SOUNDTRACK: BORIS-präparat (2013).
präparat is Boris’ 18th album. It contains a huge variety of styles in its 40 some minutes. It also features a couple of guests. Michio Kurihara plays guitar on track 3 and 5 and Gisèle Vienne offers spoken word on track 6.
So this album starts with one of the band’s most beautiful instrumentals. “december” is slow with a cool bassline and gentle drums. The lead guitar perfectly matches the strummed bass. It’s a lovely post-rock instrumental complete with a section that manipulates the volume knob to bring in extra soft notes.
The pretty guitars continue to ring in on “哀歌 -elegy-” for about 20 seconds before the ominous distortion means an oncoming crash of chords. But this is a slow crash of chords with some gentle singing (from Takeshi?) in the melodic verses. About three minutes in the song jumps into a fast rocking section with a great guitar riff and heavy drumming. It’s excellent.
It segues into the 57 second noise fest that is “evil stack 3.” It’s just distortion and wild soloing, a noisy interlude that is abruptly ended by the gentle “砂時計 -monologue-” This song is four minutes long complete with gentle drums, and pretty guitars. About halfway in, it takes off in another postrock spectacle of pretty guitars and a gentle melody.
“method of error” features Michio Kurihara on guitar and starts with some slow heavy thumping chords. Church bells come echoing in followed by soaring guitars. The drums interject crashing sounds from time to time. Two guitars provide an extra wailing solo as the rest of the band jams a heavy chunky riff. This song runs over 7 minutes.
“bataille sucre” starts off quietly but then brings in a loud ringing guitar. Then an old school heavy metal riff begins with some screaming lead guitars. The guest vocals are whispered (presumably in French) and add texture (if you don’t know what she’s saying).
Then comes two songs in under a minute. “perforated line” is 34 seconds of fast heavy guitar (and synth) that feels like the beginning of song, but it abruptly ends and jumps into the oddball, almost dance stylings of “コップの内側 -castel in the air-” all SEVEN SECONDS of it. It’s followed by “mirano” which is a warped, carnivalesque waltz with keys and possibly vibes.
“カンヴァス -canvas-” has the tone of a Kim Gordon Sonic Youth song with fuzzy guitars and an almost whispered vocal, although the chorus is pure shoegaze with layers of soft vocals. About half way through the band add a noisy wall that sounds like it’s going to explode, but it just drops away for some clear crooning from Takeshi.
The disc ends with the eight and a half minute “maeve.” It opens with skittery percussion and faraway gongs. Then comes a distorted slow riff. It’s a slow drone-like song that lumbers along for about six minutes. The last two are a wave of distortion that sounds like a slow heavy train echoing through your head.
I love the diversity of this record and the tracks that are not experimental are just dynamite. I’m really glad this album is no longer hidden away.
[READ: November 12, 2020] The Proof
The Little Buddhist Monk (written 2005) has been bundled with The Proof (written 1989) together in one book. Both stories were translated by Nick Caistor.
The Proof is about as different from The Little Buddhist Monk as you could get. It’s also the most visceral story I’ve read by Aira, whose stories tend to be very “of the mind.”
Indeed, you can tell this story is quite different just from the way it starts.
“Wannafuck?”
This question is asked to Marcia (a senior in high school?–she’s “fourth year”) as she is walking down the street. There are groups of teenagers hanging around,and this question comes from one of the girls.
Marcia is a virgin, a little heavy and rather shy. She ignores the question until the questioner and her friend (two punk girls) come running after her. The girl mocks her a little, calls her a fatty, but also tells her that when she saw Marcia it was love at first sight.
Marcia doesn’t know what to think. She assumes the girl is messing with her, but the girl says she is serious She wants to have sex with Marcia, like right now. Marcia is disconcerted. But she decides to talk to the punk (she’s always wanted to talk to a punk). The girl says her name is Mao and her friend is Lenin.
They go to a restaurant to sit and talk. When they are told they have to order, Mao is a major bitch to everyone who comes over to them–cursing at them calling them names and telling them to fuck off. Marcia feels bad an orders an ice cream.
They talk back and forth about love, sex, what it means to be a punk, etc. Mao mocks a girl who is working there because she seems nice.
Eventually they leave and Mao and Lenin head to a grocery store. Marcia believes that they are going to steal something for her to prove that they are punks. But when they get into the store, the punks have something much more sinister planned.
Lenin locks the door and Mao pulls out a gun. In about five minutes they have killed a few people (in rather gruesome detail) and the store is on fire in places. I did not expect any of that!
Most of Aira’s stories have a “whoa” stream of consciousness to them. But while this sex-to-violence thread might be justifiable, it’s an astonishing leap. I have to wonder if Aira (who is ridiculously prolific) just wanted to write a violent story.
The dialogue between the women is positively nonsensical. I can’t imagine anyone saying even a third of the things that they do or that a girl like Marcia would hang around with Mao and Lenin for as long as she does. But if you suspend your disbelief (which i think you have to do with Aira a lot). It’s a thrilling if bizarre story. I’m not sure what “the proof” actually is, though,
Leave a Reply