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IMPORTANT (Please read to avoid confusion):
Some items below may be tagged with a bold, red, all-caps "out of print/unavailable" notice. This does NOT mean that all other items not so tagged are, in fact, in stock -- or for that matter, in print and available, though there's a good chance they are. Some folks get confused on this point, and we can see why, so please read this for further clarification and other important before-you-order information. Unlike some mailorder websites, we don't have an electronic inventory system linked to our site, so you can't be sure of what we actually have or don't have in stock at any given moment without asking us -- please email our mailorder department for availability status -- or better yet, just go ahead and place your order using our shopping cart function and we'll get back to you with the status of each item. If you have general non-mailorder questions, email the store.


album cover BORIS Japanese Heavy Rock Hits Vol. 1 (Southern Lord) 7" 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Like those little tremors that come right before the big quake, after a seriously long period of near silence, new music has begun to seep out of the Boris camp recently, first, the super strange split we reviewed on the last list, that found Boris getting all shoegazey and Ariel Pink-y and teaming up with a weird Shadowfaxy techno group, now this record, the first in a series of three 7"s, which continues to demonstrate Boris' willingness to push sonic boundaries.
This first seven inch starts off with a bang, the band rocking up a storm Pink style, big and bombastic and blown out, psychedelic and in-the-red, massive guitar crunch and pretty ethereal vocals, wild drumming, a pretty serious slab of... well, heavy rock! Not a huge departure really, but it sounds great, and should have most Boris fanatics going nuts.
The flipside is another rocker, but this one is a bit more fuzzy and poppy, still plenty distorted and heavy, but super hooky, and crazy catchy, a poppier Boris is still probably heavier than most heavy bands on their best day, and like the A side, these new recordings sound fantastic, super hot and way suitable for headphone hearing abuse.
Cool super thick covers too, designed by Stephen O'Malley, and featuring a weird glamor shot of one of the band members, Takeshi we think, which we can only assume means each member will get their own glamorous cover shot. Weird, but hey, it's Boris. Odds are you know you already need this, and are already eagerly awaiting volume two, which drops next month. Can't wait...

album cover BORIS Japanese Heavy Rock Hits Vol. 2 (Southern Lord) 7" 5.98
Second volume in the Japanese Heavy Rock Hits series from long beloved Japanese heavy rockers Boris. Whereas the first volume was all over the map, with the trio exploring shoegaze-y bliss rock on one side, and some murky Ariel Pink-ish anti pop on the other, Volume 2 finds the band back in more recognizably Boris territory. Sort of.
The A side, "Heavy Metal Addict" falls somewhere between true metal tribute, and goofball taking-the-piss fucking around, with a bad ass meaty main riff, some soaring reverbed vocals, but then some weird Gary Glitter sing along / handclapping, and some really fucked up production, which at the beginning sounds like two records playing at once. The result is a bit loose, and sounds a bit like the band messing around at practice, but it's still fun, and a cool Pink era sounding metal jam. And check out the video online, which features Japanese glam band Sex Virgin Killer, a rad visual kei band (look it up!) rocking out, practicing, smashing stuff, and holy shit are they awesome looking, with some of the BIGGEST, wildest hair you'll ever see. Weird that Boris just basically dubbed their music over another band's video, but it did get us all excited to track down some Sex Virgin Killer music....
Flip the record over, and stuff gets all weird again, with the band hauling out the drum machine, and getting all lo-fi pop / eighties new wave, with angular guitars, stuttery rhythms, and breathless soft focus vox. Pretty cool. Sure a lot of folks are wondering 'what the fuck', but Boris have always been the sort of band to defy and confound, and while we may yearn for the days of Flood and Amplifier Worship, we're way digging this new wave thing Boris have going on now.
Garish glamor shot cover art, looks like each member will get the cover of one single, saving Wata for last of course, this one features the drummer, we think, with big teased hair, and unzipped jeans revealing his pink tie dyed briefs, all beneath a haze of Stephen O'Malley geometric graphic design. Weird.
Like the first volume, and the forthcoming third, super limited, and it would be a drag not not have the whole set, so hop to it!

album cover BORIS Japanese Heavy Rock Hits Vol. 3 (Southern Lord) 7" 5.98
Finally, the third and final volume in the Japanese Heavy Rock Hits 7" series from Japanese heavy rockers Boris. Although based solely on this series of singles, one could be forgiven for thinking Boris were anything but heavy rockers. Seems like these singles were a chance for the band to stretch out and try on some different sounds for size, and the results have been pretty great actually.
Each 7" featured a different band member on the cover, and fan boys have been waiting for this one, when lead guitarist and Boris crush Wata takes center stage. Glamorous and bored, or maybe just aloof, Wata poses beneath a flurry of Stephen O'Malley's geometric abstractions on the cover, while inside, on the A side, Wata croons languidly over a simple skeletal drumbeat and washed out clean guitar strum, almost like a way more minimal stripped down sonic youth. Minor key, woozy, melancholy, the vocals front and center, while the band offer a hushed slowcore backdrop, delicate and mopey and a little bit dreamy, with a definite '90s indie rock vibe, with a little Mazzy Star mixed in, but not nearly as shoegazey, just really sad and slow and indie folky.
The flipside however finished things with a band, or more specifically, a wall of crumbling distortion, then a sheet of feedback, and then some slow plodding blissed out mope rock, with crashing drums, crooned vox, epic and mournful, another nod to the indie rock of old, but given a little Nadja / Jesu style sonic makeover. A lilting main vocal melody drifts ethereally over snarls of incendiary guitar, and plodding doomic drums, everything lysergic and staring-into-the-sun heavy. Dizzying and darkly dreamy, a sort of future heavy rock doom-ed blown out ballad. Really cool for sure, but these singles definitely have us wondering what the heck the next Boris full length is gonna sound like... can't wait to find out.

album cover BORIS Live At Shimokitazawa Shelter (DIWPhalanx) dvd 40.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Of bands that we at Aquarius would LOVE to experience live, Boris would certainly be near the top of the list. We eagerly await the day they come (back) to San Francisco (yes -- apparently they did play here once before, like way back in 1995, but we didn't know about 'em then). So of course this brand new live DVD by Boris is a big thrill for us, and we're sure for many of you too. Finally, we get to see Boris in action, the powerhouse trio backed by a wall of Orange amplification, tearing the house down on one night of their "Black Summer Tour", July 12th 2003. And one thing this film reveals that perhaps not all Boris fans know is that guitarist Wata is a girl, cute as can be even as she wrenches the most doomed-out distortion from her axe. Meanwhile vocalist Takeshi attracts some attention wielding his trademark double neck bass/guitar, whilst Atsuo bashes the hell out of his drum kit.
For some reason this DVD doesn't seem to have a menu screen, it just starts up and goes. First a black screen, then some faint titles fade in and out, feedback builds, and out of the blackness -- BORIS! Devastating a packed, smokey club full of metal-crazed Japanese fans, fists and devil signs aloft. Shot with multiple cameras and edited MTV-style this is a real pro production. After the black hole gravity of the first song ("Huge" from Amplifier Worship), Boris rip into some more uptempo material, stoner rock thrash outs from Heavy Rocks and their recent Akuma No Uta ep. There's about an hour of live performance, ten songs total, from punk mania to brutal psych dirge. And it's not all straight concert footage, there's some backstage shots and arty compositions of almost-stills about a half-hour in.
Following the show, the DVD continues with four Boris videos. Two are taken from Heavy Rocks: a black-and-white-and-orange "Korosu" and a live-montage clip for "1970". The other two are from Akuma No Uta, both animations, one a frenzy of CG techno-weaponry, the other a low-tech cartoon made from smudged sketchbook art a la the cover to the Akuma No Uta cd. Pretty cool both of those, as is the entire DVD!

album cover BORIS Mabuta No Ura (Inoxia) lp / poster / picture cards 40.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Boris fans are definitely obsessive, most wanting to collect anything and everything the band puts out, whether it's the same record with different artwork, or a limited single, or the same record with 9 minutes of extra music or a different record with the same cover or whatever. The band don't really help matters much, wholeheartedly playing into this, releasing records in ridiculously limited versions and multiple versions, with different artwork or bonus tracks or both. But this new record Mabuta No Ura has definitely pushed all this multiple version collecting about as far as it can go. More on that at the end of the review -- and we definitely suggest you read that stuff before you buy! But hey, let's talk about the record. A soundtrack to a film entitled Mabuta No Ura, this is Boris at their most abstract, maybe even at their least heavy, but Boris has yet to disappoint, and they don't here. Although depending on your personal favorite style of Boris, whether it be the slow sludgy dirges, the minimal drones or the all out super distorted RAWK, you might have to readjust your thinking to get into Mabuta No Ura. There's only one actually 'heavy track', and some of you may already have it, or at least a version of it, as the track in question, "A Bao A Qu" was released as a super limited picture disc 7" not too long ago. "A Bao A Qu" finds Boris churning through a sludgy slab of crushing psych rock, the way only they seem to do it. The rest of Mabuta No Ura finds the band exploring much more contemplative moods, constructing simple, dreamy passages of finger picked guitar, and warm swells of moody ambience. Sometimes sounding a bit like Low, sometimes a little like Slint, the theme here overall does seem to be a brooding slow building post rock. There are variations of course, Eastern sounding melodies, hazy chanted vocals, shimmering washes of cymbal sizzle, tribal rhythms, hand claps, plaintive vocalising, stretches of Sunroof!-like free-noise ambience, blown out krautrock rhythms, but it all sort of hovers around that post rock sound we love so much, dark and moody and smoldering, occasionally bursting with dynamics, but more often than not chugging along all melancholy and contemplatively propulsive. Hard to imagine what sort of film Mabuta No Ura must be, but the songs and sounds here are quite evocative, and let our imaginations conjure up the appropriate images to go with these sumptuous sounds. Packaged in a gorgeous chipboard slipcover die cut sleeve, with a dozen cd sized photos, presumable from the film, with stories printed on the other sides, unfortunately all in Japanese.
So here's the complicated stuff. There are FOUR versions of this record. All of them slightly different. This is the ULTRA LIMITED Japanese lp version. 500 made, we got about 1/5 of those. Once they are gone they are gone for good. And since it's so limited, only one per customer. The deluxe lp version comes in a gateflod sleeve, with a big poster, and a dozen 12" x 12" cards with images from the film on one side and Japanese / English text on the other. We also have the Japanese cd version in stock, which comes in a cool diecut chiboard sleeve, has the same music as the lp, and is not limited. There will be another cd version, released by the Brazilian label Essence, and there will be two versions of that. A super deluxe boxed version, and a regular digipak version. The deluxe version is super limited. Only 120 copies made. We're getting half. Those will all be spoken for by the time we get them, so if you want one of those, pre-order it now. The regular Brazilian version is the same as the deluxe version just with less packaging. And is not limited.
Confused yet? Well, stick with us just a little bit longer. The Brazilian version has more music than the Japanese version. BUT, the Japanese version has music NOT on the Brazilian version. Okay. So if you just want to make sure you have ALL the music, you need both the Japanese version AND the Brazilian version. And since the Japanese cd and the Brazilian regular cd are not limited, you can easily pick up both. The lp and the deluxe version are just for those of you who need the fancy versions or feel compelled to collect them all. Finally, the Brazilian cd version won't be out until end of August or thereabouts, so orders WILL NOT be held for those! If you want both, we'll send you the Japanese cd or lp (or both!) now and the Brazilian version when they show up in a month or so. Phew!
MPEG Stream: "A Bao A Qu"
MPEG Stream: "The Slow Ripple Of A Puddle"
MPEG Stream: "It Touches"

