AKA UNKLE meets the Boredoms "Dysfunctional Monster Jam". This is a one track continuous megamix by James Lavelle and Richard File of UK Mo'Wax electronica act UNKLE, with scratching by the Nextmen (?). Due to the high import cost, perhaps not entirely necessary for anyone but the Boredoms completist, as UNKLE simply dips their hands into the Boredoms' back catalogue, speeds it up, slows it down, and ring modulates it. (Yeah, I bought one!) Actually it's a pretty great mix, especially for fans of the "new" Boredoms style. Rebore Vol. 2 is apparently in the works, don't know who's doing the remixing on that one...
AKA "Vision Recreation by EYE". The fourth installment in the R.E.B.O.R.E. series of remixes isn't necessarily a "remix" of Boredoms material, but a reconstruction, or recreation as the title suggests. Contained are seven wonderful tracks of blissed out
"1-2-3-4!" That same intro which kicked off 1989's "Onanie Bomb Meets the Sex Pistols" also kicks off this, the third volume in the Boredoms' series of megamixes, this time by the mighty DJ Krush. Subtitled "DJ Krush Gigamix (44:51 Non-Stop DJ Mix)", and
This is volume 2 in the Boredoms remix series, and continues in much the same manner as volume one (which was an an U.N.K.L.E. mix), with a crazy, seamless 40 or so minute continuous mix of Boredoms mania. This mix is by Ken Ishii, and is quite nice, though it basically sounds like a Boredoms mixtape, which is not a bad thing. Can't wait to hear volume three though, mixed by DJ Krush!
The new (latest) Boredoms album, previously only available last year as a verrrry expensive (but worthwhile) Japanese import, now is unleashed domestically by the good folks at Vice Recordings. Yay!
Our impressions from when we got the import: We thought they'd changed their name to Voordoms, as they were (sort of) billed last time they brought their psychedelic drum circle show on the road to San Francisco, but this says Boredoms right on it. Regardless, they've continued on with the hippie, rhythmic trance-drone sounds of their live shows, something also established on their last album, Vision Creation Newsun (and before that, too). As the title indicates, you get two 'songs' here -- "Seadrum" and "House Of Sun". Both of course are quite long! This is Boredoms in what we call their full 'Alice Coltrane' mode, with piano and female vocals and cosmic vibes galore. Lovely stuff. Reminds us of AQ-faves The Necks somewhat as well!
Vice has even duplicated the packaging of the Japanese version, an opaque sparkly blue jewel case with title and artwork printed directly on the front.
The domestic version of this kick ass Boredoms album finally sees the light of day! Far less manic than their previous spazzcore albums you loved in the past, the Boredoms' new focus on studio manipulations is intense and artistically successful. Layers of bombastic guitar noises swell and give way to insane bursts of tape manipulation along with the wax and wane of desperate screams and urgent percussion. Super AE is a rancid psychedelic experience that could be a chance meeting on the dissecting table between Amon Duul and Nurse With Wound.
f you've seen the Boredoms live and don't think you could sit through a disc of it, know that this album builds on the studio experiments of their recent SuperRoots series; it's not Yamantaka Eye jumping around anymore -- he's sitting in the cock-pit, entering your earholes with intents to purple-shag-carpet-bomb your sense of reality. Mad Jack became mad scientist.
Although Japanese import version came packaged in an elaborate day-glo oversized plastic box, don't worry: the artwork on this domestic cd is pretty damn cool complete with nifty Eye Yamantaka magic marker art!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
20 minutes on two tracks from the Boredoms. Neither of these tracks appear anywhere on the latest album (Super Are). Surprisingly beautiful psych-rock grooves that continue on their noisy Amon Duul kick.
Vice magazine may be most (in)famous for their magazine, especially the always enjoyable Do's & Don't's, but you've also got to hand it to their record label arm for championing the one and only Boredoms on this side of the Pacific. First they brought us the US edition of the Boredom's latest album Seadrum/House Of Sun, now they're reissuing the semi-legendary Super Roots series! So far, installments 1, 3 and 5. Eventually 6 and beyond (we hear tell that SR 9 is currently in the works, over in Japan). Er, what about 2 and 4 you're wondering? Well, Super Roots 2 was a limited edition promotional 3" cd ep only available with purchase of the Japanese release of Chocolate Synthesizer, and for the life of us we can't recall what the deal was (or wasn't) with Super Roots 4, actually we don't think it ever existed!
Confused? Well if you're not a hardcore Bore-fan, you might not even know what the heck the Super Roots discs are all about. Well, they were (are) sort of a series of between-album experiments wherein the Bore-crew goes off to explore some weird tangents... as hard as it is to imagine anything MORE experimental and weird than "regular" Boredoms albums themselves!!
And only Super Roots 1 and 6 were ever previously released in the USA, back when the Boredoms were still, in some Lollapalooza related hangover, seen by major label Reprise as being a reasonable investment! So 3 and 5, having only been available before as expensive Japanese imports, are going to be new to a lot of folks... and it's about time you heard 'em!! Seriously, if you're into any sort of psychedelic drone excess from the underground bands that we're constantly freaking on and on about some limited edition cd-r by, or love love love you some Boris, not to mention the likes of the Boredom's own kraut-drone masterpiece Super Ae and subsequent albums, you're gonna NEED to hear Super Roots 3 and Super Roots 5, they'll make you feel GOOD.
Oh and what about Super Roots 1? SR1 first came out in 1993. It's pretty short, just over 19 minutes, and features 14 brief tracks, in the spastic, chaotic style of "old" Boredoms, before they got all tranced-out and cosmic (a change we feel the Super Roots series was the catalyst for). But this was at the beginning (Super Roots wasn't a series yet, this is actually titled Super Roots, without the 1), and it really did sound like their "roots" -- lots of percussive bashing, fits of screaming and yelping, ridiculous horn tooting, and suchlike craziness. The Boredoms we knew and loved, but had heard plenty at the time. So listening to it now, without Soul Discharge, Pop Tatari, or Chocolate Synthesizer as fresh in our minds, it's sounding pretty nifty! A nice reminder of the variety of wacky pleasures the Boredoms used to bring in their "youth".
Aaahhhhhhhh!!! It's the sound of Japan's Boredoms at their heavily percussive, psychedelically tranced-out best. Making the case for the Boredoms being one of the most original and inspirational bands of the past 25 years in might be easier in a review of one of their "proper" albums, rather than in a review of one from their often (extra-) confounding Super Roots series. On the other hand, this particular installment in the Super Roots saga is one that some folks totally new to the Boredoms may want to pick up, as features a pretty crucial remix from Swedish disco DJ of the moment, Lindstrom! So we thought we'd just mention that if this is in fact your first experience with the Boredoms, and you like what you hear here, you have a lot of catching up to do in the their discography (with lots of surprises in store for you therein as well, we recommend working backwards so as not to endure the immediate shock of jumping in with their early, Butthole Surfers style cacophony).
Super Roots 10 is basically one song, "Ant 10", prefaced by a brief seemingly silent track called "Super Rooy" (?). Glimmering and sparkling, "Ant 10" is a cosmic, rhythmic, ecstatic Bore-jam rocketing to the heavens, fueled by voice, drums, synth and effects, pretty much just what we expect (and want) from the Boredoms these days. The original track is 9 and a half minutes long. But what really makes it interesting is the continuation of it, over the remainder of this cd, via various variant mixes. "Ant 10" just keeps going and going and going, morphing into ever more freaky and groovy iterations, provided by Lindstrom, DJ Finger Hat (who is probably Eye from the Boredoms, since we can't find any reference to Finger Hat online that's NOT about this disc), and DJ Altz, whom you might recall from his Roland Young remix disc we listed recently on the EM label. The Altz and Finger Hat mixes bring in some additional techno house-y four on the floor thump, though Altz's first mix (he got to do two), "Ant 10/Estereo 10" is notable for the repeated figure of severe synth jabs, sizzling and droning and somewhat jarring, that he introduces into the track at the beginning. Meanwhile DJ Finger Hat's mix goes for more of a shimmery sheen. The Lindstrom mix is the one that made Irwin here remark that this sounds like "the Boredoms go to a disco", and also that it's rad, and it's WAY funkier than the other tracks, though equally as chaotic and complex. Cool, though we'd have to guess that the percentage of actual Boredoms source material in this percolating cut is less than the rest. Then, the throbbing, hypnotic appeal of the Boredoms in general and "Ant 10" in particular is accentuated by the final remix, Altz's "Ant 10/Mineral Dub Break", which also indulges in some cool cut-ups of the more or less wordless vocal. But, heck, discussing these tracks individually is almost silly since they all flow together, Super Roots 10 being a Technicolor trip from start to finish.
FYI this came out originally earlier this year on cd and vinyl both in Japan, the cd now out of print, and for some reason this domestic US version via Thrill Jockey is vinyl-only, maybe 'cause then there's more room for Eye's colorful art. And, naturally, somewhat limited too.
Vice magazine may be most (in)famous for their magazine, especially the always enjoyable Do's & Don't's, but you've also got to hand it to their record label arm for championing the one and only Boredoms on this side of the Pacific. First they brought us the US edition of the Boredom's latest album Seadrum/House Of Sun, now they're reissuing the semi-legendary Super Roots series! So far, installments 1, 3 and 5. Eventually 6 and beyond (we hear tell that SR 9 is currently in the works, over in Japan). Er, what about 2 and 4 you're wondering? Well, Super Roots 2 was a limited edition promotional 3" cd ep only available with purchase of the Japanese release of Chocolate Synthesizer, and for the life of us we can't recall what the deal was (or wasn't) with Super Roots 4, actually we don't think it ever existed!
