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. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 