album cover BORIS Mabuta No Ura (Brazilian Version) (Essence Music) cd 21.00
We figured that since this list was so chock full of new Boris releases we oughta let folks know that we also got back in the Brazilian version of Boris' Mabuta No Ura soundtrack, so for those of you who somehow missed it last time around, check it out:
Finally! The Brazilian version of the Boris soundtrack Mabuta No Ura. And why is another version of a record you may already own so essential? Well, for the precise reason we all find Boris so enticing and simultaneously frustrating. This new version is SIMILAR, but NOT identical to the Japanese version. Obviously the packaging is completely different. But the music is too, which means all you Boris obsessives will need this as well as the Japanese version if you want all the Mabuta No Ura music there is. Some of the tracks here are -not- on the Japanese version, however, there are a few tracks on the Japanese version that are not found here. ARGHHHH. But thankfully Boris are so good, and Mabuta is so completely amazing, that it makes all this multiple version craziness go down just a little bit easier. But as we said before:
Boris fans are definitely obsessive, most wanting to collect anything and everything the band puts out, whether it's the same record with different artwork, or a limited single, or the same record with 9 minutes of extra music or a different record with the same cover or whatever. The band don't really help matters much, wholeheartedly playing into this, releasing records in ridiculously limited versions and multiple versions, with different artwork or bonus tracks or both. But this new record Mabuta No Ura has definitely pushed all this multiple version collecting about as far as it can go. But hey, let's talk about the record. A soundtrack to a film entitled Mabuta No Ura, this is Boris at their most abstract, maybe even at their least heavy, but Boris has yet to disappoint, and they don't here. Although depending on your personal favorite style of Boris, whether it be the slow sludgy dirges, the minimal drones or the all out super distorted RAWK, you might have to readjust your thinking to get into Mabuta No Ura. There's only one actually 'heavy track', and some of you may already have it, or at least a version of it, as the track in question, "A Bao A Qu" was released as a super limited picture disc 7" not too long ago. "A Bao A Qu" finds Boris churning through a sludgy slab of crushing psych rock, the way only they seem to do it. The rest of Mabuta No Ura finds the band exploring much more contemplative moods, constructing simple, dreamy passages of finger picked guitar, and warm swells of moody ambience. Sometimes sounding a bit like Low, sometimes a little like Slint, the theme here overall does seem to be a brooding slow building post rock. There are variations of course, Eastern sounding melodies, hazy chanted vocals, shimmering washes of cymbal sizzle, tribal rhythms, hand claps, plaintive vocalising, stretches of Sunroof!-like free-noise ambience, blown out krautrock rhythms, but it all sort of hovers around that post rock sound we love so much, dark and moody and smoldering, occasionally bursting with dynamics, but more often than not chugging along all melancholy and contemplatively propulsive. Hard to imagine what sort of film Mabuta No Ura must be, but the songs and sounds here are quite evocative, and let our imaginations conjure up the appropriate images to go with these sumptuous sounds.
The Brazilian version comes in a nice thick oversized mini lp gateflod sleeve, housed in a deluxe die cut slip case. Inside are mini reproductions of the inserts that came with the original lp. So nice.
MPEG Stream: "A Bao A Qu"
MPEG Stream: "The Slow Ripple Of A Puddle"
MPEG Stream: "It Touches"

album cover BORIS Mabuta No Ura - Deluxe Brazilian Box Set Version (Essence Music) cd / box / cards / flowers 50.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally! The Deluxe Brazilian box set version of the Boris soundtrack Mabuta No Ura. And why is another version of a record you may already own so essential? Well, for the precise reason we all find Boris so enticing and simultaneously frustrating. This new version is SIMILAR, but NOT identical to the Japanese version. Obviously the packaging is completely different. But the music is too, which means all you Boris obsessives will need this as well as the Japanese version if you want all the Mabuta No Ura music there is. Some of the tracks here are -not- on the Japanese version, however, there are a few tracks on the Japanese version that are not found here. ARGHHHH. But thankfully Boris are so good, and Mabuta is so completely amazing, that it makes all this multiple version craziness go down just a little bit easier. But as we said before:
Boris fans are definitely obsessive, most wanting to collect anything and everything the band puts out, whether it's the same record with different artwork, or a limited single, or the same record with 9 minutes of extra music or a different record with the same cover or whatever. The band don't really help matters much, wholeheartedly playing into this, releasing records in ridiculously limited versions and multiple versions, with different artwork or bonus tracks or both. But this new record Mabuta No Ura has definitely pushed all this multiple version collecting about as far as it can go. But hey, let's talk about the record. A soundtrack to a film entitled Mabuta No Ura, this is Boris at their most abstract, maybe even at their least heavy, but Boris has yet to disappoint, and they don't here. Although depending on your personal favorite style of Boris, whether it be the slow sludgy dirges, the minimal drones or the all out super distorted RAWK, you might have to readjust your thinking to get into Mabuta No Ura. There's only one actually 'heavy track', and some of you may already have it, or at least a version of it, as the track in question, "A Bao A Qu" was released as a super limited picture disc 7" not too long ago. "A Bao A Qu" finds Boris churning through a sludgy slab of crushing psych rock, the way only they seem to do it. The rest of Mabuta No Ura finds the band exploring much more contemplative moods, constructing simple, dreamy passages of finger picked guitar, and warm swells of moody ambience. Sometimes sounding a bit like Low, sometimes a little like Slint, the theme here overall does seem to be a brooding slow building post rock. There are variations of course, Eastern sounding melodies, hazy chanted vocals, shimmering washes of cymbal sizzle, tribal rhythms, hand claps, plaintive vocalising, stretches of Sunroof!-like free-noise ambience, blown out krautrock rhythms, but it all sort of hovers around that post rock sound we love so much, dark and moody and smoldering, occasionally bursting with dynamics, but more often than not chugging along all melancholy and contemplatively propulsive. Hard to imagine what sort of film Mabuta No Ura must be, but the songs and sounds here are quite evocative, and let our imaginations conjure up the appropriate images to go with these sumptuous sounds.
This box set version is limited to 120 copies, 70 of which we got here. The normal Brazilian version of Mabuta is packaged insied a white painted and textured box, wrapped in white cord. Along with the cd inside you'll find dried flowere and flower petals as well as a ton of extra inserts, photos, and text. Really beautiful, ultra limited and most likely by the time you read this out of print.
MPEG Stream: "A Bao A Qu"
MPEG Stream: "The Slow Ripple Of A Puddle"
MPEG Stream: "It Touches"

album cover BORIS Mabuta No Ura (Japanese Version) (Catune) cd 25.00
Boris fans are definitely obsessive, most wanting to collect anything and everything the band puts out, whether it's the same record with different artwork, or a limited single, or the same record with 9 minutes of extra music or a different record with the same cover or whatever. The band don't really help matters much, wholeheartedly playing into this, releasing records in ridiculously limited versions and multiple versions, with different artwork or bonus tracks or both. But this new record Mabuta No Ura has definitely pushed all this multiple version collecting about as far as it can go. More on that at the end of the review -- and we definitely suggest you read that stuff before you buy! But hey, let's talk about the record. A soundtrack to a film entitled Mabuta No Ura, this is Boris at their most abstract, maybe even at their least heavy, but Boris has yet to disappoint, and they don't here. Although depending on your personal favorite style of Boris, whether it be the slow sludgy dirges, the minimal drones or the all out super distorted RAWK, you might have to readjust your thinking to get into Mabuta No Ura. There's only one actually 'heavy track', and some of you may already have it, or at least a version of it, as the track in question, "A Bao A Qu" was released as a super limited picture disc 7" not too long ago. "A Bao A Qu" finds Boris churning through a sludgy slab of crushing psych rock, the way only they seem to do it. The rest of Mabuta No Ura finds the band exploring much more contemplative moods, constructing simple, dreamy passages of finger picked guitar, and warm swells of moody ambience. Sometimes sounding a bit like Low, sometimes a little like Slint, the theme here overall does seem to be a brooding slow building post rock. There are variations of course, Eastern sounding melodies, hazy chanted vocals, shimmering washes of cymbal sizzle, tribal rhythms, hand claps, plaintive vocalising, stretches of Sunroof!-like free-noise ambience, blown out krautrock rhythms, but it all sort of hovers around that post rock sound we love so much, dark and moody and smoldering, occasionally bursting with dynamics, but more often than not chugging along all melancholy and contemplatively propulsive. Hard to imagine what sort of film Mabuta No Ura must be, but the songs and sounds here are quite evocative, and let our imaginations conjure up the appropriate images to go with these sumptuous sounds. Packaged in a gorgeous chipboard slipcover die cut sleeve, with a dozen cd sized photos, presumable from the film, with stories printed on the other sides, unfortunately all in Japanese.
So here's the complicated stuff. There are FOUR versions of this record. All of them slightly different. This is the Japanese cd version. comes in a chipboard diecut sleeve and is NOT limited. In the next week or so we will be getting the vinyl version, which comes with a dozen 12x12 photo prints and IS limited. Only 500 were made and we're getting about a fifth of those, but as with all things Boris they will not last long. So if you want one, best to preorder it now. There will be another cd version, released by the Brazilian label Essence, and there will be two versions of that. A super deluxe boxed version, and a regular digipak version. The deluxe version is super limited. Only 120 copies made. We're getting half. Those will all be spoken for by the time we get them, so if you want one of those, pre-order it now. The regular Brazilian version is the same as the deluxe version just with less packaging. And is not limited.
Confused yet? Well, stick with us just a little bit longer. The Brazilian version has more music than the Japanese version. BUT, the Japanese version has music NOT on the Brazilian version. Okay. So if you just want to make sure you have ALL the music, you need both the Japanese version AND the Brazilian version. And since the Japanese cd and the Brazilian regular cd are not limited, you can easily pick up both. The lp and the deluxe version are just for those of you who need the fancy versions or feel compelled to collect them all. Finally, the Brazilian cd version won't be out until end of August or thereabouts, so orders WILL NOT be held for those! If you want both, we'll send you the Japanese cd now (lp when we get them) and the Brazilian version when they show up in a month or so. Phew!
MPEG Stream: "A Bao A Qu"
MPEG Stream: "The Slow Ripple Of A Puddle"
MPEG Stream: "It Touches"