Confused? Well if you're not a hardcore Bore-fan, you might not even know what the heck the Super Roots discs are all about. Well, they were (are) sort of a series of between-album experiments wherein the Bore-crew goes off to explore some weird tangents... as hard as it is to imagine anything MORE experimental and weird than "regular" Boredoms albums themselves!!
And only Super Roots 1 and 6 were ever previously released in the USA, back when the Boredoms were still, in some Lollapalooza related hangover, seen by major label Reprise as being a reasonable investment! So 3 and 5, having only been available before as expensive Japanese imports, are going to be new to a lot of folks... and it's about time you heard 'em!! Seriously, if you're into any sort of psychedelic drone excess from the underground bands that we're constantly freaking on and on about some limited edition cd-r by, or love love love you some Boris, not to mention the likes of the Boredom's own kraut-drone masterpiece Super Ae and subsequent albums, you're gonna NEED to hear Super Roots 3 and Super Roots 5, they'll make you feel GOOD.
Super Roots 3, specifically: some, uh, "hard bore", um, "bore core" here from 1994!! It's just one track, that might be titled "Hard Trance Away (Karaoke Of Cosmos)". Or maybe that's just a random slogan on the sleeve, it's hard to tell. In any case, the track is a doozy! Slightly over a half hour of raging, relentless, rhythmic chug, followed by a few minutes of silence. It's pretty amazing, the monomaniacal, minimalist, thrashing energy of this all-instrumental punk-metal gallop, you can imagine that the floor of the studio was shin-deep in sweat by the time they were done recording. Ultimately psychedelic in its repetitiousness, this piece seems always to be striving to attain some higher level, that eventually you realize they (and you, the listener) have reached long ago. Definitely the sort of thing (in a similar but different way as Super Roots 5 as well) that fans of Boris at their most extreme would dig... and thus quite recommended!!
Vice magazine may be most (in)famous for their magazine, especially the always enjoyable Do's & Don't's, but you've also got to hand it to their record label arm for championing the one and only Boredoms on this side of the Pacific. First they brought us the US edition of the Boredom's latest album Seadrum/House Of Sun, now they're reissuing the semi-legendary Super Roots series! So far, installments 1, 3 and 5. Eventually 6 and beyond (we hear tell that SR 9 is currently in the works, over in Japan). Er, what about 2 and 4 you're wondering? Well, Super Roots 2 was a limited edition promotional 3" cd ep only available with purchase of the Japanese release of Chocolate Synthesizer, and for the life of us we can't recall what the deal was (or wasn't) with Super Roots 4, actually we don't think it ever existed!
Confused? Well if you're not a hardcore Bore-fan, you might not even know what the heck the Super Roots discs are all about. Well, they were (are) sort of a series of between-album experiments wherein the Bore-crew goes off to explore some weird tangents... as hard as it is to imagine anything MORE experimental and weird than "regular" Boredoms albums themselves!!
And only Super Roots 1 and 6 were ever previously released in the USA, back when the Boredoms were still, in some Lollapalooza related hangover, seen by major label Reprise as being a reasonable investment! So 3 and 5, having only been available before as expensive Japanese imports, are going to be new to a lot of folks... and it's about time you heard 'em!! Seriously, if you're into any sort of psychedelic drone excess from the underground bands that we're constantly freaking on and on about some limited edition cd-r by, or love love love you some Boris, not to mention the likes of the Boredom's own kraut-drone masterpiece Super Ae and subsequent albums, you're gonna NEED to hear Super Roots 3 and Super Roots 5, they'll make you feel GOOD.
Here's the lowdown on Super Roots 5... Like Super Roots 3, this is also just one track. But it's about twice as long -- over an hour! Originally released in 1995, Super Roots 5 begins with one of those soft-loud potential heart attacks (at about five minutes in, when Eye shouts "Go!" and the volume EXPLODES) that Boris and Corrupted have also utilized to good effect. From then on, it's a MASSIVE sea of sonic waves, crashing and crossing, surging and rarely slacking. Foreshadowing the heavily percussive attack of later "Voordoms" efforts, a big part of this seems to be cymbals, excited into a constant, shifting, shimmering drone... It's GORGEOUS. And mesmerizing. Something to surrender to, something that if it lasted hours, rather than "just" an hour, would elicit no complaints from us at all! Y'know how some of the Boredoms' recent output, and particularly their "Voordoms" live shows, have drawn comparisons to some sort of "extreme" drum circle? Well how 'bout with Super Roots 5, it's not a circle, but an infinitely heavy and dense dot?
Pretty much a Boredoms ESSENTIAL, this one, 'specially now that it's more affordable/available!
Boredoms bonanza! Vice follows up their Stateside re-issuance of Super Roots 1, 3, and 5 with Super Roots 6, 7, and 8! For those who missed our reviews of the first batch, on list 258, let's recap: Japanese band the Boredoms, whose "regular" albums are pretty darn wacked-out to begin with (kitchen sink craziness inspired by everything from the Butthole Surfers to Faust to the Ramones to Lee "Scratch" Perry to Alice Coltrane), started a series of even more experimental, mostly ep-length discs in the mid '90s that we think had a lot to do with the eventual evolution of their signature sound from their earlier, chaotic noise-punk surf-metal madness to the psychedelic, trance-out sounds heard on more recent records like Seadrum / House Of Sun. Most of these Super Roots cds were import-only items, until now. So fans who couldn't find or afford the expensive Japanese editions before should offer thanks to Vice!
Super Roots 6, from 1996, is one that Warner Reprise did at one point issue domestically in the USA, as bizarre as that seems now. It's been out of print for a long time, and it's one of our faves in the Super Roots series, so if you missed it back when, we'd suggest picking it up now. Unlike Super Roots 3 and 5, this isn't one long track. And it's not the sound of a live band either. Super Roots 6 is more of a studio project, 17 very rhythmic, mostly instrumental tracks (66 minutes total)... it's the Boredoms' "electronica" album, almost. Or certainly the closest a Boredoms disc has come to one of Eye's DJ mixes. There's certainly bits of noisy weirdness on here (naturally) but the dubby, droning, shuffling beats of a lot of this record are rather more soothing and laid back than (up to this point) we'd come to expect from the Bore-tribe. Mesmerizing like SR 5, but in more varied, less extreme ways. Some of this reminds us a bit of a mellower Christine 23 Onna, with all the synth and groove goin' on. Like the best of the Boredoms, ultimately unique, confounding, and utterly wonderful.
PS. the booklet features a photo of the Boredoms all wearing those red Devo dome hats -- all right!
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Who but the Boredoms could do a cover of a song by veteran UK punk rockers The Mekons and turn it into an extended, summery cosmic trance-out? First released in 1998, the 33 minute Super Roots 7 ep remakes a Mekons number called "Where Were You?" into something completely different and very Boredoms indeed, three times over.
Track one sounds like if you had to play the Beach Boys on a pocket calculator. Then track two energetically takes off into something more like Super AE album, krauty spaceship noises mixed with field recordings and broken-down drones. Percussive, swooshy, videogamey. This twenty minute long (!) track eventually settles into a Neu!-ish groove that sounds more like Circle than the Mekons wethinks. This version, "7--> (Boriginal)" is a true Bore-classic that no fan of the band should miss out on hearing, which is perhaps why the third track is an abbreviated Eye remix of the same.
Again, big ups to Vice for making this out of print and previously import-only gem available once again! This Vice edition replaces the original mini-LP sleeve style packaging with a conventional digipack, but keeps the graphics more or less intact.
From 1999, SR8 is a three track ep just like its predecessor. It's centered on a cover of a classic anime theme song by Isao Tomita, "Jungle Taitei". They do it up in total Bore-mode, sounding like a cross between something off of Vision Creation Newsun and some Martin Denny or Arthur Lyman exotica. There's also two remixes, a percussively damaged one by Eye and a seriously lovely and spaced-out one by cult electronic composer Yann Tomita (no relation to Isao), which takes up over half this disc's 14+ minute run-time. Nice.
Vice has repackaged this in a jewel case, and unlike the rest of their Super Roots reissues, these have no obi.
Now Vice just needs to get the rights to put out the Rebore series too...
Super Roots craziness!! As if to capitalize upon the recent Stateside reissues via Vice of volumes 1 through 8 of their classic Super Roots series, Japan's major exporters of psychedelic, trance-inducing, rhythmic throb the Boredoms have turned on their blinding sonic sun rays and turned out a NEW Super Roots volume, number 9, number 9, number 9... their first in eight years! We just got this import in and it's been blasting in heavy rotation at the store, we're mesmerized.
