Bedroom Community

"Music community, brace yourselves. Ben Frost is set to occupy 'best of' lists again... ominous and devastated... Frost at his most beautiful... It’s shocking how fresh and unique this album is, a truly singular artist at the height of his craft."

"BY THE THROAT plunges into a dense, dark and threatening network of subterranean galleries... If 'Theory Of Machines' was the sound of engineering gone wrong, By The Throat is that of nature shutting down, bringing all life forms down in its fall."

"This is no easy ride... you'll be exposed to music that's both viscerally hard on the ears and achingly beautiful... Formidable and far-reaching... (BY THE THROAT) might be one of 2009's most singularly impressive listening experiences and very likely the only record you'll hear this year whose repertoire consists of both luscious classical chamber compositions and the hunting calls of killer whales."

"BY THE THROAT is a break in the evolutionary ladder, a jump across links in the Darwinian chain, a re-mapping of sonic DNA. Frost has taken modern music off the respirator and sent it once again trekking into the wild unknown."

"...in 2007 I described his music as ambient hardcore – psychologically raw, punishing... That album left a lasting impression on me... I didn’t think that 'Theory Of Machines' could be outdone, that is until I put on BY THE THROAT. Frost’s onslaught is incredible. I stand applauding."

"Ben Frost had influenced what By The Throat 'looks' like to me before I'd even heard it, memorably telling the Krakow Post its visual palette is “like the glow from a lava flow, or a burning church.” ...a stunning roiling compact of pained human breath, serrated slashes of random frequency and spurts of electronic noise flapping across the stereo channels."

"...As equally terrifying as it is breathtaking, as claustrophobic as it is expansive, and as squarely rooted in the 21st century as it is timeless. Minimalism for the post-apocalypse... The best album of 2009"

"Reaches right out of the thought bubble and punches you out of your skin."

Like a great horror film where one wants desperately to look away but cannot, it attracts and repels so convincingly that one must listen to it over and again in order to uncover its many—often terrible—secrets.

Frost's work is more than a hall of terrors: These vivid instrumentals, which seem menacing at first, also feel somehow triumphant when heard again – new details becoming more crucial. By the Throat might frighten on the first listen, and it might shock by the 12th. But, somewhere in between, Frost – both a compelling new musical dramaturge and arranger – might just show you the silver lining of all these fears. 

"Sonic Youth has softened guitar rock audiences, Lightning Bolt has done the same for many punks, and Fennesz has shown the possibility for melody among noisenik laptoppers... if there is a list of noise artists that could permanently change how music listeners view the genre it may be time to add Ben Frost to it. A-"

"Theory Of Machines is a mathematical model or a cosmos: the work is thought out from start to finish, but appears organic and liquid in nature."

"Recalls the dense, relentlessness of the Swans, A sublime condensation of experience - dynamic, expansive and epic... Like the sound of icebergs breaking slowly apart"

Ranging from the bottom of an overpowering Tim Hecker guitar crackle canyon (“cities collapsing”, as my friend Andrew always says whenever he hears something like this) to the high atmosphere jetstreams of Eliane Radigue or a 12K type like Richard Chartier, Theory Of Machines has more depth than anything I’ve heard all year.

"Simply awesome… Frost reminds us that minimalism was never just the polished sheen of Reich and Glass, but also the sweat and grime of Michael Gira's Swans... A deeper, darker minimalism- menacing and claustrophobic... This is Arvo Pärt as arranged by Trent Reznor... Magnificent"

An easy album this is not, as it willfully (and playfully) antagonizes the listener, but it contains unsuspected moments of beauty.