album cover BORIS New Album (Sargent House) cd 15.98
Of the three records Japanese trio Boris released in 2011 (yep, three!), the one we were most excited about was the hardest to get, at least until now. We reviewed both Heavy Rocks (the second Heavy Rocks, confusionally titled the same as their 2002 album), and also Attention Please, which featured all songs sung by guitarist Wata, and of the two, we got kind of obsessed with that Wata one. But we had also been hearing about a third record, also confusionally titled New Album, which originally came out in Japan only, and which featured different versions of many of the same songs from the other two records, but in dramatically different form, with most reports claiming that New Album was in fact Boris' J-Pop record, which sounded pretty dang appealing to us. And while some folks we know (as well as at least one aQ-er) took the plunge and plopped down $40 for the import, it's now finally available domestically, and holy crap it is without a doubt the best of the three. A friend of aQ was giving us shit for digging this so much, claiming that he knew we would, cuz we love that indie pop sound so much, which is actually totally true, and if you're coming to New Album looking for anything remotely heavy, you will be sorely disappointed. Sure there's some crunchy guitar here and there, but it's in the service of electronica flecked indie rock jangle, shoegazey J-pop, synth heavy electro, skittery new wave, and pretty much every fuzzy electro pop nineties style variation Boris could whip up.
And yeah, 4 or 5 of the songs are on other records, but they are dramatically different here, arrangement, instrumentation, everything, and this is one of those times we're not gonna do a song by song blow by blow, just know that of the three new ones, this one is definitely our favorite and sounds more like Blonde Redhead mixed with M83, with some of the tracks sounding like they should have been on the late great French electronic pop label Gooom, some of Boris' best songs ever, alongside some of their weirdest. But if you ever wondered what Boris would sound like playing nineties shoegaze indie rock electro pop, this is the record for you!
MPEG Stream: "Hope"
MPEG Stream: "Party Boy"
MPEG Stream: "Luna"
MPEG Stream: "Spoon"

album cover BORIS New Album (Sargent House) 2lp 29.00
After some delay, NOW ON (SWANK) VINYL!!
Of the three records Japanese trio Boris released in 2011 (yep, three!), the one we were most excited about was the hardest to get, at least until now. We reviewed both Heavy Rocks (the second Heavy Rocks, confusionally titled the same as their 2002 album), and also Attention Please, which featured all songs sung by guitarist Wata, and of the two, we got kind of obsessed with that Wata one. But we had also been hearing about a third record, also confusionally titled New Album, which originally came out in Japan only, and which featured different versions of many of the same songs from the other two records, but in dramatically different form, with most reports claiming that New Album was in fact Boris' J-Pop record, which sounded pretty dang appealing to us. And while some folks we know (as well as at least one aQ-er) took the plunge and plopped down $40 for the import, it's now finally available domestically, and holy crap it is without a doubt the best of the three. A friend of aQ was giving us shit for digging this so much, claiming that he knew we would, cuz we love that indie pop sound so much, which is actually totally true, and if you're coming to New Album looking for anything remotely heavy, you will be sorely disappointed. Sure there's some crunchy guitar here and there, but it's in the service of electronica flecked indie rock jangle, shoegazey J-pop, synth heavy electro, skittery new wave, and pretty much every fuzzy electro pop nineties style variation Boris could whip up.
And yeah, 4 or 5 of the songs are on other records, but they are dramatically different here, arrangement, instrumentation, everything, and this is one of those times we're not gonna do a song by song blow by blow, just know that of the three new ones, this one is definitely our favorite and sounds more like Blonde Redhead mixed with M83, with some of the tracks sounding like they should have been on the late great French electronic pop label Gooom, some of Boris' best songs ever, alongside some of their weirdest. But if you ever wondered what Boris would sound like playing nineties shoegaze indie rock electro pop, this is the record for you!
MPEG Stream: "Hope"
MPEG Stream: "Party Boy"
MPEG Stream: "Luna"
MPEG Stream: "Spoon"

album cover BORIS Pink (DIWPhalanx) cd 24.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Some of us are still reeling from the mighty ass kicking delivered by Boris on their recent US tour. And before our ears have even stopped ringing, it's time for yet another new blast of ultra hyper space psych sludge rock n' roll in the form of Pink. Continuing to hone their rock chops, having shed their doom sludge past for the most part now, Boris continue to sound like some MC5 / Hendrix hybrid, albeit supercharged and drenched in LSD and lit on fire and launched into space. Big old fuzzy riffs, churning basslines, and wild spastic drumming underneath Wata's wailing sixties styled leads. You can almost imagine these strange Japanese rockers wandering into the Fillmore in the sixties, like some bell bottomed aliens and proceeding to melt the minds and ear drums of everyone in attendance. Pink starts off with some fuzzed out ultra distorted post rock (reminiscent of some of the stuff on Mabuta No Ura) wrapped in a spacy psychedelic haze, but then it's immediately back to the full on, overblown distorto RAWK that has become THE SOUND of Boris. This is easily their most lo-fi, most blown out recording yet, almost like Boris is channelling Guitar Wolf or something. The drums and cymbals sizzle as the needle goes into the red on almost every track, and the guitars are so drenched in distortion they become huge squirming smears of fuzz. A couple tracks harken back to the slow motion sludge of Flood or Amplifier Worship, and there is the dreamy ambient drift of the second to last track "My Machine", but those are just brief respites, time to catch your breath before hurling yourself back into the fray, an endless maelstrom of head banging, fist pumping, guitar smashing, drumset destroying, hair swirling, sweating, bouncing, pounding pummeling ROCK AND ROLL.
The packaging is amazing too, with a tray card that's transparent, with clear pink printing, and a booklet that is actually a three panel fold out perforated sheet of Boris Pink acid tabs (with one already missing, presumably already ingested!) wrapped in a thick pink transparent sleeve. Wow!
MPEG Stream: "Song One"
MPEG Stream: "Pink"
MPEG Stream: "Song Two"

album cover BORIS Pink (Southern Lord) cd 14.98
Alright!! Finally, the most recent release from Japan's mighty masters of Orange Amped sludge groove drone rawk 'n' roll gets a more affordable, domestic release, but don't fret Boris nerds! There are plenty of reasons to hang on to your Japanese version, or heck, even own both. The new version does NOT replicate the mindblowing pink-plastic-see-through artwork of the import version, but the -new- design, courtesy of the ubiquitous Stephen O'Malley, ain't so shabby either, with some washed out pink and white imagery, some of his distinctive repeating shapes collages and a cool art deco font. The nicest part, is probably the sheets of 'acid tabs' inside, three of 'em, each printed on one side with that same pink and white geometric motif, the other sides with cool old fashioned woodcuts and oil paintings. Wow.
The one big difference (why must they always do this?!?!) is that -this- version, is about 8 or 9 minutes LONGER than the import version -- one track's got some extra drone tacked on. The music is the exact same as the super limited and now out of print double lp version. Hard to keep track of Boris sometimes, what with all their different releases and versions and limited editions, but we have to say, Boris are so good it just might be worth it.
Here's what we had to say about Pink first time we laid ears on it:
Some of us are still reeling from the mighty ass kicking delivered by Boris on their recent US tour. And before our ears have even stopped ringing, it's time for yet another new blast of ultra hyper space psych sludge rock n' roll in the form of Pink. Continuing to hone their rock chops, having shed their doom sludge past for the most part now, Boris continue to sound like some MC5 / Hendrix hybrid, albeit supercharged and drenched in LSD and lit on fire and launched into space. Big old fuzzy riffs, churning basslines, and wild spastic drumming underneath Wata's wailing sixties styled leads. You can almost imagine these strange Japanese rockers wandering into the Fillmore in the sixties, like some bell bottomed aliens and proceeding to melt the minds and ear drums of everyone in attendance. Pink starts off with some fuzzed out ultra distorted post rock (reminiscent of some of the stuff on Mabuta No Ura) wrapped in a spacy psychedelic haze, but then it's immediately back to the full on, overblown distorto RAWK that has become THE SOUND of Boris. This is easily their most lo-fi, most blown out recording yet, almost like Boris is channelling Guitar Wolf or something. The drums and cymbals sizzle as the needle goes into the red on almost every track, and the guitars are so drenched in distortion they become huge squirming smears of fuzz. A couple tracks harken back to the slow motion sludge of Flood or Amplifier Worship, and there is the dreamy ambient drift of the second to last track "My Machine", but those are just brief respites, time to catch your breath before hurling yourself back into the fray, an endless maelstrom of head banging, fist pumping, guitar smashing, drumset destroying, hair swirling, sweating, bouncing, pounding pummeling ROCK AND ROLL.
MPEG Stream: "Song One"
MPEG Stream: "Pink"
MPEG Stream: "Song Two"