In the past, the Super Roots series was very much UNLIKE the, um, "regular" albums produced by the Boredoms. For instance, back when they were more of a Buttholesy noise-rock spazzrock outfit, the Super Roots were where their now trademark krauty drone rave moves first seeped into thee higher Bore-consciousness. Now that their output of late has come so much closer to the sounds previously pioneered in the Super Roots series, we were wondering if this new installment would either a) sound like "old" Boredoms or b) introduce some entirely new approach of Bore-music. Well, instead it's c) a lot like recent Boredoms albums Seadrum / House Of Sun and Vision Creation Newsun. In fact, if you've had the chance to see Boredoms (aka Voordoms) lately, this is similar to what you've seen/heard, and the single 40+ minute piece documented here was in fact recorded live in concert on Christmas Eve of 2004. A super-charged minimalist rhythmic symphony built from wordless vocal samples manipulated on Bore-leader Eye Yamantaka's turntable, and the efforts of three hard-working drummers (Yoshimi, ATR, and Yojiro). It drones and churns and builds and bursts and keeps on going and going and going, very choral (it appears that Eye's usual samples are here reproduced and/or augmented by an actual 24 person choir!), each plateau of shining beauty that's reached, each level of energetic ecstasy that's achieved, soon left behind and bettered before it's over... wow. WOW. We hear that they're soon planning on trying to top this with a concert in New York on 7/7/07 featuring 77 drummers! (And our own Andee just might be one of the 77... ) You can't say the Boredoms aren't ambitious, but it's all so totally worshipful of the cosmos at the same time.
Adorned with the usual colorful EYE-artwork, this comes in Japanese oversized jewelcase, with plenty of room for the admittedly thick cd booklet -- 40 pages thick, containing all the musical notation for singing this piece in case your local church choir wants to get together to do a karaoke version.
Yeeeah! This, the new Boredoms album (now a domestic release, good for those whose pocketbooks were unable to handle the $90 import boxed version!), is a worthy follow-up to their amazing, universally-lauded "Super Ae" disc of 1999. It finds the Boredoms venturing even further into "trance" realms (for some of us, this is dangerously hippie; Andee calls Vision Creation "drum circle Boredoms"). This record may actually appeal more to fans of stuff like No Neck Blues Band or Iran than lovers of Japanese craziness. But hell, it's still the Boredoms!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Not to be confused with their new album of the same name, this ep takes the title track from that disc and adds a remix by Moochy (?) of "Mooncidal Sendencies" as well as lengthy (24 minutes) live track by what appears to be Boredoms variant called the "Uoredoms". Yeah, I'm confused too. But all anyone needs to know is that all three tracks are great, the live one especially: massive, spacey, LOUD. (FYI it's NOT the same as the live track found on the bonus disc that came in the boxed verison of the new album, and in fact, it's better.) Over 43 minutes total, not bad for an "ep", or at least ok for a $22 one.
A little while back we managed to score just like, three copies of new Japan-only Boredoms 12". Obviously, not enough to list. Now, they've done a second pressing, but again, it's super limited, we were only able to get a few, this time an outrageous 8 copies. So we're listing it, but please prepare to be disappointed if (when) we tell you we've run out.
Inside the insanely colorful sleeve, the two sides of this 12" contain remixes of the two Boredoms "breakbeat" tracks heard previously only on the bonus cd that came with the import-only Live At Sunflancisco dvd last year. (At least one of them, anyway, we're a little confused on that point). "Voaltz" gets a remix from Atlz and Kabamix, while DJ Coswamp takes care of "Rereler". We're not hip enough to Japanese DJs to actually know who they are, but since this is the Boredoms does it matter? The original tracks we described as "percussive party-pleasers... if your party digs the freaky Bore-tronix, that is!". Now they are perhaps even more party-palatable. (FYI, if it matters to you, this vinyl was pressed in the USA, not Japan. Our distributor thought some peeps might care.)
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
This crew of Japanese crazies second domestically available cd release (on John Zorn's Japanese imprint Avant). Recorded live, it seems, and you know the Boredoms were/are one of the ultimate live bands!
At long last, a new release from the elusive and mysterious Borful Tang (for his head scratching back history, please refer to our reviews for his Root cd and On The Back Of A Dying Beast 2cd-r). A mischievous sound collagist, he's like some peculiar sonic macrame'd synthesis of Negativland, John Oswald's Plunderphonics, BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and the Sun City Girls / Sublime Frequencies camp... but he doesn't stop there! He then can match immersive wits with the best of the dronologists too. At times Herd And Unherded is languidly lulling, at others it's a barrel of percolating loopiness, while still at others sinisterly possessed. Mr. Tang is clearly something of an obsessive collector of sound sources. He's amassed a vaultful of tapes and vinyl - field recordings, video game soundtracks, religious AM radio broadcasts and other disembodied voices to name just a few. He consults with them, meticulously pares and processes 'em, and the pieces are then refashioned into something which is altogether new, yet haunted by the eclectic phantoms of the past. Add to this sonic palette an arsenal of a homemade electronic gadgets, and you have something festooned with mad scientist goggles and soldering goo. Go on, give your ears a wild feast to munch on. Recommended!
First things first, please don't let the dvd-style case fool you! Contained within are not one but two cd-rs by the cryptic entity known as Borful Tang. If you need this mysterious being's back story, please refer to our review of his last release titled Root from a couple years ago.
As a brief recap though, legend has it that Borful Tang is not an earthly being, and its human conduit is Bay Area man-of-many-hats Dominic Cramp. On The Back Of A Dying Beast zeroes in on a select few of the key passages of the previous release (sadly tho' they don't include his previous churning NoMeansNo-isms), and explores them thoroughly -- fleshing out what was only glimpsed fleetingly on Root.
Disc One floods the air with effects-heavy layers of BBC Radiophonic style analog synth wanderings, sporadic android chatter and sludgy lumps of drone. Disc Two on the other hand is far more spare, hushed and calm even.
We suspect that with the consumption of the right, ahem, 'enhancing' substances this could really take you places. Quite the transportive listen. Recommended.
Who or what is Borful Tang? Well, according to the website of the delightfully named Snurp (the folks who released this cd), the mysterious 'it' is a 'he', and outcast from a distant place and time. Legend has it that Borful Tang was a hill herder who moved hills with sound. Still with us? Okay then, if you'd like to discover his lengthy full story for yourself you can find it where we did, but in the meantime here we have his cd Root -- his wildly eclectic music apparently having been transmitted to us via the conduit known as Dominic Cramp -- quite a multi-faceted gent in his own right (also recording under the monikers of Qulfus, Amazing Colossal Man and Modular Set). Borful Tang's music is trippy, out there, and particularly in the early part of this album, very NoMeansNo-ish in its propulsive tech-y bass lines. Heck, the first track is titled "Borful Tang Loves NoMeansNo"! And we think NoMeansNo samples may be the secret. The latter tracks feature collaged computer voice conversations (sourced from what we guess were English speech lesson tapes) and burbly analog electronics. We'll bet quite a broad range of strange music lovers will dig this... if the names Plunderphonics, Negativland, NoMeansNo, BBC Radiophonic Workshop tickle your aural funnybone!
Borg is a suitably anonymous project based out of Brooklyn, which has released two albums to date on Phaserprone. This is the first album, which was originally released back in 2007 and was thought to be out of print until Phaserprone uncovered a small (and we mean small!) stash of these for Aquarius. Dark, very dark techno that sounds like Chain Reaction heroin house as played through the Wolf Eyes suitcases of analog electronics and industrial stomp rhythm machines. Spooky atmospheres and really creepy samples from horror movies seem to emerge behind every bassbin crushing beat and every stalking bassline. This one is even better than Borg's 2009 I:A album, due to the shroud of darkness that envelops Borg's electronics. Just buy it. You won't regret it.
Borg is a suitably anonymous project based out of New York, fusing occasionally blackened ambience with analog driven electronica. The first excursions that Borg released on Phaserprone crept through the Chain Reaction murk of heroin house as filtered through Wolf Eyes. On that debut, it was easy to take the Star Trek Next Generation reference to the Borg, a cybernetic absorption of everything into a dark pulsing mass; but for their / his / hers / its second release on Phaserprone, Borg take up a sound similar to our recent dark-electro crush Cold Cave. Here on I:A, Borg shifts things away from a drug addled techno and toward a skeletal electronic funk. There is something of a retrogarde reinterpretation of the Sheffield sound of Cabaret Voltaire and Hula crunched through Aaron Dilloway's suitcases of crusty gear while casting a longing gaze to the Ed Banger crowd of electro breaks and squiggliness. Sublimated melodies tumble in analogue glory across midtempo breakbeats that put a strangle hold on accompanying tribal rhythms and bass riffs. Haunted vibes from funhouse organ grinds underpin a couple of the tracks that otherwise might percolate alongside those Museum of Future Sound Skwee compilations.
Released on the Baltimore based label Phaserprone, known for the heavily embossed letterpressed artwork complimenting the hand-crafted brutality through noise and rhythm. Borg's I:A sticks out from the rest of the Phaserprone catalogue, as this album is certainly not brutal or purposefully ugly, even if it is monochrome in grey. Phaserprone sneers that "you will hate this." We think to the contrary. There's probably plenty of people who will love these beats 'n' synths, and maybe get sucked into the netherworld that is Phaserprone. Recommended? Oh, yes; and it's limited to a whopping 200 copies.
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There's white metal, there's UNblack metal, and then there's unabashed Christian black metal, all of which we find endlessly fascinating, due in no small part to the fact that black metal by definition is Satanic, certainly evil and grim, so reimagining black metal as something holy, something celebrating the Lord, is tantamount to blasphemy, if you can in fact blaspheme something inherently blasphemous. The other strange thing, is that unblack metal and Christian black metal, at least in our experience, seems WAY weirder. As if that was one way to create a separate more virtuous strain of black metal, the sound, the production, the arrangements, it always seems so much more bizarre and fucked up. And heck if there was anything that might lure us over to the other side, it would be a record like this, the debut from Dutch duo Borgazur. And yeah, beyond being buzzy and heavy and black, this is one weird record. Let's start with the non-musical elements. The record is called 2P3" Alchemists Earth Of Aeon A.C. Not really even sure what that means. The two members are called Kildreth The Elder and Knight Ilithrir. Some song titles: "Preface To Our Cogent", "The Repeat Of Underestimated Allures", "Prognostication Of Victorious Travail", and how about this one: "Alchemy Of Alleviation When A Fib Is Prevaricated"!! The cover art is a crazy collage of skulls and lions and Hitler and coins and all sorts of other stuff, superimposed over some mystical forest. The lyrics are printed within, and heavily footnoted, referencing various books of the Bible, even their names are culled from the Good Book. Phew. But then there's the music, which is equally bizarre.
