SOUNDTRACK: BORIS-“warpath” (2015).
Back in 2015, Boris released three albums on the same day all under the “new noise literacy” banner: “urban dance” “warpath” and “asia” [according to their label numbers, this is the order they go in].All three records are experiments in abrasive noise. Despite the adorable child on the covers, these records will scare children.
This album has four songs, all of which are variations on drone.
“Midgard Schlange” is 11 minutes of heavy distorted chords played slowly, as they ring out and rumble. Its a a sort of seven-note melody but stretched out impossibly long. At around 5 and a half minutes the electronics start to fade in from far away. The first time I listened to the song I thought an airplane was flying overhead as these sounds came in. These sounds eventually resolve into chords that acts as a kind of counterpoint to the guitar drones. It’s relatively fast tempoed for a drone song, but it still long and stretched out.
“Behind the Owl” continues the drone, but in a different way. There aren’t pummeling guitar chords that ring out. Rather, they are just quietly building distortion waves, pulsing in and out. It’s rather understated, a low menace that seems to cycle slowly between two notes.
The wonderfully named “Dreamy Eyed Panjandrum”starts with a kind of staticky electronic pulsing with occasional glitchy percussion sounds. It sounds like somebody doing light construction for about 8 minutes.
The guitars come back on “Voo-vah,” and ominous ten and a half minutes of dark rumbling. This time, the guitars are low and ringing, with waves of pulsing bass and stretched out chords. Around 8 minutes some higher-pitched notes come in, almost sounding like ghosts in the night. Closing credits to a nightmare.
The album is credited to: takeshi: guitar, bass / wata: guitar & echo / atsuo: electronics.
[READ: November 5, 2020] “Sitting with the Dead”
I really enjoyed the way this story revealed its details.
It begins with an old, sickly man asking to go out to his barn. It was winter and he wore only his pajamas and a winter coat. A week later, the doctor assured his wife Emily that that’s not what killed him–it didn’t even hasten the inevitable.
At half past seven on the day he died, the Geraghty sisters knocked on her door. They were two middle-aged women who sat with the dying. They were known in the area although Emily didn’t know them personally. They had heard that her husband was dying and they came to sit with him, but they were too late.
Emily laughed to herself at how much he would not have wanted these two there to sit wit him. He was not religious and he would have said that their sitting with him had an ulterior motive.
She apologized for their wasted journey, but they assured her that it was never wasted. Emily offered them some tea and brack and they sat and talked. Even when Emily explained that they were Protestant the sisters said it didn’t matter to them.
After some small talk Emily started to talk about the house. It had been given to her when he aunt died: forty three acres, with sheep. She is sure her husband married her for the land. She didn’t mean to say that out loud but she did. He wanted to raise and race horses.
Emily admitted she a was a fool and that she paid for her foolishness. They had half an acre left after all of her husband’s losses with the horses.
After saying all the things that were on her mind she cleared her throat and said she didn’t want them to thin she didn’t love her husband.
As the sisters drove away they were silent with each other. The visit was like nothing like they had experienced before.
I really enjoyed the way these minor revelations proved to be so shocking.
Leave a Reply