album cover BORIS Pink (DIWPhalanx) 2lp 49.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally here, Boris' Pink on deluxe double LP vinyl. Supposedly sold out in under an hour from the label's website! Well, fear not, we have about 40 copies up for grabs (folks who pre-ordered, please DO NOT order it again, your copies are on hold, safe and sound) and boy have they outdone themselves this time. If you thought the super deluxe pink transparent cd packaging was amazing, all we can say about the 2LP is WOW. A bright pink oversize cardboard sleeve, with the band name and the album title cut out stencil style revealing still more pink inside, a full color (mostly pink) insert. Super cool. And obsessives should note, the musical program here is slightly different on the vinyl, so Boris nerds will definitely need (or at least want) both formats!! Here is what we said about the cd:
Some of us are still reeling from the mighty ass kicking delivered by Boris on their recent US tour. And before our ears have even stopped ringing, it's time for yet another new blast of ultra hyper space psych sludge rock n' roll in the form of Pink. Continuing to hone their rock chops, having shed their doom sludge past for the most part now, Boris continue to sound like some MC5 / Hendrix hybrid, albeit supercharged and drenched in LSD and lit on fire and launched into space. Big old fuzzy riffs, churning basslines, and wild spastic drumming underneath Wata's wailing sixties styled leads. You can almost imagine these strange Japanese rockers wandering into the Fillmore in the sixties, like some bell bottomed aliens and proceeding to melt the minds and eard drums of everyone in attendance. Pink starts off with some fuzzed out ultra distorted post rock (reminiscent of some of the stuff on Mabuta No Ura) wrapped in a spacy psychedelic haze, but then it's immediately back to the full on, overblown distorto RAWK that has become THE SOUND of Boris. This is easily their most lo-fi, most blown out recording yet, almost like Boris is channelling Guitar Wolf or something. The drums and cymbals sizzle as the needle goes into the red on almost every track, and the guitars are so drenched in distortion they become huge squirming smears of fuzz. A couple tracks harken back to the slow motion sludge of Flood or Amplifier Worship, and there is the dreamy ambient drift of the second to last track "My Machine", but those are just brief respites, time to catch your breath before hurling yourself back into the fray, an endless maelstrom of head banging, fist pumping, guitar smashing, drumset destroying, hair swirling, sweating, bouncing, pounding pummeling ROCK AND ROLL.
MPEG Stream: "Song One"
MPEG Stream: "Pink"
MPEG Stream: "Song Two"

album cover BORIS Pink (Southern Lord) 2lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is the pink vinyl Southern Lord domestic double lp verion of Boris' Pink. 180 gram vinyl. Gorgeous deluxe gatefold. New artwork from Stephen O'Malley (different than the cd), and each lp includes a glassine envelope with the "acid tab" inserts from the cd. Limited to 4000 copies worldwide, these are the clear swirled pink vinyl (limited to 2000) but once those are gone it's back to the good ol' black vinyl. The music is the same as the Southern Lord cd and thus the same as the import lp (now out of print).
We probably won't have these for long, so act fast.
Here's what we had to say about Pink when we first heard it a while back:
Some of us are still reeling from the mighty ass kicking delivered by Boris on their recent US tour. And before our ears have even stopped ringing, it's time for yet another new blast of ultra hyper space psych sludge rock n' roll in the form of Pink. Continuing to hone their rock chops, having shed their doom sludge past for the most part now, Boris continue to sound like some MC5 / Hendrix hybrid, albeit supercharged and drenched in LSD and lit on fire and launched into space. Big old fuzzy riffs, churning basslines, and wild spastic drumming underneath Wata's wailing sixties styled leads. You can almost imagine these strange Japanese rockers wandering into the Fillmore in the sixties, like some bell bottomed aliens and proceeding to melt the minds and ear drums of everyone in attendance. Pink starts off with some fuzzed out ultra distorted post rock (reminiscent of some of the stuff on Mabuta No Ura) wrapped in a spacy psychedelic haze, but then it's immediately back to the full on, overblown distorto RAWK that has become THE SOUND of Boris. This is easily their most lo-fi, most blown out recording yet, almost like Boris is channelling Guitar Wolf or something. The drums and cymbals sizzle as the needle goes into the red on almost every track, and the guitars are so drenched in distortion they become huge squirming smears of fuzz. A couple tracks harken back to the slow motion sludge of Flood or Amplifier Worship, and there is the dreamy ambient drift of the second to last track "My Machine", but those are just brief respites, time to catch your breath before hurling yourself back into the fray, an endless maelstrom of head banging, fist pumping, guitar smashing, drumset destroying, hair swirling, sweating, bouncing, pounding pummeling ROCK AND ROLL.
MPEG Stream: "Song One"
MPEG Stream: "Pink"
MPEG Stream: "Song Two"

album cover BORIS Pink (Southern Lord) 2lp 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is the -black- vinyl Southern Lord domestic double lp verion of Boris' Pink. 180 gram vinyl. Gorgeous deluxe gatefold. New artwork from Stephen O'Malley (different than the cd), and each lp includes a glassine envelope with the "acid tab" inserts from the cd. Limited to 4000 copies worldwide, are the good ol' black vinyl version (which as we all know, sound way better than colored vinyl). The music is the same as the Southern Lord cd and thus the same as the import lp (now out of print).
We probably won't have these for long, so act fast.
Here's what we had to say about Pink when we first heard it a while back:
Some of us are still reeling from the mighty ass kicking delivered by Boris on their recent US tour. And before our ears have even stopped ringing, it's time for yet another new blast of ultra hyper space psych sludge rock n' roll in the form of Pink. Continuing to hone their rock chops, having shed their doom sludge past for the most part now, Boris continue to sound like some MC5 / Hendrix hybrid, albeit supercharged and drenched in LSD and lit on fire and launched into space. Big old fuzzy riffs, churning basslines, and wild spastic drumming underneath Wata's wailing sixties styled leads. You can almost imagine these strange Japanese rockers wandering into the Fillmore in the sixties, like some bell bottomed aliens and proceeding to melt the minds and ear drums of everyone in attendance. Pink starts off with some fuzzed out ultra distorted post rock (reminiscent of some of the stuff on Mabuta No Ura) wrapped in a spacy psychedelic haze, but then it's immediately back to the full on, overblown distorto RAWK that has become THE SOUND of Boris. This is easily their most lo-fi, most blown out recording yet, almost like Boris is channelling Guitar Wolf or something. The drums and cymbals sizzle as the needle goes into the red on almost every track, and the guitars are so drenched in distortion they become huge squirming smears of fuzz. A couple tracks harken back to the slow motion sludge of Flood or Amplifier Worship, and there is the dreamy ambient drift of the second to last track "My Machine", but those are just brief respites, time to catch your breath before hurling yourself back into the fray, an endless maelstrom of head banging, fist pumping, guitar smashing, drumset destroying, hair swirling, sweating, bouncing, pounding pummeling ROCK AND ROLL.
MPEG Stream: "Song One"
MPEG Stream: "Pink"
MPEG Stream: "Song Two"

BORIS Smile (Southern Lord) cd 14.98
It really wouldn't be a new Boris record if fans weren't faced with the always daunting challenge of which of the many versions to buy. There's always the obvious choice, cd or vinyl, further complicated by different packaging, and of course extra tracks on the vinyl (and in this case, different tracks on the domestic versus the import vinyl most likely), and with Boris, being as they are Japanese, fans are also faced with the choice of the import version, or the domestic version of the cd, and again, different packaging and alternate track listings do apply.
If it were just packaging, it would be a no brainer, folks could figure out if they wanted to spend the extra money on the much fancier import version, or just hold on for the domestic. But nope, the band continue to drive their fans crazy making every version slightly different. The lp version of Smile, since so many people have asked, is already out of print and selling for $300 on eBay, due to the fact that it was limited to only 500 copies, and was for sale ONLY at Disk Union stores in Japan and from the band on tour. There will, we imagine, be a less limited lp version, most likely domestic, but no idea when as of now, and no idea about the track listing.
The import version of Smile on cd we reviewed a while back, while a bit pricey, was well worth it, the packaging super deluxe, a big puffy fuzzy yellow bathtub toy like digipak. All silver ink and see through yellow vellum and again all fuzzy and puffy! By comparison, the domestic version looks downright plain, but closer inspection reveals it's pretty nifty too (designed by SUNNO)))'s Stephen O'Malley of course). The sleeve is silver and orange metallic, housing an inner booklet packed with photos and lyrics, the jewel case is adorned with half a smiley face sticker. Plus it's half the price of the import version. BUT, the track listing is pretty different. The track "Statement" here, is called "Message" on the Japanese Version, and is four minutes longer and a different mix. The untitled final track is 15 minutes long here, but on the Japanese version is 19. However, other songs are longer on the domestic. It is pretty dang confusing for sure. The sound is similar, but there are distinct differences within songs, so much so that it definitely sounds like it must be a different mix all the way through. Arghhhh.
So that's about all we can tell you about this new version. If you haven't bought Smile yet, no reason not to pick up this version, if you bought the import, it might be worth it to you for the alternate mix. The bummer is that beyond all this multiple versioned craziness, Smile is just an awesome record:
Every once in a while, we sort of wish we could just move on musically, forget whatever it was we were super into, no matter how magical. Find a new band to fall in love with. To obsess over. To slavishly track down every single shred of recorded music by. Buying multiple versions of the same record just to get one extra song, or a just a few more minutes of glorious drone and buzz. But then along comes a record like this, and wipes that wish away. Boris are indeed the rarest of bands. Few groups engender such utter devotion. If it wasn't Boris, sure it would probably be someone else, but it wouldn't be the same.
Not sure if it's the fact that they're Japanese, or that their early records were so shrouded in mystery, or guitarist Wata's utter bad ass coolness, the increasingly elaborate and insane packaging, the outrageously limited releases, it's probably a combination of all of those things, but the overriding factor is ultimately, that they're an amazing band, who are not afraid to change their sound at the drop of a hat, going from shoe gazing dronelords, to crushing sludge doom destroyers, to wild thrashing rock and rollers, with all sorts of unexpected stops in between. Some folks prefer the droning beauty of Flood, others the Stooges-y stomp of Pink, still others the glacial guitar crush of Absolutego, most folks love them all, and who can blame them?
Smile, the latest from this mighty power trio, takes elements of Pink (arguably, most new fans' favorite Boris record, and most old fans' least favorite) and stretches them way out, turning a record that most of us were expecting to be Pink part two, into easily the group's weirdest and most chaotic. Which is in fact a VERY good thing. Add in some guest action from SUNNO)))'s Stephen O'Malley and Japanese guitarist and Rainbow collaborator Michio Kurihara and away we go...
The track listing is all mixed up from the Japanese version, here, they open with what is probably our favorite song on the record, a cover of legendary Japanese group PYG's "Flower Sun Rain", a gorgeously languorous drift, all reverby clean guitars, soulful vocals, simple subtle percussion, a brief squall of gorgeous sun blasted psychguitar, slipping smoothly back into that slow dreamy drift. We'd have been just as happy to hear Boris do a whole record of PYG covers after that one.
The second track, most folks should recognize from seeing the band live. A killer riff, some wailing lead vox, wild thrashy drumming, the various parts spiced up with swoops of backwards guitars, and a crumbling super distorted tripped out FX drenched outro. The next track is THE killer of the disc. With guitars so blown out, they threaten to FRY your headphones, a killer stop start groove, weird blown speaker bass, all wrapped around a pretty sweet pop hook, but the band do their best to bury it in crumbling distortion, and acid fried psych freakouts. Until the last half of the track, where things devolve into some super minimal dronescape with soft strummed whispery guitars, a damaged percussive thud, and lots of barely there shimmer.
A bit later comes the track "Statement", from the 7" of the same name (a different version entitled "Message" is on the Japanese version of Smile in its place) which we described like this: fans of Boris' Pink will feel right at home. A serious KISS like riff, some cowbell, and then some ridiculously blown out in the red acid psych lead guitar. It's weirdly lo-fi sounding, but still fierce, and if the band sounds a bit fuzzy and muddy, the leads sound like Wata is IN your headphones, ramming her guitar straight into your ears. It's pretty amazing actually. The music is a wild wooly garage metal stomp, tons of FX, wah wah, the vocals though are a bit of surprise. Weirdly poppy. Double tracked. Super melodic, almost sing-along-able. But it's all about the riffy groove and those impossibly acidic guitar freakouts. But then comes "My Neighbor Satan" another weirdly blissed out pop song, muted tones drifting over muted programmed drums and a thick sheet of distorted guitar, and the vocals, which in the past have often detracted from Boris' power, have definitely become an intricate part of their new sound and have improved vastly, now able to carry a song, and in some ways this whole record, and here they soar and croon, a wicked hook and a lilting moody melody. But it wouldn't be Boris if they didn't smash it to bits part way through, and they do, unleashing huge sheets of heavily delayed guitar and dubbed out drums, throbbing bass, all tangled up into glorious psychedelic meltdowns.
Even the heaviest songs on Smile are infused with hooks and offer up brief glimpses of the poppiness underlying the crunch and rrroooar, no truer than on "Ka Re Ha Te Ta Sa Ki Ð No Ones Grieve", a thick droned out, bliss blast of thick corrosive guitars, wild sinewy, buzz drenched leads, drums literally buried beneath layer after layer of whir and hiss and a dense wall of guitar. Eventually simple finger picked guitar and more dreamy sad vocals surface from within the roiling psychscape, offering a haunting counterpoint to the fierce fury all around. Even here, at it's thickest and most intense, the song is imbued with a certain melancholy, deftly woven into the freaked out guitars and stuttering mostly buried rhythms.
The second to last track, for its first half at least, is a gorgeous slowcore crawl, just plaintive vocals, delicate guitar, soft cymbal shimmer, a gauzy dreamy drift, that eventually fades to silence, before streaks of feedback fall from the sky, an avalanche of drums follow, until an incredibly emotive main riff, heavy and blown out, takes over, dragging the rest of the track with it, slowly churning, a sort of metallicized krautrock jam, the main guitar thick and distorted, but all around it glimmering harmonics and whirling melodies, those soaring vocals, and of course an appropriately majestic, dramatic in-the-red coda.
The record finishes with a massive 15 minute track (19 on the Japanese version), untitled, that almost sounds like a single song synopsis of Boris' new sound. Beginning with tripped out backwards guitar, and skeletal melodies, briefly interrupted by a fierce squall of intense psychedelia, only to bliss back out, giving way to a dreamy dirgey shoegazey dirge, all cascading distorted guitars and hazy lazy vocals, eventually overtaken by huge crumbling slabs of slow motion distortion and blinding streaks of high end skree and moaning feedback, finally drifting off into a slow shimmery feedback infused fadeout.
As always, just like the Japanese version, WAY recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Flower Sun Rain"
MPEG Stream: "Statement"
MPEG Stream: "KA RE HA TE TA SA KI - No Ones Grieve"