Fast and furious, and almost symphonic, super complex and mathy, the drums lightning fast, the riffs gnarled and buzzy, tons of lurching stop start arrangements. There are some haunting clean vocals drifting in now and again, some clean folky bits, even some blackened drones, but for the most part this is frenzied epic blackness, like Solefald or Borknagar or Dimmu Borgir but mixed with a little Deathspell, or S.V.E.S.T., a strange blend of symphonic heaviness, and grim black buzz, but even then, totally its own black beast, a sound fucked up and fractured, dizzying, confusional and seriously and awesomely OUT THERE.
We first heard Lo Borges as singer and songwriter on the mighty Clube Da Esquina, Milton Nascimento's 1972 epic double record, we listed awhile back. That record has been a consistently steady seller since we listed it, and with good reason, it's incredible! But while Nascimento and Borges actually collaborated together on much of it, it's mostly regarded as a Nascimento record. So it's great to see Lo Borge's self titled debut solo album from the same year finally reissued by the Water label, to shine a much deserved spotlight on this underrated artist. And we have to say, it's equally as incredible and essential as Clube De Esquina, Eduardo Mateo's Mateo Solo Bien Se Lame, Caetano Veloso's Transa, or Gilberto Gil's Cerebro Electronico! With a nod to the cover art, those are big shoes indeed!
Recorded when he was just entering his twenties, the scope of artistry on display seems to be by someone so much more experienced. Not only is Borges at the top of his game as a singer and songwriter, but the arrangements and musicianship are just as dazzling. Most of the songs barely squeak over the two minute mark, but he packs so many ideas into a song without losing its central focus and at the same time giving everything lots of space. Here and there a string section drops in and out, a flurry of baroque piano, soaring flutes, a jazzy organ swell, searing electric guitar, hints of electronic psychedelic washes. At times romantic and mysterious, other times more urgent with rhythms picking up and slowing down in tempo to evoke a wide range of emotive qualities. This is a record we'll probably be playing all summer long. We can't recommend it enough!
Here, Dark Entries reissues the terminally obscure second album from the Slovenian minimal-wave quartet Borghesia. The band formed in 1982 during the death throes of the fractious Yugoslavian republic, operating in a liminal space between the art world and the underground punk scene, through their own club Disco FV. During these early years, the quartet produced video installations and performances alike, with the sound design being an instrumental, hard-edged variant on new wave sensibilities. By the mid '80s, the project stripped down to a duo and took up a sweaty DAF-inspired muscularity of industrial funk. But here on Clones (originally self-released as a cassette in 1984), we find Borghesia doing their best work. All instrumental trax of hypnotic, pulsing electronics with some very forward thinking 808 drum programming that foreshadowed the reductionist strategies of Detroit electro and techno, albeit within a context that favored the darker sounds of The Human League and Soft Cell. The A side features spry and punchy tracks with plenty of elliptical arpeggiations and ramped up BPMs, whereas the B side is more pastoral and slower, sporting an eerie, melodic homage to Cindy Sherman. Clones, indeed!
At the time Borghesia was formed in 1982, Yugoslavia was beginning to exhibit the cracks in its federalist system of government; by good fortune, the Croatian born members of Borghesia, Aldo Ivancic and Dario Seraval, chose to study in Ljubjana, located in Slovenia - the state which peacefully separated from the Yugoslavian federation in 1990, unlike those states to the south. Ljubjana had long been the home of a lively arts and music scene, having spawned a number of underground venues / art-spaces including the first gay disco which caused considerable controversy within the conservative society at large. This was also home for Laibach, the Irwin Group, and other arms of the Neue Slowenische Kunst collective. Borghesia had always played second fiddle to Laibach, even though they really sounded nothing like the band. Where Laibach offered bleak appropriation of cultural elements within a cold industrial context, Borghesia was one of the early proponents of "electronic body music" - the sweaty electro-funk that really exploded out of Belgium by the late '80s, with D.A.F., Cabaret Voltaire, and Chris & Cosey influencing Borghesia's hedonistic, leather-clad electronics. The mutant funk sensibility takes up tracks like "A.R." and "Brisk Vomit" with choppy guitars, darkly bubbled electronics, and neck-wrangled basslines. On the aforementioned "A.R.", Borghesia filters the vocals through a megaphone of barked sloganeering for the closest thing that the band ever came to sounding like Laibach. The dirge "Tako Mladi" with its whip crack, reversed delay, and stalking electronic sequences is probably the strongest track on the record, through its oppressive atmosphere.
This album was originally released on an Italian label in 1985, and came with Italian translations of the Croatian lyrics. Those have now been transcribed into English, but keeping the same oversized poster with dot-matrix artwork / text that was on the original. As with all Dark Entries releases, this has been exquisitely remastered and pressed on big chunky vinyl. Limited to 500 copies.
Yes, yet another new Boris release, however this one is not entirely new. Two of the best tracks from their epic Heavy Rocks release, slightly different demo versions as far as we can tell. Not sure if everyone needs this, as it is a bit pricey, but Boris freaks will no doubt want this, for the slightly different versions as well as the cool seventies line drawing band portrait cover art. And vinyl fanatics may want to pick this up since Heavy Rocks was cd only, so these are the only two tracks from those sessions to make it on to wax!
Boris really frustrate us. We love them. A LOT. They are one of our favorite bands around. Masters of sludge / psych / doom / dirge / drone. Yet they insist on releasing records in tiny editions that do nothing but piss off the people who love their band. Thus we are constantly faced with the problem of never being able to get enough copies for everyone who wants one. So now we have this new picture disc single. We ordered 50 copies. And ended up with six copies to list. So we wracked our brains to try and figure out the best way to sell these six copies and we decided to do it by lottery. I know, it sucks, but what else can we do? At least this way everyone has a chance. So if you want one, go ahead and order it like normal (locals, you gotta email too). On Monday, we'll take all the names of folks who ordered 'em and draw six at random to sell 'em to. Best we can do. Oh, and it's a pretty great single too!
FINALLY! The 1996 debut (as reissued in 2001 with an extra track!) from this Japanese psychedelic sludge trio, now available on vinyl for the first time EVER, and we're talking super fancy thick vinyl, with gorgeous heavy gatefold sleeves, and all new artwork, and yeah, Absolutego does indeed come complete with that bonus track! And it's Boris, so you know these are WAY too limited and will be gone in a flash, so grab one now before you're trawling eBay for a copy later...
Here's our original review of this all time aQ slow and low, heavy heavy classic from when we first listed the cd and when many folks were hearing Boris for the very first time...
Ok, here's one for all the AQ customers who we know are always hankering for the state-of-the-art in "drone-metal" (i.e. those who can't get enough of the likes of Earth, Melvins' Lysol, SUNNO))), Corrupted, Esoteric, etc.). Thanks to noted label-of-doom Southern Lord, we've got the full-length debut from this amazing Japanese band. Southern Lord's new "Super Low Frequency Version" (a nod to Earth 2) of this former import, features new artwork and a seven minute appropriately named bonus track, "Dronevil2". That makes this a 73 minute, two-track disc, as the title track itself is one of those rare, slow motion, maximum riff glacial drone songs that stretches out over (previously) the entire length of the record! Heavy duty stuff indeed. It makes sense that the name Boris comes from a Melvins song. And also that one of their other albums is a collaboration with Japan's king of dark psych guitar, Keiji Haino. Recommended, for all doom freaks.
Ok, here's one for all the AQ customers who we know are always hankering for the state-of-the-art in "drone-metal" (i.e. those who can't get enough of the likes of Earth, Melvins "Lysol", Sunn 0))), Corrupted, Esoteric, etc.). Thanks to noted label-of-doom Southern Lord, we've got the new domestic reissue of the 1996 full-length debut from this amazing Japanese band. We actually used to stock the import version back when it first came out, but never were able to get very many and it's been unavailable for a long long time. Souther Lord's new "Super Low Frequency Version" features new artwork and (doubtless much to the annoyance of the three or four people who manged to get the original import) a seven minute appropriately named bonus track, "Dronevil2". That makes this a 73 minute, two-track disc, as the title track itself is one of those rare, slow motion, maximum riff glacial drone songs that stretches out over (previously) the entire length of the cd! Heavy duty stuff indeed. It makes sense that the name Boris comes from a Melvins song. And also that one of their other albums is a collaboration with Japan's king of dark psych guitar, Keiji Haino. Now we're waiting for their fantastic second disc, "Amplifier Worship", to get reissued domestically as well (watch this space). Recommended, doom freaks.
