the power electronics but none of the feeling.. these songs are better than any I've heard for a very long time.
NEW AMERYKAH PART ONE - ERYKAH BADUI know she has a new record out, but I can't stop listening to this one! Erykah is one of the very very few people out there truly doing what can easily be called the future. Last week I played this about five or six times in a row. "Me" and "Soldier" get me every single time.
IRM - CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURGMy best friend.
LOVE COMES CLOSE - COLD CAVEGround zero. Desert island bliss. Peerless and life-changing.
S/T - THE XXI never get tired of this, it is something I can play and play and play again and it always sounds better than the last time. Really, it's just perfect.
BLACKSUMMER'S NIGHT - MAXWELLSo sophisticated and just so beautifully written, this is what I imagine early '90's highrise cocktail parties sounded like.
I WILL BE - DUM DUM GIRLSI hesitated with this one at first, but finally gave in. Even though it is short, it does get a bit much toward the end. It sounds best when you're getting ready to go.
HUNTINGTON ASHRAM MONASTERY - ALICE COLTRANEI could never choose one Alice album as a favorite, but this one has been suiting me really well lately. It just seems to play and play forever. Fluid is an understatement.
MOSES - ELIZABETH FRASERI know I've written about this already, but I just can't get enough.
A SUFI AND A KILLER - GONJASUFISpeaking of the future, I think this is right up there with Erykah. Worldbeat psychedelic soul music at its best.
TEEN DREAM - BEACH HOUSEThis is so lush and romantic and lazier than any summer I've ever known. Good for long bus rides, Echo Park, or getting ready for bed.
AMOURS DES FEINTES - JANE BIRKINMy favorite Jane Birkin album. It doesn't get any better than this.
THA CARTER III - LIL WAYNEMy most-listened-to record the past few months. Deeper than the oceans, all of them.
JJ Nº 1 / JJ Nº 2 / JJ Nº 3 - JJAll-time classics. Words won't do.
APOCALYPSE LATER
The Sound of Cold Cave, Telepathe, and JJCold Cave. Telepathe. JJ. These three bands are without a doubt the best of the best out there right now. Comparisons between all three can be drawn, although they are all of course like nothing else past present or future. Three bands that have everything going for them and the whole world against them.Cold Cave has to be the strangest and most random signing for Matador since they started releasing stuff by the likes of Pole, Burger/Ink, and Two Lone Swordsmen back in the '90's. A shifting collective from Philadelphia made up of mainstay Wesley Eisold, and currently Dominick Fernow (aka Prurient and Hospital Records- the label and the shop), author Mark G. Morton, and Caralee McElroy (formerly of Xiu Xiu). Calling what they do synthpop or industrial or darkwave is to completely miss the mark on these guys. There is such a sense of time-delay/lost-in-time/uncertainty/living for today/last moments/gates of the great beyond that is really just impossible to describe. Cremations compiles a much darker and noisier side of the band, whereas Love Comes Close is melodic, lush, and even celestial. Cold Cave seem to be playing from the ruins and for the end of time, and they have this beautiful sense of terror and true dread running through each song. Total brilliance- I just can't say enough.Telepathe are hands-down the best black cauldron girl-group of all time. The way they totally nail the whole angel/devil dichotomy is completely unbelievable. They easily have the best lyrics anywhere right now, and I'm still shocked every time I hear certain words or phrases come out of them. Telepathe come across so earnestly and seem so genuinely dedicated to their sound. Their first major release was Farewell Forest in 2006. Their sound at this point seemed to be more similar to other worldbeat Social Registry bands at that time such as Gang Gang Dance and Blood Lines. The Sinister Militia 12" found them incorporating heavier percussion and more prominent vocals. But nothing could have prepared the world for what was to come with 2008's Chrome's On It and Devil's Trident singles and the total monster that is Dance Mother. Telepathe completely shattered everything with this sound.. the truly gorgeous, heartbreaking, and evil vocals, imagery to die for, the most hard-hitting percussion since The Downward Spiral, and the most drifting and on the farthest ocean furthest from the shore guitars since The Cocteau Twins. Telepathe is one of the most exciting bands I've ever come across and a year+ on from Dance Mother, I still get weak in the knees every single time I hear them.JJ's biggest strength just might be their mystery. It is not a mystery like Jandek or all those dumb bands that refuse interviews and look away in photos or wear animal masks to hide their faces, but a deep mystery. A mystery that once revealed will become even more mysterious. JJ are part of Sweden's Sincerely Yours inner circle (that includes the equally staggering Memory Tapes and Tough Alliance). Their debut single My Life, My Swag/My Swag, My Life has got to be one of the finest singles ever released. The b-side is exactly what a b-side should be: the a-side turned completely upside down, inside-out and backwards, the dirt beneath the grass, like an x-ray in the dark. Their debut album Nº 2 is Balearic in nature, but so much more. If you listen casually you can hear St. Etienne, Madchester, and bits of Ibiza, but it's all done in such a bold way, there is no mistaking them for anyone else. Like the previous two bands, JJ also has a real darkness, but also a deep sadness and a sense of longing that hasn't seen the light of day since Postcard and Sarah Records. It is also the sound of discovery, of finding yourself, leaving everything behind, and embarking on a journey from home to homeless. The whole album feels like a vacation, like someplace far away and exotic, someplace you might never return from. The vocals are incredible, so full, confident, and warm, but somehow leave you feeling like you just got punched in the stomach. JJ is on tour now with The XX and has been picked up by Secretly Canadian in the US for the release of their forthcoming album, Nº 3.
