SOUNDTRACK: BORIS-Vein (2006/2013).
Boris continues to reissue their back catalog in streaming format. Which is pretty amazing since so much of their work is so hard to find. Possibly not great for collectors, but great for those of us who actually want to hear the music.
Vein is Boris’ thirteenth album. Because they are Boris, the released two different albums under the same title in 2006. The packaging was identical on both records and the only way to tell them apart was to check out the surface of the vinyl itself.
The “Hardcore version” had punk, hardcore, and drone.with vocals that are screamed rather than sung. The “Noise version” had drone and noise music as well as punk. This version of the album does not include any vocals.
In 2013, the band announced that the album would be released as a 2-CD set not as a reissue, but rather a re-arrangement of both albums combined.
Given all of this, it’s not even entirely clear to me what has been released her on bandcamp. But it seems like the first two tracks (here labeled “v” and “e” are the hardcore version. The third and fourth tracks “i” and “n” are a little harder to place.
“v” is 14 minutes long, broken up into several small pieces:
It starts with a wall of noise–static and low feedback swirling and manipulated until 4.01 when it segues into segues into ringing bells and effects that sound like a jet taking off and broken glass swirling and zipping around. Then some drums and chords are introduced. At 6:15, there’s a samples from the 1979 film Stalker, by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky. A man says “И пусть посмеются над своими страстями” (Russian for “Let them laugh at their own passions”) followed by a blistering hardcore song until 7:52. After an abrupt halt comes the next screaming hardcore song which is more fuzz than chords with screams and feedback which at 9:06 segues into another super fast song which is distinguished from the others because of a riff where the chords go up and up higher and higher and faster as if they are going to explode, although it rumbles unto feedback at around 10:24 when a new tone of fuzzy nose feedback and a much slower introductory opens before before the pummeling hardcore resumes until 12:03. This first song ends with a moment of silence and then a woman saying “unpleasant dreams” before a Wata fast high note solo is balanced by slow pummeling chords and drums and cymbals. After a minute or so, the hardcore returns this time with a solo all over the top of the song. The song ends with a humming and what sounds like car keys jingling
“e” is over 15 minutes long and is one third hardcore punk and two thirds slow lengthy drone. It starts with an Atsuo scream and hardcore drums. There’s a blistering hardcore song–fast riffage and screamed lyrics (which I assume are in Japanese). Although the hardcore songs sound similar (and are unnamed) the riffs are distinctive enough to tell them apart. Some backwards masked sounds come in at 1:05 and a similar riff at 1:15. I have never seen them play this kind of set–it must be exhausting. At 2.01 a loud bass comes in with a lot of cymbals and the song is buried under a blanket of distortion. two minute song starts with. At 3:04 a buzzsaw sound and a cool riff is coupled with some intense screaming. At 4:45 it morphs into feedback that contains another sample from an Andrei Tarkovsky film, this time the 1986 film, The Sacrifice. A man say “I hela mitt liv har jag väntat på det här. Hela mitt liv har varit en enda väntan på det här.” (Swedish for “All my life I’ve been waiting for this. My whole life has been a long wait for this.”) The rest of the song feels like it might stay a lengthy drone, but at 5:46 after some cracks of the snare, a slow powerful Boris riff emerges. But the riff dies away for some slow Wata soloing over droning chords.
Track 3 is probably the “noise version” (which is 17 minutes long) or the 2013 re-release (which is 17:25) but this track is 18:04. Of course, if the “noise” version has no vocals, it can’t be this because it does have vocals.
It opens with a similar kind of noise that opens “v” but more staticky and with distant riffing going on. At 1:58 a riff comes in. The songs are like “v.” A shorter version of the jet sounds are followed by some slow heavy chords. At 3.22 there’s some chirping feedback that introduces the first hardcore song in “v.” At 5.22 [#4 above] segues into a scream-filled hardcore song followed at 6:14 by the riff that goes higher and higher. At 7:36, there’s slow thumping with noise and feedback (this might be new and not on “v”) then a sudden drop off of sound and near silence before the screeching feedback that starts at 8:39 with a blistering hardcore song that sounds unlike anything before. There’s heavy fast riffing with a pause and a big scream before resuming. At 11:50, warping sounds and a thundering drum compete with a really fast riff which sounds like the first part of “e.” At 13:05 song 2 from “e” begins–short, fast and loud. Then at 13:51 comes track 4 from “e” (there’s no track 3) with the buzzsaw opening. At 15.21 there’s some backwards recording which eventually becomes the guitar solo that ended “v,” although this time it’s just under 3 minutes long.
Track 4 is “n.” Perhaps it’s the “noise version” as there are no words. It’s 17:59 and is a noisy composition of drone and feedback. There’s some heavy chords and some quieter moments. The high soaring notes seem to fit in very nicely with the sludgy bottom parts. About half way through it turns into a fast, heavy hardcoreish track with a lot of drums, but buried under a wall of feedback and distortion.
[READ: November 12, 2020] The Little Buddhist Monk
The Little Buddhist Monk (written 2005) has been bundled with The Proof (written 1989) into one book. Both stories were translated by Nick Caistor.
The Little Buddhist Monk is an absolutely bizarre, borderline stream of consciousness story. It jumps from topic to topic like a fever dream and resolves itself in an even more unexpected way.
The story opens with us meeting the little monk who would very much like to leave Korea (where he was born and where he studied). But he has no money and no reasonable expectation for ever emigrating.
Then one day a French photographer, Napoleon Chirac, and his wife Jacqueline Bloodymary (!) happened in his path. They were on vacation and spoke French to each other. The monk knew French and joined in the conversation. They were delighted to meet a fellow French speaker in such a foreign land. He imagined that they could be his ticket out of Korea. So he decided to help them throughout the day.
They talk a lot about art. Napoleon photographs empty rooms with a 360 degree camera and then splices it together as one image. He has traveled the world filming places and he is looking to do a Korean monastery. What luck, the monk can take them to a good one. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 