Fans of the band that began as Japan's answer to the Melvins, and then took a wayback machine ride into the '70s, Boris, can start rejoicing now. After a long while, we've finally got a whole bunch of Boris back in stock. AND, we've got a whole brand new recording as well! Whoo-hoo. Akuma No Uta is a 32 minute, six song mini-album that offers up a smorgasbord of styles from past Boris albums, drawing from the heavier-than-thou rumble of Absolutego, the exquisite beauty of Flood, and the sheer jams-out-kickin' of Heavy Rocks. Starting off with a two and half minute Earth-esque drone-metal intro (although for some reason unknown to us, the intro track on the vinyl version is seven minutes longer than that on the cd, so drone freaks may have to get the lp, or what the heck, get both!), the record then slams into the riffed-out, noisy stormer "Ibitsu". Distorted, manic, tear-shit-up stuff. After another song in the same Hendrix meets the Stooges style psych-punk rawk vein, Boris switch gears again, for the album's centerpiece, a twelve-minute opus entitled "Naki Kyoku" that begins all super languid, quiet and pretty before building into a soaring psychedelic jam. The jams continue on the next track, another stoner rockin' blow-out. Finally, title track "Akuma No Uta" winds things up with a return to the immense sludge grind of track one, melded into a headbanging groove, ending the disc on an adrenaline high. I'm sure there's mulleted, pot-smoking high-schoolers in Japan scribbling Boris logos on their binders...or so we'd like to think.
You'll note from the price that the yen isn't doing us Americans any favors right now. Ah well. Boris is worth a few extra bucks, as fans will no doubt agree. Worth their weight in yen for sure, and well, you know they're heavy. The vinyl version is even pricier, but it's perhaps got the cooler artwork (yes, they're different) with a cover that perfectly re-creates Nick Drake's Bryter Layter! Except with double neck electric guitar-bass instead of acoustic guitar... Real nice.
And be aware (beware?), for soon to come is another Boris, the bottom-heavy full-length known as Boris At Last aka Feedbacker. We should have that as soon as it's out, we'll keep you informed!
Yowza! We are *so* excited to finally have stock (and at a nice price, too) of this masterpiece of heaviosity by the amazing Japanese band Boris, who have become big AQ-faves over the past few years. The more-than-aptly-titled "Amplifier Worship" is their
A good shorthand description of "Amplifier Worship" would be to say that it sounds like a cross between the low-end riffage of Boris' obvious heroes the Melvins, and the more recent, rhythmic trance experiments of their countrymen the Boredoms. Psychedelic punk metal, utterly crushing. Pretty much essential to anyone who is into "heavy"! If you like the dirgey sludge of Corrupted and Earth, as well as the more rocked-out sludge of Sleep and Melvins (circa "Ozma" and "Bullhead"), you'll love Boris! Recommended!!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Good news, Boris fans. Thanks to Southern Lord, we now finally have stock again AGAIN of this masterpiece of heaviosity and former AQ-record-of-the-week by the amazing Japanese band Boris, who have become big AQ-faves over the past few years. The more-than-aptly-titled "Amplifier Worship" was their 2nd full-length release (after their mighty one-song drone-slab "Absolutego" but before the mind-blowing, semi-acoustic "Flood" and the stoner-rockin' genius of "Heavy Rocks"); it originally came out in 1998 and has been, on and off, pretty much unavailable in the US. Man's Ruin was going to release it domestically a while back, actually, but that fell through because of that label's sudden, unfortunate demise. Now our friends at Southern Lord, who made "Absolutego" available over here, have gotten around to releasing "Amplifier Worship" in the States. A happy day indeed. It's cheaper than the import, we should be able to keep it in stock for more than just a week, and, of course, it still rules!!
A good shorthand description of "Amplifier Worship" would be to say that it sounds like a cross between the low-end riffage of Boris' obvious heroes the Melvins, and the more recent, rhythmic trance experiments of their countrymen the Boredoms. Psychedelic punk metal, utterly crushing. Pretty much essential to anyone who is into "heavy"! If you like the dirgey sludge of Corrupted and Earth, as well as the more rocked-out sludge of Sleep and Melvins (circa "Ozma" and "Bullhead"), you'll love Boris! Recommended!!
And don't feel too bad if you already bought the more expensive Japanese import version. First off, you're that much cooler. Secondly, there's no bonus tracks or anything on this edition to make it any better. Thirdly, the redesigned, green-tinted package, while striking, happens to incorporate a GUMMI WORM in the spine of the jewel case. I'm sorry, that's just not a good idea... But if you don't already have the import, this is a must-have and a bargain even with the gummi worm, which should still be edible when you get your copy and so thus is easily dealt with.
Ah, BORIS! The band that everybody loves (or if they don't love 'em, they probably love to hate 'em...). The Melvins-worshipping Japanese "heavy rock" band that started off in the '90s as an import-only cult fave, and eventually got picked up over here by Southern Lord. The next thing you know, they turned into an unstoppable juggernaut of super limited edition releases and unlikely collaborations, and got BIG. For a while, they were definitely a band that could do no wrong, combining that Melvins-y sludge, and equally Melvins-y weirdness, with their own, innate Japanese "WTF?" aesthetic... In addition they boast the presence of a female singer/guitar player, Wata, who is both cute and talented. And making themselves even more potent proposition, they also recruited noted psychedelic guitar whiz Michio Kurihara (Ghost, White Heaven, Stars) more or less permanently into their ranks.
Yet, in recent years, Boris has also been courting a backlash, the way we see it, as anything hyped to the skies usually does. Those aforementioned ridiculously limited editions have something to do with it... and what can come off as a too ironic attitude to everything... and when we've seen 'em live, well, memo to drummer Atsuo: the gong is cool, but the headset microphone maybe isn't so much.
So, we've been Boris fans for a long long time, and still are, but we'll confess to wondering if it could be said that Boris finally (?) "jumped the shark" with last year's BXI ep, wherein they, oddly enough, teamed up with rock star Ian Astbury of The Cult (who is presumably still "big in Japan"). That disc was probably the first Boris release in history that didn't merit highlight status on our list... but hey, nobody's perfect.
But now, as if rising to the challenge, and/or making said challenge all the harder for themselves, Boris are back with not one but TWO* new albums for new US label Sargent House.
There's Attention Please, which undoubtedly will get a lot of attention, and not just 'cause of the glamor shot of Wata on the cover. She also sings on all the tracks, to this is definitely one for all you Wata fanciers out there! The other one is called Heavy Rocks, not to be confused with the earlier Boris album, that's also titled Heavy Rocks. Huh, what's with that, Boris? Why give two totally different albums the same name? Obviously to invite comparison (and for the record, while we're definitely digging this new purple 2011 one, if we had to choose between 'em, we'd pick the original, orange 2002 Heavy Rocks). Naming an album Heavy Rocks in the first place is a bold move, having two of 'em is just silly. Or ironic. Or something. Brilliant, perhaps. Oh, and this Heavy Rocks features another guest appearance from Ian Astbury, doing backing vocals on the track "Riot Sugar". There's other guests on the album as well: Aaron Turner (Isis, Mamiffer) and Faith Coloccia (Mamiffer), and regular Boris collaborator Kurihara. Heavy friends for Heavy Rocks!
First up, let's talk about Attention Please. Of the two albums, possibly more interesting to us as it's really quite a departure for Boris, plus we've always found Wata to be their most appealing singer anyway. Her delicate vocals are accompanied by some of the band's softest, most mellow material yet. There's acoustic guitars, and electronica elements, and it's all really quite nice. At times dramatic, dancey, dreamy, and/or rockin', one thing it's not is sludgey. Not that it doesn't get loud and noisy at times - shoegazing explosion of "Spoon" could probably have gone on the accompanying Heavy Rocks just as easily. But for the most part, if you didn't know it was Boris, well you wouldn't know it was Boris! The nervously rhythmic "Tokyo Wonder Land", with its stabbing psychedelic guitar sizzle, and glitchy tic-tic-tics of drums and electronics, is the highlight here for us, but we're pretty into the whole disc. Utterly captivating. Wata and Boris sound like they're channelling every dreamy girl fronted band from the nineties and beyond: My Bloody Valentine, Blonde Redhead, Adult, Amp,Noriko Tujiko, and even Grouper, and it works. Hopefully we'll hear more from this incarnation of Boris in the future, with Wata on the mic... we suspect we will! We think open minded Boris fans will indeed like this album - and it just might make 'em a lot of new fans too, who didn't have any idea Boris could or would sound like this.
Then, to Heavy Rocks (2011)... Drop the needle on track one, and you're greeted by a mean, heavy chugging riff, and it almost seems like, hey, they've gone full-on metal here, but that track, "Riot Sugar", becomes more of a howling psych stoner rock song, with hushed vocals. Off to a good start. The next track isn't nearly as heavy, it begins with some jangle, then a tangle of guitar soloing from Kurihara in his Quicksilver/Cippolina mode, there's also more of those hushed vox, and a general loud/soft songwriting dynamic, this track having echoes of both Nirvana and Can! Kinda sounds like something Kurihara's band Stars would do. Track three "GALAXIANS" is a more energetic, uptempo attack, lots of whoops and hollering going on, with thrashing drums, noisy guitar and electronic FX...