album cover BORIS Smile (Southern Lord) 2lp 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's that time yet again. Where Boris freeks and fans become simultaneously excited and frustrated. That's right it's time for the DOMESTIC vinyl version of Boris' latest full length Smile. Not to be confused with the Japanese version, which was ONLY available from one specific store in Japan, or from the band on tour, and is now available on eBay. No this is the domestic version, released on Southern Lord, with some amazing eye popping artwork, a super thick gatefold sleeve, rendered in metallic mirror style printing, silver and black and orange, pretty boss. Pressed on nice thick clear vinyl. So far so good. BUT, as is so often the case, the music is indeed different on the domestic vinyl, than on the domestic cd, or the Japanese cd or the Japanese lp. Sigh. So, once again, if you care not for cds, and have been waiting for the vinyl, you're set, there's some extra tracks and some extended tracks, if you bought the cd already, you have to figure out if it's worth it to rebuy. That's a decision only you can make. But here are the details as best as we can suss them out. There are two bonus tracks, not available on the other versions of Smile (well, maybe on the Japanese lp, but since we don't know any one who actually got one we can't be totally sure, the SL website claims a bit obliquely that the extra and extended tracks are indeed different than all the versions, domestic and import, but it's unclear if that applies to all or some of the bonus stuff). The first bonus cut is "Vein" (could that be from the long out of print Vein 12"? If so which one? As there were two, each with completely different music, probably doesn't matter though since almost no one was able to get either), and a song called "After Me" which seems to be completely unreleased. In addition to those tracks, One of the tracks offers up a different version that the Southern Lord cd (could be the Japanese version?), while two others offer up longer uncut versions of tracks on the Southern Lord cd (again, those two could be the Japanese versions). Confused? Don't worry, we are too. There is a Wikipedia entry, and while that helps, it doesn't help that much. It's easy with all this non-musical stuff going on though, to forget that Smile is in fact a pretty kick ass record, so if you've been waiting for the vinyl, or have the cd but want it all, then go for it! Some of us here did. And just to remind everybody what all the fuss is about anyway, here's our (somewhat convoluted) review from when we first reviewed the domestic Smile cd a while back:
The import version of Smile on cd we reviewed a while back, while a bit pricey, was well worth it, the packaging super deluxe, a big puffy fuzzy yellow bathtub toy like digipak. All silver ink and see through yellow vellum and again all fuzzy and puffy! By comparison, the domestic version looks downright plain, but closer inspection reveals it's pretty nifty too (designed by SUNNO)))'s Stephen O'Malley of course). The sleeve is silver and orange metallic, housing an inner booklet packed with photos and lyrics, the jewel case is adorned with half a smiley face sticker and each one is machine numbered, LIMITED TO 3000 COPIES! Plus it's half the price of the import version. BUT, the track listing is pretty different. The track "Statement" here, is called "Message" on the Japanese Version, and is four minutes longer and a different mix. The untitled final track is 15 minutes long here, but on the Japanese version is 19. However, other songs are longer on the domestic. It is pretty dang confusing for sure. The sound is similar, but there are distinct differences within songs, so much so that it definitely sounds like it must be a different mix all the way through. Arghhhh.
But beyond all that, there is one very good reason to pick up this domestic version, even if you already bought the import. We managed to get copies of the Southern Lord "mailorder-only" version of Smile, which comes with a bonus DVD, featuring three Boris videos. It's this version that's limited to 3000 copies, and once these are gone, it will be a regular old single disc. But while we got 'em, the dvd is pretty kick ass. The band, always stylish and stylized, have upped the ante even more on these three clips, the first, "Statement", is all staggered split screen, guitarist Wata looking sexy and bored in front of her massive stack, Takeshi wielding the double necked bass, and Atsuo flailing wildly behind the kit, everything yellowish orange and tripped out, the various split screen elements constantly shifting and shuffling. The whole band looking pretty dolled up, teased hair and clad in all black. The video for "My Neighbor Satan" is awesome. The trio standing almost completely still, Atsuo playing some old electronic drum kit, Wata playing a huge clunky guitar synth, the band all washed out and distorted and indistinct, the screen white and blurry, as if the band were playing inside a cloud. Finally, the video for "Pink" which looks like the pink on red design of the Pink album come to life, the band rendered in high contrast shades of red, very abstract, almost looking more like a Boris screensaver.
So that's about all we can tell you about this new version. If you haven't bought Smile yet, no reason not to pick up this version, if you bought the import, it might be worth it to you for the dvd and maybe the alternate mix. The bummer is that beyond all this multiple versioned craziness, Smile is just an awesome record:
Every once in a while, we sort of wish we could just move on musically, forget whatever it was we were super into, no matter how magical. Find a new band to fall in love with. To obsess over. To slavishly track down every single shred of recorded music by. Buying multiple versions of the same record just to get one extra song, or a just a few more minutes of glorious drone and buzz. But then along comes a record like this, and wipes that wish away. Boris are indeed the rarest of bands. Few groups engender such utter devotion. If it wasn't Boris, sure it would probably be someone else, but it wouldn't be the same.
Not sure if it's the fact that they're Japanese, or that their early records were so shrouded in mystery, or guitarist Wata's utter bad ass coolness, the increasingly elaborate and insane packaging, the outrageously limited releases, it's probably a combination of all of those things, but the overriding factor is ultimately, that they're an amazing band, who are not afraid to change their sound at the drop of a hat, going from shoe gazing dronelords, to crushing sludge doom destroyers, to wild thrashing rock and rollers, with all sorts of unexpected stops in between. Some folks prefer the droning beauty of Flood, others the Stooges-y stomp of Pink, still others the glacial guitar crush of Absolutego, most folks love them all, and who can blame them?
Smile, the latest from this mighty power trio, takes elements of Pink (arguably, most new fans' favorite Boris record, and most old fans' least favorite) and stretches them way out, turning a record that most of us were expecting to be Pink part two, into easily the group's weirdest and most chaotic. Which is in fact a VERY good thing. Add in some guest action from SUNNO)))'s Stephen O'Malley and Japanese guitarist and Rainbow collaborator Michio Kurihara and away we go...
The track listing is all mixed up from the Japanese version, here, they open with what is probably our favorite song on the record, a cover of legendary Japanese group PYG's "Flower Sun Rain", a gorgeously languorous drift, all reverby clean guitars, soulful vocals, simple subtle percussion, a brief squall of gorgeous sun blasted psychguitar, slipping smoothly back into that slow dreamy drift. We'd have been just as happy to hear Boris do a whole record of PYG covers after that one.
The second track, most folks should recognize from seeing the band live. A killer riff, some wailing lead vox, wild thrashy drumming, the various parts spiced up with swoops of backwards guitars, and a crumbling super distorted tripped out FX drenched outro. The next track is THE killer of the disc. With guitars so blown out, they threaten to FRY your headphones, a killer stop start groove, weird blown speaker bass, all wrapped around a pretty sweet pop hook, but the band do their best to bury it in crumbling distortion, and acid fried psych freakouts. Until the last half of the track, where things devolve into some super minimal dronescape with soft strummed whispery guitars, a damaged percussive thud, and lots of barely there shimmer.
A bit later comes the track "Statement", from the 7" of the same name (a different version entitled "Message" is on the Japanese version of Smile in its place) which we described like this: fans of Boris' Pink will feel right at home. A serious KISS like riff, some cowbell, and then some ridiculously blown out in the red acid psych lead guitar. It's weirdly lo-fi sounding, but still fierce, and if the band sounds a bit fuzzy and muddy, the leads sound like Wata is IN your headphones, ramming her guitar straight into your ears. It's pretty amazing actually. The music is a wild wooly garage metal stomp, tons of FX, wah wah, the vocals though are a bit of surprise. Weirdly poppy. Double tracked. Super melodic, almost sing-along-able. But it's all about the riffy groove and those impossibly acidic guitar freakouts. But then comes "My Neighbor Satan" another weirdly blissed out pop song, muted tones drifting over muted programmed drums and a thick sheet of distorted guitar, and the vocals, which in the past have often detracted from Boris' power, have definitely become an intricate part of their new sound and have improved vastly, now able to carry a song, and in some ways this whole record, and here they soar and croon, a wicked hook and a lilting moody melody. But it wouldn't be Boris if they didn't smash it to bits part way through, and they do, unleashing huge sheets of heavily delayed guitar and dubbed out drums, throbbing bass, all tangled up into glorious psychedelic meltdowns.
Even the heaviest songs on Smile are infused with hooks and offer up brief glimpses of the poppiness underlying the crunch and rrroooar, no truer than on "Ka Re Ha Te Ta Sa Ki Ð No Ones Grieve", a thick droned out, bliss blast of thick corrosive guitars, wild sinewy, buzz drenched leads, drums literally buried beneath layer after layer of whir and hiss and a dense wall of guitar. Eventually simple finger picked guitar and more dreamy sad vocals surface from within the roiling psychscape, offering a haunting counterpoint to the fierce fury all around. Even here, at it's thickest and most intense, the song is imbued with a certain melancholy, deftly woven into the freaked out guitars and stuttering mostly buried rhythms.
The second to last track, for its first half at least, is a gorgeous slowcore crawl, just plaintive vocals, delicate guitar, soft cymbal shimmer, a gauzy dreamy drift, that eventually fades to silence, before streaks of feedback fall from the sky, an avalanche of drums follow, until an incredibly emotive main riff, heavy and blown out, takes over, dragging the rest of the track with it, slowly churning, a sort of metallicized krautrock jam, the main guitar thick and distorted, but all around it glimmering harmonics and whirling melodies, those soaring vocals, and of course an appropriately majestic, dramatic in-the-red coda.
The record finishes with a massive 15 minute track (19 on the Japanese version), untitled, that almost sounds like a single song synopsis of Boris' new sound. Beginning with tripped out backwards guitar, and skeletal melodies, briefly interrupted by a fierce squall of intense psychedelia, only to bliss back out, giving way to a dreamy dirgey shoegazey dirge, all cascading distorted guitars and hazy lazy vocals, eventually overtaken by huge crumbling slabs of slow motion distortion and blinding streaks of high end skree and moaning feedback, finally drifting off into a slow shimmery feedback infused fadeout.
As always, just like the Japanese version, WAY recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Flower Sun Rain"
MPEG Stream: "Statement"
MPEG Stream: "KA RE HA TE TA SA KI - No Ones Grieve"

