SOUNDTRACK: BORIS-Pink (2005/2016).
You never know exactly what you’re going to get with an experimental band like Boris. Well, you sort of know what you’re going to get–it will be loud and heavy (mostly).
Boris is and pretty much always has been a trio from Japan: Takeshi on vocals, and double neck bass/ guitar; Atsuo on drums and some vocals and Wata – with guitars effects and vocals.
. Their first album came out in 1996 and was a 60 minute continuous piece of drone metal. It is considered ground breaking (and ground shaking) and is completely influential. It (along with half of their catalog) is currently out of print, at least in the U.S. Boris is also nigh impossible to collect all of their music, if you like that sort of thing. Their Japanese releases are inevitably different from any American release (and sometimes vinyl differs from CD). Either by track order or length of song or even the mix of particular songs
A decade and eight (plus) releases later with names like Amplifier Worship and Heavy Rocks, they put out Pink.
Pink is a landmark album for Boris (two years ago they toured the album), because even though it was still incredibly heavy, it also experimented. Most notably with shoegaze.
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Pink has a specific track listing on both American and Japanese releases, but the vinyl mixes things up.
The CD releases open with “決別” (“Farewell”) a beautiful soaring 7 minute slow song with a catchy chord sequence and lovely ringing guitars. Although the beauty is interrupted by Wata’s wailing guitar solos. She plays some wonderful soaring notes although at times they are rather piercing. But it’s still kind of soothing and dreamy
Until track 2, when “Pink” scorches forth with a super fast super heavy super guitar blast. Four minutes of all out metal with soaring guitars, heavy drums and some appropriate screams from drummer/singer Atsuo. And if you listen with headphones, there may be two or three guitars echoing in there (in addition to Wata, Tetsuo exclsuivly plays a doubleneck bass/guitar so you never really know what you’re going to get form him next.
The two and a half-minute “スクリーンの女” (“Woman on the Screen”) continues the thrash while the two-minute “別になんでもない” (“Nothing Special”) only increases it with a guitar so fuzzed out as to be almost recognizable.
“ブラックアウト” (“Blackout”) shows another side of the band. Still loud, still heavy, but grindingly slow and sludgy (those shoegaze days are long gone). The song ends with nearly a minute of ringing feedback before abruptly cutting off and switching to a more standard heavy metal sound in the 75 second instrumental “Electric.”
“偽ブレッド” (“Pseudo-Bread”) stomps along with fast drums and all kinds of distortion. It’s even got a kind of mumbly sing-along chorus. In the second half of these song there’s a great riff and even some “ooh oohs” to sing along to. It’s really catchy until the ten seconds of noise tacked on at the end (the vinyl version extends this sheer brutal wall of noise to six minutes!).
“ぬるい炎” (“Afterburner”) changes tempo a lot. It sounds like a big old 1970s rock song with chanted vocals and hand claps. Wata’s solo is pure old school classic rock. Prominent drums and highly distorted guitars split headphones as the vocals sit in the middle of the three-minute “6を3つ” (“Six, Three Times”).
“My Machine” is only two minutes on the CD, but it is eleven on the vinyl. The Cd version taken from the middle of the song–where there’s more bass and echoed guitars underneath, while the eleven minute version has soaring guitars and washes of waves moving back and forth. It’s dreamy and lovely until the ending feedback, of course. But that fades out and then it’s just relaxing washes of waves until the main melody pokes it head back up briefly and then fades once more. There’s a kind of rumble for the last minute or so of the extended version which leads into “Farewell” on the vinyl. But the CD continues with “俺を捨てたところ” (“Just Abandoned Myself”). On the American release, it’s eighteen minutes long, although it’s only ten minutes on the Japanese version.
The song is a favorite of many fans. It’s got a totally catchy riff with distant vocals singing a catchy melody. It’s like 7 minutes of a super catchy metal song with great vocals, a catchy melody and a terrific baseline riff. There’s some very cool sounds that bounce around the song too. Around eight minutes the heaviness goes away and soaring guitars take over, but with a low rumble to keep it grounded. The next six or so minutes are pretty much classic metal drone–two chords repeated slowly while a feebacking guitar wails over the top. The only difference is the kind of quieter guitar that;s sort of soloing throughout–almost plucking out notes amid the noise.
Pink was reissued in 2016 as a deluxe two disc package. The second disc is called Forbidden Songs with nine well-produced and great-sounding tracks.
“Your Name Part 2” is dreamy and melodic. It opens quietly almost like a spaghetti western with some bass notes, soaring guitar notes, and quietly echoed vocals. “Heavy Rock Industry” starts with some loud droning chords and then about a minute an a half in there’s just drums and Atsuo whooping until the song takes off again. “SOFUN” is four minutes of a heavy pummeling riff and scorching solos.
“non/sha/lant” is like a heavy short jam with bass riffage and soloing followed by some guitar work. “Room Noise” is catchy with a cool bassline and soaring guitars. “Talisman” is slow and heavy with loud distortion. There’s a shouted chorus with heavy downtuned guitars that makes it almost singalongy.
“N.F. Sorrow” is nearly eight minutes long. starts off slow with echoed vocals and a shaker. It’s a quiet moody piece that builds to a heavy chorus with rumbling slow bass. When the song really gets moving around 6 minutes there’s some great driving bass under Wata’s solo.
“Are You Ready?” is a simple two note riff on the guitar with a chorus of loudly whispered menace. The song fades on a wild solo. And the bonus disc ends with the 2 minute “Tiptoe” a quiet piece of gently plucked guitars and echoed notes that resolves into a really catchy melody.
Boris has dozens of records out but this is certainly the place to start–you get to experience pretty much all phases of the band.
[READ: July 21, 2015] “Lost Luggage”
This was the 2015 New Yorker fiction issue. It featured several stories and several one-page essays from writers I like. The subject this time was “Time Travel.”
Mueenudin imagines travelling back in time to the 1930s when India was still unified, to visit his father when he was young.
His father was a lawyer and when he studied at Oxford, the girls nicknamed him The Shiek. (more…)
I have been fascinated with Ibeyi since I first heard them a couple years ago. Their more recent song “Deathless” is just outstanding. I’d also heard they put on a great show.
SOUNDTRACK: ALICE SMITH-Tiny Desk Concert #700 (January 31, 2018).
I had never heard of Alice Smith before, which I guess isn’t totally unsurprising given the blurb:
I Just Read About That... 