And so it goes, the album a mix of race-with-the-devil rockers and much moodier, shoegazey stuff. "Missing Pieces" is an example of the latter, a slow build from quiet ambience to almost Merzbowian jet-engine noise. The two final tracks are well worthy of mention, the penultimate, nearly 13 minute "Aileron" (greatly expanded, and of course heavied up, from the brief acoustic guitar version of the same track found on Attention Please), is another of the shoegazier pieces, super heavy, lumbering and lovely, reminding us a lot of Codeine, then after that there's "Czechoslovakia", at the very end of the album, a brief instrumental thrash metal number with electronic embellishments, sounds like something Circle would do in their NWOFHM mode, pretty killer, but of course we have to assume Boris sorta meant it as a joke, oh well, in any case it unfortunately fades out at 1:35, just as it's really gettin' good... if another five or ten minutes of this song as we imagine it actually existed, and were included here, that would definitely make Heavy Rocks even radder. Who knows, though, maybe it will continue on a forthcoming album entitled, Heavier Rocks?? (Our idea, but Boris you're welcome to it, sounds like something you'd do - well actually probably what Boris would do is release ANOTHER album also called Heavy Rocks.)
Anyway, to wrap up, these two new discs from Boris are both pretty darn good & satisfying overall. And both emblematic of the band's dabbling in an almost alt-pop, quasi-commercial (on their own terms, though!) direction, while staying HEAVY as they wanna be.
*There's actually a 3rd new Boris full-length as well, out in Japan only, the cleverly (?) titled New Album, which includes some of the same songs found on these two domestic US releases, though we'd imagine they're different recordings/versions, Boris being who they are (confusing!).
It's that time again. When AQ regulars start coming in every day like junkies looking for a fix, "Do you have it yet? C'mon man, when are you gonna get it?" And in fact, they are junkies, only they're looking for their HEAVINESS fix. That fix that only Japanese sludge/doom gods Boris can provide. We were pretty into Boris' recent Akuma No Uta cd ep, that added all sorts of sonic weirdness to their new found super-charged Stooges, stoner rock sound (a la Heavy Rocks). But some of us were still longing for a return to the glacial, slow motion doom/drone days of old: Amplifier Worship, Absolutego (sadly now out of print) even the comparatively serene Flood (Allan's favorite). And while we can't tell you this is entirely that return, it's darn close, and we'd say it's easily one of their best records yet. At Last (aka Feedbacker) is a breathtaking, 50 minute epic, split into five movements. Things start with a slow slow build, drones and rumbles and huge sheets of distorted guitars, weaving a heaving tapestry of sonic unrest, a static buzz that towers over you like an ancient stone wall, threatening to heave forward, bricks of sonic sludge crushing you beneath their suffocating weight. The big surprise though comes in the second movement as the wall of sludge dissipates into the ether, leaving a smoky hazy gauze, through which Boris emerge, as an almost-pop band, simple spare drumming, heavily reverbed shimmery chords, subtle muted wah guitar with a distant swirling backdrop of wind tunnel effects and howling feedback. Then vocalist Takeshi joins the fray with mumbled, keening sad boy vocals reminding us of Greg Dulli in his Afghan Whigs days, and then drums get all dubbed out, and suddenly everything is druggy and trippy, like the whole record was soaked in cough syrup. All the while Boris' guitar goddess Wata spits out super distorted leads, all melancholy and emotional, strings bending, feedback threatening to overwhelm the notes. The mellow parts definitely remind us of Codeine, which is a VERY good thing. Also, Windy and Carl, the Wipers a little, and even that eighties Homestead records sound. But it wouldn't be Boris if things didn't get HEAVY. And they do. Really heavy. The rest of the record is an aural tug of war between Boris' Earth/Sunn 0))) doom tendencies and their gorgeous, shimmery, druggy psychedelia. Imagine Godspeed You Black Emperor, raised on doom metal and seventies psych, and fronted by a female Hendrix! It's that fucking amazing.
It seems like every Boris release is more anxiously anticipated than the last. But somehow this is the one everybody's been waiting for. A double cd reissue of the previously vinyl only Dronevil. And just to ensure that Boris obsessives who already have the lp don't get off easy, the cd version adds two lengthy tracks to each disc and eliminates the pressing defect that plagued the lp release.
Dronevil is like the Japanese doom sludge version of the Flaming Lips' Zaireeka! Two discs, one drone, one heavy, intended to be played simultaneously on two separate stereos, but both equally listenable on their own.
The 'drone' disc is gorgeous, the first track is a shimmering swirl of sizzling cymbals, thick clouds of reverberating metal, sounding almost like some lost Organum track. Warm metallic swells, that undulate and subtly swing, layer upon layer of gorgeous high end sound. The second is a lugubrious trawl through some dimly lit cavernous underworld, thick tones swirl and drift, super minimal, like the slowed down sound of tolling bells, a slow motion ringing that shimmers and hums, like some distant soundscape viewed through thick panes of fogged up glass. The final drone track is another high end excursion, this time it's a whirl of densely layered tones, like sheets of feedback, played back at different speeds, creating strange tonal clusters and causing the various sounds to beat against each other producing subtle rhythms and streaks of upper register melody. Like a much more minimal Sunroof! or a Phil Niblock piece using Total outtakes as source material.
The sludgier disc (or the 'Evil' disc of the Dronevil pair) starts off with the 21 minute "Red", which starts off with some rumbling low end swells, mirroring the shimmering cymbals of it's ambient corollary on disc 1, then some abstract clean guitar, lots of space, about halfway through in come the keening distorted guitar feedback, streaks of psychedelic skree above the spacious abstract soundscape, finally about 15 minutes in the drums kick in, a simple post rock skitter, the clean guitars coalesce into a sort of Morricone-ish spaghetti western twang, above which some spare soulful leads drift and delicately soar, a slow loping groove like some strange slowcore hybrid of Codeine and Low. Dreamy and so good. The second track is where it actually gets heavy, a super distorted slow motion riff builds and builds until Boris are lurching along like some monstrous space rock behemoth, a sludgy trudge, thick walls of distorted guitar, simple pounding drums, all beneath wild psychedelic leads. Very Hawkwindy for sure. A brief near silent interlude sets us up for the hammer to fall, and it does, huge crumbling riffs dripping with filthy distortion, a sludgy black hole riff, and the wild psychedelic leads just keep getting more tangled and freaked out. So totally intense and heavy and super spaced out. The final track is another massive space doom workout. Heavy and thick and dense, but still somehow spacious and epic. Guitars grind and crunch but they also drift and hover weightless, the drums pound one second, and skitter jazzily the next, everything a huge swirling mass of psychedelic spaciness wrapped in massively thick guitars, ending in a barely there acoustic steel string coda.
Now when you play the two discs together it all makes sense. The heavy disc is so spare and spacey, because the first disc introduces all of these extra layers of sound, and the first disc is so abstract and minimal, because it's main purpose is to fill out the doom drenched space rock on disc two. But it barely matters. Together, the two discs perfectly meld into a killer postspacerock doom sludge record, heavy and dense and layered. Apart, you've got two amazing records, one super abstract free drone record, and one post slow core psychedelic spacerock record. You can't really lose either way.
And as always the packaging is absolutely breathtaking: a Japanese style mini gatefold, printed inside and out, black and light blue ink on thick textured brown cardstock, along the bottom a black and grey printed vellum obi, each disc in its own pocket and beautifully packaged with three circular plastic printed transparencies, all of the images combining with the printed image on the disc. WOW.
It's easy to forget that Japanese psychedelic heavies Boris were in fact named for a song by the mighty Melvins, but with a quick listen to this, a vinyl reissue of their 1994 demo, that fact becomes blatantly obvious. Really minus the Japanese vocals (which are sort of a dead ringer for Buzz), this could be some lost Melvins demo. Sludgey distorted guitars, booming bombastic drums, the sound slipping from doomy slo-mo churn to more punkish pound (courtesy of Nagata, who played drums for Boris before the release of their debut Absolutego), the vocals a raspy garbled bellow, the choruses those weird sort of almost shouted sing along Melvins-y choruses. It's definitely a snapshot of a band in their early stages, before they had a chance to synthesize their influences into something all their own, but fans of that sort of slow sludgey heaviness, these guys kill it, and if you're after something Melvins-y, well, you won't find anything more Melvins-y than this slab of pure Melvins worship.
There are definitely some moments that do hint at the Boris to come, like the long stretch of feedback drenched droned out minimalism that takes up a good chunk of side two, seems like they already had a pretty good handle on crafting blissed out heavy dronescapes, but for the most part, the tracks here make up a seriously kick ass knuckle dragging chunk of ultra heavy drone-sludge noise rock, which is obviously essential for Boris fanatics, and hell, recommended to fans of the Melvins who miss that Melvins sound of old.
VERY LIMITED. We only got a handful, and odds are once these are sold out, we won't be able to get more.
As you may know, Boris are perhaps Japan's number one Melvins worshippers! But that's not to say they're unoriginal, rather the opposite, since the Melvins themselves are so unpredictable and eccentric. But in terms of heaviness, Boris measure up. If you
In conjunction with the new album Smile, Boris offer up this super limited remix 12", already out of print, limited to 1000 copies worldwide, we only got 40 copies, so once these are gone, probably by the time you've gotten this far into the review, that's IT.
So two songs, both remixed versions of songs from other releases. One a super effected revamped version of "Message" the opening track from the Japanese version of Smile, which itself is a remixed version of "Statement" from the Southern Lord 7" and the US version of Smile. Confused yet? Welcome to Boris country.
So the remixed "Message" takes the original, and drenches it in FX, strips much of the guitar away, leaving just that relentless tribal rhythm, and then wrapped all around it, various little sonic flourishes, drones, and shimmers, little melodic tangles, long drawn out high end streaks, whirs and little stuttery strums, and the original's "woo hoo" vocals. Super minimal and trancey and blissed out. A bit like Boris filtered though later Boredoms.