album cover BORIS Smile (Southern Lord) cd+dvd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It really wouldn't be a new Boris record if fans weren't faced with the always daunting challenge of which of the many versions to buy. There's always the obvious choice, cd or vinyl, further complicated by different packaging, and of course extra tracks on the vinyl (and in this case, different tracks on the domestic versus the import vinyl most likely), and with Boris, being as they are Japanese, fans are also faced with the choice of the import version, or the domestic version of the cd, and again, different packaging and alternate track listings do apply.
If it were just packaging, it would be a no brainer, folks could figure out if they wanted to spend the extra money on the much fancier import version, or just hold on for the domestic. But nope, the band continue to drive their fans crazy making every version slightly different. The lp version of Smile, since so many people have asked, is already out of print and selling for $300 on eBay, due to the fact that it was limited to only 500 copies, and was for sale ONLY at Disk Union stores in Japan and from the band on tour. There will, we imagine, be a less limited lp version, most likely domestic, but no idea when as of now, and no idea about the track listing.
The import version of Smile on cd we reviewed a while back, while a bit pricey, was well worth it, the packaging super deluxe, a big puffy fuzzy yellow bathtub toy like digipak. All silver ink and see through yellow vellum and again all fuzzy and puffy! By comparison, the domestic version looks downright plain, but closer inspection reveals it's pretty nifty too (designed by SUNNO)))'s Stephen O'Malley of course). The sleeve is silver and orange metallic, housing an inner booklet packed with photos and lyrics, the jewel case is adorned with half a smiley face sticker and each one is machine numbered, LIMITED TO 3000 COPIES! Plus it's half the price of the import version. BUT, the track listing is pretty different. The track "Statement" here, is called "Message" on the Japanese Version, and is four minutes longer and a different mix. The untitled final track is 15 minutes long here, but on the Japanese version is 19. However, other songs are longer on the domestic. It is pretty dang confusing for sure. The sound is similar, but there are distinct differences within songs, so much so that it definitely sounds like it must be a different mix all the way through. Arghhhh.
But beyond all that, there is one very good reason to pick up this domestic version, even if you already bought the import. We managed to get copies of the Southern Lord "mailorder-only" version of Smile, which comes with a bonus DVD, featuring three Boris videos. It's this version that's limited to 3000 copies, and once these are gone, it will be a regular old single disc. But while we got 'em, the dvd is pretty kick ass. The band, always stylish and stylized, have upped the ante even more on these three clips, the first, "Statement", is all staggered split screen, guitarist Wata looking sexy and bored in front of her massive stack, Takeshi wielding the double necked bass, and Atsuo flailing wildly behind the kit, everything yellowish orange and tripped out, the various split screen elements constantly shifting and shuffling. The whole band looking pretty dolled up, teased hair and clad in all black. The video for "My Neighbor Satan" is awesome. The trio standing almost completely still, Atsuo playing some old electronic drum kit, Wata playing a huge clunky guitar synth, the band all washed out and distorted and indistinct, the screen white and blurry, as if the band were playing inside a cloud. Finally, the video for "Pink" which looks like the pink on red design of the Pink album come to life, the band rendered in high contrast shades of red, very abstract, almost looking more like a Boris screensaver.
So that's about all we can tell you about this new version. If you haven't bought Smile yet, no reason not to pick up this version, if you bought the import, it might be worth it to you for the dvd and maybe the alternate mix. The bummer is that beyond all this multiple versioned craziness, Smile is just an awesome record:
Every once in a while, we sort of wish we could just move on musically, forget whatever it was we were super into, no matter how magical. Find a new band to fall in love with. To obsess over. To slavishly track down every single shred of recorded music by. Buying multiple versions of the same record just to get one extra song, or a just a few more minutes of glorious drone and buzz. But then along comes a record like this, and wipes that wish away. Boris are indeed the rarest of bands. Few groups engender such utter devotion. If it wasn't Boris, sure it would probably be someone else, but it wouldn't be the same.
Not sure if it's the fact that they're Japanese, or that their early records were so shrouded in mystery, or guitarist Wata's utter bad ass coolness, the increasingly elaborate and insane packaging, the outrageously limited releases, it's probably a combination of all of those things, but the overriding factor is ultimately, that they're an amazing band, who are not afraid to change their sound at the drop of a hat, going from shoe gazing dronelords, to crushing sludge doom destroyers, to wild thrashing rock and rollers, with all sorts of unexpected stops in between. Some folks prefer the droning beauty of Flood, others the Stooges-y stomp of Pink, still others the glacial guitar crush of Absolutego, most folks love them all, and who can blame them?
Smile, the latest from this mighty power trio, takes elements of Pink (arguably, most new fans' favorite Boris record, and most old fans' least favorite) and stretches them way out, turning a record that most of us were expecting to be Pink part two, into easily the group's weirdest and most chaotic. Which is in fact a VERY good thing. Add in some guest action from SUNNO)))'s Stephen O'Malley and Japanese guitarist and Rainbow collaborator Michio Kurihara and away we go...
The track listing is all mixed up from the Japanese version, here, they open with what is probably our favorite song on the record, a cover of legendary Japanese group PYG's "Flower Sun Rain", a gorgeously languorous drift, all reverby clean guitars, soulful vocals, simple subtle percussion, a brief squall of gorgeous sun blasted psychguitar, slipping smoothly back into that slow dreamy drift. We'd have been just as happy to hear Boris do a whole record of PYG covers after that one.
The second track, most folks should recognize from seeing the band live. A killer riff, some wailing lead vox, wild thrashy drumming, the various parts spiced up with swoops of backwards guitars, and a crumbling super distorted tripped out FX drenched outro. The next track is THE killer of the disc. With guitars so blown out, they threaten to FRY your headphones, a killer stop start groove, weird blown speaker bass, all wrapped around a pretty sweet pop hook, but the band do their best to bury it in crumbling distortion, and acid fried psych freakouts. Until the last half of the track, where things devolve into some super minimal dronescape with soft strummed whispery guitars, a damaged percussive thud, and lots of barely there shimmer.
A bit later comes the track "Statement", from the 7" of the same name (a different version entitled "Message" is on the Japanese version of Smile in its place) which we described like this: fans of Boris' Pink will feel right at home. A serious KISS like riff, some cowbell, and then some ridiculously blown out in the red acid psych lead guitar. It's weirdly lo-fi sounding, but still fierce, and if the band sounds a bit fuzzy and muddy, the leads sound like Wata is IN your headphones, ramming her guitar straight into your ears. It's pretty amazing actually. The music is a wild wooly garage metal stomp, tons of FX, wah wah, the vocals though are a bit of surprise. Weirdly poppy. Double tracked. Super melodic, almost sing-along-able. But it's all about the riffy groove and those impossibly acidic guitar freakouts. But then comes "My Neighbor Satan" another weirdly blissed out pop song, muted tones drifting over muted programmed drums and a thick sheet of distorted guitar, and the vocals, which in the past have often detracted from Boris' power, have definitely become an intricate part of their new sound and have improved vastly, now able to carry a song, and in some ways this whole record, and here they soar and croon, a wicked hook and a lilting moody melody. But it wouldn't be Boris if they didn't smash it to bits part way through, and they do, unleashing huge sheets of heavily delayed guitar and dubbed out drums, throbbing bass, all tangled up into glorious psychedelic meltdowns.
Even the heaviest songs on Smile are infused with hooks and offer up brief glimpses of the poppiness underlying the crunch and rrroooar, no truer than on "Ka Re Ha Te Ta Sa Ki Ð No Ones Grieve", a thick droned out, bliss blast of thick corrosive guitars, wild sinewy, buzz drenched leads, drums literally buried beneath layer after layer of whir and hiss and a dense wall of guitar. Eventually simple finger picked guitar and more dreamy sad vocals surface from within the roiling psychscape, offering a haunting counterpoint to the fierce fury all around. Even here, at it's thickest and most intense, the song is imbued with a certain melancholy, deftly woven into the freaked out guitars and stuttering mostly buried rhythms.
The second to last track, for its first half at least, is a gorgeous slowcore crawl, just plaintive vocals, delicate guitar, soft cymbal shimmer, a gauzy dreamy drift, that eventually fades to silence, before streaks of feedback fall from the sky, an avalanche of drums follow, until an incredibly emotive main riff, heavy and blown out, takes over, dragging the rest of the track with it, slowly churning, a sort of metallicized krautrock jam, the main guitar thick and distorted, but all around it glimmering harmonics and whirling melodies, those soaring vocals, and of course an appropriately majestic, dramatic in-the-red coda.
The record finishes with a massive 15 minute track (19 on the Japanese version), untitled, that almost sounds like a single song synopsis of Boris' new sound. Beginning with tripped out backwards guitar, and skeletal melodies, briefly interrupted by a fierce squall of intense psychedelia, only to bliss back out, giving way to a dreamy dirgey shoegazey dirge, all cascading distorted guitars and hazy lazy vocals, eventually overtaken by huge crumbling slabs of slow motion distortion and blinding streaks of high end skree and moaning feedback, finally drifting off into a slow shimmery feedback infused fadeout.
As always, just like the Japanese version, WAY recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Flower Sun Rain"
MPEG Stream: "Statement"
MPEG Stream: "KA RE HA TE TA SA KI - No Ones Grieve"

