SOUNDTRACK: BORIS with MERZBOW-Gensho (Disc One: Boris) (2016).
In 2016, Boris teamed with Merzbow to create Gensho, a 2 CD package that was designed to have both CDs played at the same time. Not the easiest thing for many people, but with the advent of digital recordings it’s now pretty easy to play both discs at the same time (this release is on Spotify).
Disc 1 was all Boris. Disc 2 was all Merzbow.
When you play them together, you get the drumless Boris with all of the glitching electronica of Merzbow sprinkled around it. The songs are set up in a very clever way with one of Merzbow’s songs being exactly equal to two or three of the Boris songs.
I played the CD of Boris and the stream of Merzbow on Spotify. It was cool to be able to raise and lower the volunme of one to change the intensity of Merzbow’s glitches.
Merzbow’s “Planet of the Cows” plays over the first two Boris songs “Farewell” and “Huge.” Farewell’s quiet drone tacks on Merzbow’s squeals and glitches which fill in the gaps quite nicely. When “Farewell” ends, the Merzbow continues until the loud gongs heavy chords of “Huge” ring out. The Merzbow chaos sounds almost like a solo over the slow low heavy drone chords. Atsuo’s low growling even complements the spare noises. Both parts ends with squealing feedbacking sounds–analog from Boris and digital from Merzbow.
Merzbow’s “Goloka Pt. 1” plays over three Boris songs “Resonance” “Rainbow” and “Sometimes” (the My Bloody Valentine cover). “Resonance” is mostly percussion–kind of randomly hit in a slow rhythm. Merzbow’s noises sound like static in a distance echoing signal from outer space. “Rainbow” is a piece I don’t know. This version features Boris playing some quiet guitar and a grooving bass with Wata singing vocals. Merzbow’s electronics sounds restrained here, adding louder noises when the vocals back out This song has some tasty soloing from Wata with the electronics almost keeping pace. It segues into “Sometimes,” with its loud thumping echoes and eventual wall of noise. The vocals are pretty well buried but you can hear the melody of the MBV song.
“Goloka Pt.. 2” plays over “Heavy Rain” and “Akuma No Uta.” “Heavy Rain” starts out with noisy stabs of sound–it’s actually hard to tell who is making what, but then things mellow out as Wata sings. The guitars drone loudly and the vocals mix in with the electronics. It ends with the noisy guitar buzzing from Boris while the noises from Merzbow continue between songs–sounds of noise and electronic bleeps. “Akuma No Uta” starts slowly with washes of guitar build up. The glitching Merzbow adds keeps it from being purely a drone. The drone gets louder and louder and I like the way Merzbow’s glitches seem to back off as the man riff enters the song. As it nears the end, glitching sounds to me like a menacing voice coming through the static and heavy riffage.
The final song is Merzbow’ “Prelude to a Broken Arm” which plays over “Akirame Flower” and “Vomitself.” It starts out with watery sounds before the big chords and vocals kick in. Merzbow’s noise is like a screaming train underneath the slow crooning. The main riff from Wata has some electronic percussive sounds tacked onto it. As the final chord rings out the song segues into the musch noisier “Vomitself.” It introduces a huge wave of low chords as Merzbow’s noise amps up to correspond with a lot of low growling percussive sounds. As the song rumbles to an end the squealing intensifies like feedback added on top of the roar with the last notes sounding like a person raging.
It’s interesting how I don’t really like the Merzbow tracks, but how they add interesting textures to the Boris songs.
[READ: February 19, 2021] Caliente
Matu Santamaria is an Argentinian illustrator and his work is really stunning.
This book has a big warning: 18+ but it’s not fully explicit. There are drawing of naked women and sex acts, but there’s only a few things that are NSFW.
Santamaria’s work is full of clean lines and and dramatic colors. I really enjoy looking at it, regardless of the content.
This book contains a lot of his most recent work. It seems to be split between positive messages about sexuality, body positivity and appreciation for frontline workers during the Coronavirus. There’s also some celebrity pictures as well.
After some definitions of the word caliente, the book opens with series of pictures of women exploring the sexuality with each other. Interracial women kissing and a woman taking her top off with the comment–“and without realizing it, it’s poetry.” (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: ROY AYERS-Tiny Desk Concert #712 (March 1, 2018).
I Just Read About That... 