But the real attraction is the remix of "Floor Shaker", the original was exclusive to the now out of print Southern Lord 7", but here the song is totally pulled apart and twisted into new shapes. At first, the vibe sounds really retro, skittery high hats, the vocals all by their lonesome, then some disco-y beats and some super fuzzy synths. Very new wave sounding. On the verge of being cheesy, but paired up with the plaintive almost emo vocals, the result is actually pretty cool.
But as the track progresses, it gets weirder and weirder, the synths more skeletal and damaged sounding, the beat a simple throbbing pulse, the whole thing doused in weird feedback and electronic squelches, high end chirps, and a cool looped vocal snippet, the vibe much more M83, a sort of washed out sun dappled overdriven shoegaze-y electro bliss out, shades of Health, Crystal Castles, Justice, and that whole new wave of modern synthsoaked dirty disco electropop, all wrapped around little bits of fuzzy blown out Boris.
Again, already out of print, limited to 1000 copies worldwide, we got 40. That's it. Packaged in plain yellow 12" sleeves, sealed shut with a sticker.
It's indeed that time again. Where our customers act like crazy junkies who have FINALLY received their latest fix, which I guess they technically are. Although in this case the drug of choice is Japan's Boris, and the current fix is twofold, the just released full length Pink (reviewed elsewhere on this list) and this here DVD, the misleadingly titled Heavy Metal Me. Boris fans of all stripes will find stuff on here that is essential -- videos, a short film, and two live sets for those of you not lucky enough to see Boris on their recent tour.
First up is a video for the track "A Bao A Qu" from the soundtrack Mabuta No Ura, the perfect visual accompaniment to that track's ambient post rock drift, a sort of languid stroll around town, various band members walking down streets, sitting in parks, shots of skies and trees and shops warehouses and woods. Gorgeously tranquil. The next video is for another track from Mabuta No Ura, can't tell you the title cuz it's in Japanese, but it is an absolutely breathtaking series of abstact landscapes, that are perhaps either pieces of frayed and slowly undulating fabric, or maybe even internal organs, so alien looking and so beautiful.
The short film Heavy Metal Me is up next, a ten minute, super arty silent film with subtitles (in either Japanese or English), super blown out overexposed black and white and scratchy color Super8, very French New Wave, with quite a bit of sitting, and thinking, and walking and standing, lots of static shots and very obtuse subtitles. No sound, just occasionally the sound of no sound, a hissing distant white noise static. Quite beautiful actually!
Returning to the main, music side of Boris, you then get a live performance of "Feedbacker", the full 30 minutes, slow building and totally epic. With the stage drenched in rich colored lights, Wata stands illuminated, completely expressionless and immobile, a statue like guitar God! All the while the drummer and bass player work their way into a rock frenzy as the song reaches its superdistorted fuzz drenched climax.
The bonus track is a live performance of "Flood" in a tiny Japanese club, packed to the gills, with a ceiling just high enough for the band to stand on stage. Twenty minutes of creeping, drifting shimmering guitars and cymbal swells, before the sludge sets in, a monstrous pounding metallic crawl, with stoic guitarist Wata actually, for once, rocking out! Pretty amazing. And will definitely hit the spot for everyone who missed seeing Boris live last month.
As with everything Boris releases, beautifully designed and packaged. Even the menu and the credits look amazing, the credits especially with their dreamy ambient abstract Boris guitarscape accompaniment.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Heavy Rocks is -- to state the obvious if you've heard it -- a more than apt title for this newest (and long-awaited) collection of tuneage from everyone's favorite Japanese heavy rockers, Boris. Yes, the thunderous Tokyo trio of Takeshi, Wata, and Atsuo are back! We promised last year in our write-up of their amazing (but uncharacteristically mostly mellow) album Flood that Boris' next disc would be a return to the ROCK. And it is. No acoustic stuff here, nor even the lengthy droning dirges in which they have also indulged in the past. Nope, this one simply rocks hard and heavy, start to finish. Fans know that every Boris album is different, and this one can perhaps be characterized as Boris' "stoner rock" effort. Total Kyuss action! Still, with some grizzled nods to their all-time heroes, the Melvins. The first track, "Heavy Friends", is VERY Melvins (metallic, thudding, glacial) -- and even has a walk-on spoken contribution from Melvins drummer Dale Crover's ex-wife Lori (of Acid King). Speaking of heavy friends, guests pop up all over this release, actually -- there's some lead guitar by Eddie Legend of Japanese garage/rockabilly band The Mad 3, a track with analog synth twiddle courtesy Maso Yamazaki (Masonna/Christine 23 Onna), and another with some laptop computer fuckery from Masami "Merzbow" Akita (who also just completed a full-on collaborative album with Boris, see nearby for a review of that opus, the drone yin to this album's rock yang).
With or without the help of noiseniks Merzbow and Masonna, noisy, fuzzed-out psychedelic atmospheres abound here, but generally in the context of high energy, superheavy rockin'. Really, the album relaxes only for the spaced-out guitar bliss of "Soft Edge" halfway through. Tracks like "Korosu", "Dyna-Soar", "Death Valley", "Rattlesnake", and "1970" are all catchy, riff-laden showcases for Boris' brand of kick-ass rock n' roll. Even if you aren't into stoner rock, you should check this out because it easily surpasses most of the other bands operating within the genre. Irresistable. Honestly.
Ah, BORIS! The band that everybody loves (or if they don't love 'em, they probably love to hate 'em...). The Melvins-worshipping Japanese "heavy rock" band that started off in the '90s as an import-only cult fave, and eventually got picked up over here by Southern Lord. The next thing you know, they turned into an unstoppable juggernaut of super limited edition releases and unlikely collaborations, and got BIG. For a while, they were definitely a band that could do no wrong, combining that Melvins-y sludge, and equally Melvins-y weirdness, with their own, innate Japanese "WTF?" aesthetic... In addition they boast the presence of a female singer/guitar player, Wata, who is both cute and talented. And making themselves even more potent proposition, they also recruited noted psychedelic guitar whiz Michio Kurihara (Ghost, White Heaven, Stars) more or less permanently into their ranks.
Yet, in recent years, Boris has also been courting a backlash, the way we see it, as anything hyped to the skies usually does. Those aforementioned ridiculously limited editions have something to do with it... and what can come off as a too ironic attitude to everything... and when we've seen 'em live, well, memo to drummer Atsuo: the gong is cool, but the headset microphone maybe isn't so much.
So, we've been Boris fans for a long long time, and still are, but we'll confess to wondering if it could be said that Boris finally (?) "jumped the shark" with last year's BXI ep, wherein they, oddly enough, teamed up with rock star Ian Astbury of The Cult (who is presumably still "big in Japan"). That disc was probably the first Boris release in history that didn't merit highlight status on our list... but hey, nobody's perfect.
But now, as if rising to the challenge, and/or making said challenge all the harder for themselves, Boris are back with not one but TWO* new albums for new US label Sargent House.
There's Attention Please, which undoubtedly will get a lot of attention, and not just 'cause of the glamor shot of Wata on the cover. She also sings on all the tracks, to this is definitely one for all you Wata fanciers out there! The other one is called Heavy Rocks, not to be confused with the earlier Boris album, that's also titled Heavy Rocks. Huh, what's with that, Boris? Why give two totally different albums the same name? Obviously to invite comparison (and for the record, while we're definitely digging this new purple 2011 one, if we had to choose between 'em, we'd pick the original, orange 2002 Heavy Rocks). Naming an album Heavy Rocks in the first place is a bold move, having two of 'em is just silly. Or ironic. Or something. Brilliant, perhaps. Oh, and this Heavy Rocks features another guest appearance from Ian Astbury, doing backing vocals on the track "Riot Sugar". There's other guests on the album as well: Aaron Turner (Isis, Mamiffer) and Faith Coloccia (Mamiffer), and regular Boris collaborator Kurihara. Heavy friends for Heavy Rocks!
First up, let's talk about Attention Please. Of the two albums, possibly more interesting to us as it's really quite a departure for Boris, plus we've always found Wata to be their most appealing singer anyway. Her delicate vocals are accompanied by some of the band's softest, most mellow material yet. There's acoustic guitars, and electronica elements, and it's all really quite nice. At times dramatic, dancey, dreamy, and/or rockin', one thing it's not is sludgey. Not that it doesn't get loud and noisy at times - shoegazing explosion of "Spoon" could probably have gone on the accompanying Heavy Rocks just as easily. But for the most part, if you didn't know it was Boris, well you wouldn't know it was Boris! The nervously rhythmic "Tokyo Wonder Land", with its stabbing psychedelic guitar sizzle, and glitchy tic-tic-tics of drums and electronics, is the highlight here for us, but we're pretty into the whole disc. Utterly captivating. Wata and Boris sound like they're channelling every dreamy girl fronted band from the nineties and beyond: My Bloody Valentine, Blonde Redhead, Adult, Amp,Noriko Tujiko, and even Grouper, and it works. Hopefully we'll hear more from this incarnation of Boris in the future, with Wata on the mic... we suspect we will! We think open minded Boris fans will indeed like this album - and it just might make 'em a lot of new fans too, who didn't have any idea Boris could or would sound like this.