album cover BORIS Smile (Japanese Edition) (DIWPhalanx / Daymare) cd 33.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Every once in a while, we sort of wish we could just move on musically, forget whatever it was we super into, no matter how magical. Find a new band to fall in love with. To obsess over. To slavishly track down every single shred of recorded music by. Buying multiple versions of the same record just to get one extra song, or a just a few more minutes of glorious drone and buzz. But then along comes a record like this, and wipes that wish away. Boris are indeed the rarest of bands. Few groups engender such utter devotion. If it wasn't Boris, sure it would probably be someone else, but it wouldn't be the same.
Not sure if it's the fact that they're Japanese, or that their early records were so shrouded in mystery, or guitarist Wata's utter bad ass coolness, the increasingly elaborate and insane packaging, the outrageously limited releases, it's probably a combination of all of those things, but the overriding factor is ultimately, that they're an amazing band, who are not afraid to change their sound at the drop of a hat, going from shoe gazing dronelords, to crushing sludge doom destroyers, to wild thrashing rock and rollers, with all sorts of unexpected stops in between. Some folks prefer the droning beauty of Flood, others the Stooges-y stomp of Pink, still others the glacial guitar crush of Absolutego, most folks love them all, and who can blame them?
Smile, the latest from this mighty power trio, takes elements of Pink (arguably, most new fans' favorite Boris record, and most old fans' least favorite) and stretches them way out, turning a record that most of us were expecting to be Pink part two, into easily the group's weirdest and most chaotic. Which is in fact a VERY good thing. Add in some guest action from SUNNO)))'s Stephen O'Malley and Japanese guitarist and Rainbow collaborator Michio Kurihara and away we go...
The record opens with "Message", a dramatically redone version of the A side from the now out of print Statement 7". We described "Statement" like this: fans of Boris' Pink will feel right at home. A serious KISS like riff, some cowbell, and then some ridiculously blown out in the red acid psych lead guitar. It's weirdly lo-fi sounding, but still fierce, and if the band sounds a bit fuzzy and muddy, the leads sound like Wata is IN your headphones, ramming her guitar straight into your ears. It's pretty amazing actually. The music is a wild wooly garage metal stomp, tons of FX, wah wah, the vocals though are a bit of surprise. Weirdly poppy. Double tracked. Super melodic, almost sing-along-able. But it's all about the riffy groove and those impossibly acidic guitar freakouts.
But in the stretched out "Message" version, the track begins with some throbbing sub sonic bass, some seventies "woo-hoo" vocals, some hypnotic tribal drumming, a killer minimal groove that never stops, and even when the track kicks in, it's way more sludge-y and gritty with head spinning stereo panning and an awesomely fucked up mix (another reason to pick up the Japanese version, besides the artwork, more on that later).
The second track, most folks should recognize from seeing the band live. A killer riff, some wailing lead vox, wild thrashy drumming, the various parts spiced up with swoops of backwards guitars, and a crumbling super distorted tripped out FX drenched outro. The next track is THE killer of the disc. With guitars so blown out, they threaten to FRY your headphones, a killer stop start groove, weird blown speaker bass, all wrapped around a pretty sweet pop hook, but the band do their best to bury it in crumbling distortion, and acid fried psych freakouts. Until the last half of the track, where things devolve into some super minimal dronescape with soft strummed whispery guitars, a damaged percussive thud, and lots of barely there shimmer.
Our favorite track, oddly enough, is probably the next one, a cover of legendary Japanese group PYG's "Flower Sun Rain", a gorgeously languorous drift, all reverby clean guitars, soulful vocals, simple subtle percussion, a brief squall of gorgeous sun blasted psychguitar, slipping smoothly back into that slow dreamy drift. We'd have been just as happy to hear Boris do a whole record of PYG covers after that one. But then comes "Next Saturn" another weirdly blissed out pop song, muted tones drifting over muted programmed drums and a thick sheet of distorted guitar, and the vocals, which in the past have often detracted from Boris' power, have definitely become an intricate part of their new sound and have improved vastly, now able to carry a song, and in some ways this whole record, and here they soar and croon, a wicked hook and a lilting moody melody. But it wouldn't be Boris if they didn't smash it to bits part way through, and they do, unleashing huge sheets of heavily delayed guitar and dubbed out drums, throbbing bass, all tangled up into glorious psychedelic meltdowns.
Even the heaviest songs on Smile are infused with hooks and offer up brief glimpses of the poppiness underlying the crunch and rrroooar, no truer than on "Dead Destination" (by the way, some of the song titles in this review are probably wrong, as they are in Japanese on the sleeve, and various sources had different titles, arggh), a thick droned out, bliss blast of thick corrosive guitars, wild sinewy, buzz drenched leads, drums literally buried beneath layer after layer of whir and hiss and a dense wall of guitar. Eventually simple finger picked guitar and more dreamy sad vocals surface from within the roiling psychscape, offering a haunting counterpoint to the fierce fury all around. Even here, at it's thickest and most intense, the song is imbued with a certain melancholy, deftly woven into the freaked out guitars and stuttering mostly buried rhythms.
The second to last track, for its first half at least, is a gorgeous slowcore crawl, just plaintive vocals, delicate guitar, soft cymbal shimmer, a gauzy dreamy drift, that eventually fades to silence, before streaks of feedback fall from the sky, an avalanche of drums follow, until an incredibly emotive main riff, heavy and blown out, takes over, dragging the rest of the track with it, slowly churning, a sort of metallicized krautrock jam, the main guitar thick and distorted, but all around it glimmering harmonics and whirling melodies, those soaring vocals, and of course an appropriately majestic, dramatic in-the-red coda.
The record finishes with a massive 20 minute track, untitled, that almost sounds like a single song synopsis of Boris' new sound. Beginning with tripped out backwards guitar, and skeletal melodies, briefly interrupted by a fierce squall of intense psychedelia, only to bliss back out, giving way to a dreamy dirgey shoegazey dirge, all cascading distorted guitars and hazy lazy vocals, eventually overtaken by huge crumbling slabs of slow motion distortion and blinding streaks of high end skree and moaning feedback, finally drifting off into a slow shimmery feedback infused fadeout.
Be prepared for plenty of confusion in the coming months, this is the Japanese version, the domestic Southern Lord version will have a slightly different track listing, including some different mixes, the lp versions too, will be different, we're not exactly sure how yet, but we'll do our best to keep you informed.
But as is usually the case, the Japanese version has knock out packaging, WAY better than the US version. A puffy plastic gatefold, like something you'd buy at the Hello Kitty store, or a bath toy, a yellow transparent heart cut out of the sponge-like background, all the text printed in metallic silver, inside liner notes printed silver ink on yellow vellum, a silver metallic ink on yellow vellum obi.
If you're a crazy Boris obsessive, you're probably gonna need to buy both the Japanese version and the Southern Lord version, and maybe one of the lp versions as well when they come out, but if you're just here for the music, and you were gonna get just one, we'd probably lean toward this one, for the packaging especially, but also for the revamped opening track.
As always, WAY recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Flower Sun Rain"
MPEG Stream: "Statement"
MPEG Stream: "KA RE HA TE TA SA KI - No Ones Grieve"

album cover BORIS Statement (Southern Lord) 7" 3.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
New Boris record. We toyed with the idea of just leaving it at that. Three simple words. Certainly enough to produce a frenzy of adding to cart and buy-button mashing. For Boris obsessives, the above should indeed be enough. Hop to it. NEW BORIS RECORD!!! It's limited. Of course. Colored vinyl. And if you don't buy one now you'll be shelling out $50 for it a few months down the line on eBay. But you knew that already.
For the rest of you, and in the interest of the folks who still want to know what it might sound like before they pull the trigger, allow us to continue the review forthwith:
Two tracks, both short and sweet. One from the forthcoming new album Smile, one exclusive to this here 7" (and perhaps a forthcoming import 12"), but for the collector or completist inclined among you, again,the B side will not be on the album.
The A side is pretty killer, fans of Boris' Pink will feel right at home. A serious Kiss like riff, some cowbell, and then some ridiculously blown out in the red acid psych lead guitar. It's weirdly lo-fi sounding, but still fierce, and if the band sounds a bit fuzzy and muddy, the leads sound like Wata is IN your headphones, ramming her guitar straight into your ears. It's pretty amazing actually. The music is a wild wooly garage metal stomp, tons of FX, wah wah, the vocals though are a bit of surprise. Weirdly poppy. Double tracked. Super melodic, almost sing-along-able. But it's all about the riffy groove and those impossibly acidic guitar freakouts. WOW.
The flipside, "Floor Shaker", starts out all ambient and shimmery, slow groovy guitars, eventually the track kicks in and we're in some seriously poppy territory, the vocals soaring and melodic, it almost sounds like some lost grunge band, that sort of punky riffage wrapped around pop hooks, near the end of the track it gets all weirdly distorted, but it's kind of an exciting new direction, some sort of metallic grunge pop. Looking forward to hearing Smile now for sure.
The packaging as always is over the top. Yellow vinyl, yellow inner sleeve, the band in full glam mode on the cover, all glamour poses and teased hair, inside, Wata reclining on a little Orange amp, facing a MASSIVE stack with THREE cabinets, and THREE heads. A total Japanese psych freek guitar geek pin up if there ever was one.
Again, super limited, only 3000 copies worldwide, we got tons, but as with most Boris stuff, these are gonna fly out of here. Which also means ONLY ONE PER CUSTOMER!!!

album cover BORIS The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked (Kult Ov Nihilow) 12" 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Okay, here we go AGAIN.... ULTRA LIMITED, VINYL ONLY RELEASE FROM THE MIGHTY BORIS. ALREADY OUT OF PRINT. WE HAVE (OR HAD) THE LAST 50 COPIES. EVEN THE LABEL IS SOLD OUT. NO PLANS FOR A CD VERSION. GORGEOUS PACKAGING, ORANGE VINYL! ONCE IT'S GONE. IT'S GONE FOR GOOD.
Okay, now that we got that out of the way, we can describe the actual record, although by the time most of you read this far, it might already be sold out.
The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked somehow manage to sound totally new, and like classic Boris at the same time. Side one is a two track one two slow motion punch, a creeping tarpit dirge, walls of warm rich guitar smeared into a fuzzy guitar glacier, slowly flattening everything in its path, like Earth or Sunn 0))) but with a sweet melody tucked safely inside. Eventually the guitars unhinge and erupt into a Haino like blast of psychedelic skree. Side two is one epic track that is even slower and sludgier than side one, slowly growing from a subsonic rumble to a planet splitting rrroooaaarr. No drums to be found either, making this all the more perfect for fans of Sunn 0))), Earth and all things dirgedoomdrone.

album cover BORIS The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked Vol. 2 (Conspiracy) 12" 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Feels like only yesterday, that we reviewed Volume One, with this same proviso, but here we go AGAIN.... ULTRA LIMITED, VINYL ONLY RELEASE FROM THE MIGHTY BORIS. WE HAVE ABOUT 50 COPIES. GORGEOUS PACKAGING, SAME AS THE FIRST VOLUME. THICK ORANGE VINYL! ONCE THESE ARE GONE WE WON'T BE ABLE TO GET MORE!
Okay, now that we got that out of the way, we can describe the actual record, although by the time most of you read this far, it could very well be sold out.
Much like the first volume, Volume 2 of Boris' 3 part epic vinyl trilogy The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked somehow manages to sound totally new, and like classic Boris at the same time. Three massive tracks of freaked out droney psychedelic nirvana! The lp starts off with some of that glorious ultra distorted guitar crumble, which soon explodes into some insane Hendrixian / Santanian space psych freakout, all soaring leads and swirling reverbed ambience. Really noisy, but in a warm, soft, head in the clouds sort of way. The second track starts with some chugging Stooges-y sludge, that slowly loses momentum and trances out into some super druggy Hawkwinderful space bliss! Side two is a single twenty minute long track and sounds like the heaviest, noisiest most epic Boris track ever, but with all the structure melted away, leaving just a huge mind melting smear of growling glacial Merzbow / Skullflower style black hole wall of guitars. Awesome!

album cover BORIS The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked Vol. 3 (Conspiracy) 12" 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Feels like only yesterday, that we reviewed Volume One, with this same proviso, but here we go AGAIN.... ULTRA LIMITED, VINYL ONLY RELEASE FROM THE MIGHTY BORIS. WE HAVE ABOUT 50 COPIES. GORGEOUS PACKAGING, SAME AS THE FIRST VOLUME. THICK ORANGE VINYL! ONCE THESE ARE GONE WE WON'T BE ABLE TO GET MORE!
Okay, now that we got that out of the way, we can describe the actual record, although by the time most of you read this far, it could very well be sold out.
Much like the first and more recent second volume, this third volume of Boris' 3 part epic vinyl trilogy The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked somehow manages to sound totally new, and like classic Boris at the same time. Four lengthy tracks of freaked out droney psychedelic nirvana!Ê
The proceedings begin with a barely there microscopic drone, with soft Pink Floyd guitar swells, a washed out, staring at the night sky sort of ambient post rock dreaminess. Beneath, there is a slow bass throb, like a beating heart, while above a soft see through gauze of whispered high end guitar and gentle folky strum. The next track immediately tramples all over what ever dreaminess was still lingering with a pounding slow motion trudge slowly morphing into a torrent of high end feedback fallout and rumbling guitar grrr, with soaring guitar leads, drenched in reverb and bursting like fireworks in the sky, the framework provided by a simple clanging cymbal rhythm. Side two begins with a wallop, a face melting wall of guitar-against-the-amps dronedirge stun, a slow shuffling glacial grind of guitar crumble and amp growl, like SUNNO))) or Earth with even less riffery, very reminiscent of the Boris of old. Then, almost imperceptably, we've segued into the final track, that dronedirge gets more and more blown out, with the guitars getting hotter and hotter until they're absolutely blinding like sonic solar flares, white hot sheets of feeding back guitars, a churning, roiling, blinding, deafening swirl of glorious sludgey psychedelia! Wow.Ê

BORIS Vein (Important) 12" 36.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
There hasn't been a Boris record yet that has made people this angry in ages. And it's not for lack of trying. Super limited releases, multiple version, each with slightly different artwork, or subtly altered music. By the time you read this, Vein will already be out of print, and if you want one, it'll cost you $80 or so on eBay. In a nutshell, 1500 copies pressed, after a botched and discarded first pressing, 300 copies to the band, 400 sold on the label's website, leaving 800 copies to go to stores and distributors worldwide. 800 copies when they could have sold 3000. We ordered 100, and got 50, so it never even made it on our email list. And because of the botched pressing among other things, the price is exorbitant. As if that weren't enough, there were TWO ENTIRELY DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF THE RECORD. A twelve track punk rock version that went to the US, a 2 track noise version that went to Europe. And as Boris fans tend to be incredibly obsessive completists, fans freaked out when they realized they only got one of the two Vein's. Sigh. Boris need to learn that with popularity comes responsibility to the fans that have made them popular, and the more popular a band gets, the more artistic sacrifices have to be made. A band that routinely sells 5000 or 10,000 copies of a record, can not make 7"s or eps or lps and limit them to 500 or 1000. All that means is that the -majority- of your fans, the ones who just love your music, the ones who buy all your records and buy tickets to your shows, the ones who through their support enable you to play music for a living and tour and rock, will NOT get to hear those records, will become increasingly frustrated and eventually stop being fans. It happened to Stereolab as they continued to do stupidly limited releases, it could happen to Boris.
let's hope it doesn't. Cuz we love this band. And their music. And music this good was not meant to be heard by so few.
-Obligatory record review portion: Pretty cool stuff. Furious grindy punk rock. Pretty surprising coming from these dirgey behemoths. Beautiful packaging too. Silkscreened insert, silkscreened filigree on the outside of the actual vinyl. Too bad almost no one got to see or hear it....

album cover 9DW / BORIS Golden Dance Classics (Catune) cd 16.98
It's been a while since we've heard from Boris, mostly because they've seemingly been touring non stop for the last few years, but it looks like finally some new music is happening, including a forthcoming split with low end sludge popppers Torche, and this, another split with a Japanese band we've never heard of called 9DW, who as far as we can tell is sonically about as far removed from Boris as any band could be. A sort of eighties cosmic disco, like a way less edgier Justice maybe. More on those tracks in a second, since odds are most aQ customers will be all over this for the two brand new Boris tracks.
But be warned, not sure if it's a general shift in sound, or they were just trying to mix it up for this split, but this is Boris like you've never heard them. The first Boris track, "Tokyo Wonder Land", in a blind listening test, everyone here, when asked who they though it was, invariably said Ariel Pink, or John Maus, yep, a warbly warped blurry lo fi alien FM radio pop, with primitive drum machine, mumbled vocals, shimmery eighties production, whirring synths, jangly reverbed guitar, buzzy rubbery cop show basslines, super woozy and trippy and WAY druggy, there are even some falsetto 'oooh's. It only really gets Boris-y briefly in the middle with a wild tangle of super distorted psychedelic leads. Woah, What the fuck? Not sure what's going on, or what happened, but we are digging it BIG time, in fact, we might go so far as to say, this is one of our favorite Boris jams in ages, as is the second track here, "Akirame Flower", which finds Boris in full on washed out bleary eared nineties shoegaze mode, My Bloody Valentine, Bailter Space, fuzz guitar, weary vox, tons of delay and reverb and effects, all smeared and blurred into a gorgeous hazy 16 Candles / Dinosaur Jr / M83 soft focus, dream jam. Fuck. Awesome.
So what the heck are Boris doing with a band like 9DW? Can't say, and can't really say, how often we'll find ourselves listening to their two tracks, groovy, slightly jazzy, a little house-y, definitely eighties, not one guy, an actual band, sounds a bit like M83 if he were to do a techno record, stir in a little Justice stomp, some post rocky skittery, looped synths, and some total eighties MTV new romantic guitar jangle, a little Shadowfax and some worrisome funkiness...
But fuck it, Boris is why you're here, and if you're an adventurous Boris fan, who won't be disappointed by the lack of fuzzed out buzzy psych rock, then two Boris jams will kick your ass something good. Dying to hear if they continue on in this direction, and give the rest of the warbly new wave noise pop outsiders a run for their warped druggy money.
MPEG Stream: 9DW "Stingray"
MPEG Stream: BORIS "Tokyo Wonder Land"

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