Then, to Heavy Rocks (2011)... Drop the needle on track one, and you're greeted by a mean, heavy chugging riff, and it almost seems like, hey, they've gone full-on metal here, but that track, "Riot Sugar", becomes more of a howling psych stoner rock song, with hushed vocals. Off to a good start. The next track isn't nearly as heavy, it begins with some jangle, then a tangle of guitar soloing from Kurihara in his Quicksilver/Cippolina mode, there's also more of those hushed vox, and a general loud/soft songwriting dynamic, this track having echoes of both Nirvana and Can! Kinda sounds like something Kurihara's band Stars would do. Track three "GALAXIANS" is a more energetic, uptempo attack, lots of whoops and hollering going on, with thrashing drums, noisy guitar and electronic FX...
And so it goes, the album a mix of race-with-the-devil rockers and much moodier, shoegazey stuff. "Missing Pieces" is an example of the latter, a slow build from quiet ambience to almost Merzbowian jet-engine noise. The two final tracks are well worthy of mention, the penultimate, nearly 13 minute "Aileron" (greatly expanded, and of course heavied up, from the brief acoustic guitar version of the same track found on Attention Please), is another of the shoegazier pieces, super heavy, lumbering and lovely, reminding us a lot of Codeine, then after that there's "Czechoslovakia", at the very end of the album, a brief instrumental thrash metal number with electronic embellishments, sounds like something Circle would do in their NWOFHM mode, pretty killer, but of course we have to assume Boris sorta meant it as a joke, oh well, in any case it unfortunately fades out at 1:35, just as it's really gettin' good... if another five or ten minutes of this song as we imagine it actually existed, and were included here, that would definitely make Heavy Rocks even radder. Who knows, though, maybe it will continue on a forthcoming album entitled, Heavier Rocks?? (Our idea, but Boris you're welcome to it, sounds like something you'd do - well actually probably what Boris would do is release ANOTHER album also called Heavy Rocks.)
Anyway, to wrap up, these two new discs from Boris are both pretty darn good & satisfying overall. And both emblematic of the band's dabbling in an almost alt-pop, quasi-commercial (on their own terms, though!) direction, while staying HEAVY as they wanna be.
*There's actually a 3rd new Boris full-length as well, out in Japan only, the cleverly (?) titled New Album, which includes some of the same songs found on these two domestic US releases, though we'd imagine they're different recordings/versions, Boris being who they are (confusing!).
Like those little tremors that come right before the big quake, after a seriously long period of near silence, new music has begun to seep out of the Boris camp recently, first, the super strange split we reviewed on the last list, that found Boris getting all shoegazey and Ariel Pink-y and teaming up with a weird Shadowfaxy techno group, now this record, the first in a series of three 7"s, which continues to demonstrate Boris' willingness to push sonic boundaries.
This first seven inch starts off with a bang, the band rocking up a storm Pink style, big and bombastic and blown out, psychedelic and in-the-red, massive guitar crunch and pretty ethereal vocals, wild drumming, a pretty serious slab of... well, heavy rock! Not a huge departure really, but it sounds great, and should have most Boris fanatics going nuts.
The flipside is another rocker, but this one is a bit more fuzzy and poppy, still plenty distorted and heavy, but super hooky, and crazy catchy, a poppier Boris is still probably heavier than most heavy bands on their best day, and like the A side, these new recordings sound fantastic, super hot and way suitable for headphone hearing abuse.
Cool super thick covers too, designed by Stephen O'Malley, and featuring a weird glamor shot of one of the band members, Takeshi we think, which we can only assume means each member will get their own glamorous cover shot. Weird, but hey, it's Boris. Odds are you know you already need this, and are already eagerly awaiting volume two, which drops next month. Can't wait...
Second volume in the Japanese Heavy Rock Hits series from long beloved Japanese heavy rockers Boris. Whereas the first volume was all over the map, with the trio exploring shoegaze-y bliss rock on one side, and some murky Ariel Pink-ish anti pop on the other, Volume 2 finds the band back in more recognizably Boris territory. Sort of.
The A side, "Heavy Metal Addict" falls somewhere between true metal tribute, and goofball taking-the-piss fucking around, with a bad ass meaty main riff, some soaring reverbed vocals, but then some weird Gary Glitter sing along / handclapping, and some really fucked up production, which at the beginning sounds like two records playing at once. The result is a bit loose, and sounds a bit like the band messing around at practice, but it's still fun, and a cool Pink era sounding metal jam. And check out the video online, which features Japanese glam band Sex Virgin Killer, a rad visual kei band (look it up!) rocking out, practicing, smashing stuff, and holy shit are they awesome looking, with some of the BIGGEST, wildest hair you'll ever see. Weird that Boris just basically dubbed their music over another band's video, but it did get us all excited to track down some Sex Virgin Killer music....
Flip the record over, and stuff gets all weird again, with the band hauling out the drum machine, and getting all lo-fi pop / eighties new wave, with angular guitars, stuttery rhythms, and breathless soft focus vox. Pretty cool. Sure a lot of folks are wondering 'what the fuck', but Boris have always been the sort of band to defy and confound, and while we may yearn for the days of Flood and Amplifier Worship, we're way digging this new wave thing Boris have going on now.
Garish glamor shot cover art, looks like each member will get the cover of one single, saving Wata for last of course, this one features the drummer, we think, with big teased hair, and unzipped jeans revealing his pink tie dyed briefs, all beneath a haze of Stephen O'Malley geometric graphic design. Weird.
Like the first volume, and the forthcoming third, super limited, and it would be a drag not not have the whole set, so hop to it!
Finally, the third and final volume in the Japanese Heavy Rock Hits 7" series from Japanese heavy rockers Boris. Although based solely on this series of singles, one could be forgiven for thinking Boris were anything but heavy rockers. Seems like these singles were a chance for the band to stretch out and try on some different sounds for size, and the results have been pretty great actually.
Each 7" featured a different band member on the cover, and fan boys have been waiting for this one, when lead guitarist and Boris crush Wata takes center stage. Glamorous and bored, or maybe just aloof, Wata poses beneath a flurry of Stephen O'Malley's geometric abstractions on the cover, while inside, on the A side, Wata croons languidly over a simple skeletal drumbeat and washed out clean guitar strum, almost like a way more minimal stripped down sonic youth. Minor key, woozy, melancholy, the vocals front and center, while the band offer a hushed slowcore backdrop, delicate and mopey and a little bit dreamy, with a definite '90s indie rock vibe, with a little Mazzy Star mixed in, but not nearly as shoegazey, just really sad and slow and indie folky.
The flipside however finished things with a band, or more specifically, a wall of crumbling distortion, then a sheet of feedback, and then some slow plodding blissed out mope rock, with crashing drums, crooned vox, epic and mournful, another nod to the indie rock of old, but given a little Nadja / Jesu style sonic makeover. A lilting main vocal melody drifts ethereally over snarls of incendiary guitar, and plodding doomic drums, everything lysergic and staring-into-the-sun heavy. Dizzying and darkly dreamy, a sort of future heavy rock doom-ed blown out ballad. Really cool for sure, but these singles definitely have us wondering what the heck the next Boris full length is gonna sound like... can't wait to find out.
Of bands that we at Aquarius would LOVE to experience live, Boris would certainly be near the top of the list. We eagerly await the day they come (back) to San Francisco (yes -- apparently they did play here once before, like way back in 1995, but we didn't know about 'em then). So of course this brand new live DVD by Boris is a big thrill for us, and we're sure for many of you too. Finally, we get to see Boris in action, the powerhouse trio backed by a wall of Orange amplification, tearing the house down on one night of their "Black Summer Tour", July 12th 2003. And one thing this film reveals that perhaps not all Boris fans know is that guitarist Wata is a girl, cute as can be even as she wrenches the most doomed-out distortion from her axe. Meanwhile vocalist Takeshi attracts some attention wielding his trademark double neck bass/guitar, whilst Atsuo bashes the hell out of his drum kit.
For some reason this DVD doesn't seem to have a menu screen, it just starts up and goes. First a black screen, then some faint titles fade in and out, feedback builds, and out of the blackness -- BORIS! Devastating a packed, smokey club full of metal-crazed Japanese fans, fists and devil signs aloft. Shot with multiple cameras and edited MTV-style this is a real pro production. After the black hole gravity of the first song ("Huge" from Amplifier Worship), Boris rip into some more uptempo material, stoner rock thrash outs from Heavy Rocks and their recent Akuma No Uta ep. There's about an hour of live performance, ten songs total, from punk mania to brutal psych dirge. And it's not all straight concert footage, there's some backstage shots and arty compositions of almost-stills about a half-hour in.
Following the show, the DVD continues with four Boris videos. Two are taken from Heavy Rocks: a black-and-white-and-orange "Korosu" and a live-montage clip for "1970". The other two are from Akuma No Uta, both animations, one a frenzy of CG techno-weaponry, the other a low-tech cartoon made from smudged sketchbook art a la the cover to the Akuma No Uta cd. Pretty cool both of those, as is the entire DVD! ----* ----* Two New tUMULt Releases : ----*
One of the tracks from Boris's recent J-Pop infused opus New Album gets the 12" remix treatment, making for a Boris release that's even further removed from their Melvins-y heavy rock roots.
The A side features ALTZ's "Fall In Love Mix", the B side's got Hatchback's "Pacific Wind Mix". Hatchback we're less familiar with, but ALTZ is interesting, we know 'em from their Boredoms remix on Super Roots 10 - and also the isophonic boogie woogie of the Altz Meets Roland P. Young album that EM put out a while back.
We just have a handful of these imports, and they come in black sleeves, nothin' fancy. For super big Boris fans and DJs only, we assume.
