BORIS
Flood
(MIDI Creative)
cd
24.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
As you may know, Boris are perhaps Japan's number one Melvins worshippers! But that's not to say they're unoriginal, rather the opposite, since the Melvins themselves are so unpredictable and eccentric. But in terms of heaviness, Boris measure up. Though they thew us for a loop with this, their third full-length album. Yep, it's not cheap, but there's no US release planned anytime soon or ever as far as we know. And anyway, as we'll explain, it's well worth the money. Like their drone-behemoth debut Absolutego, Flood is just one long song (broken into tracks on the cd for convenience, we suppose). But unlike Absolutego (or any other Boris stuff we've heard), the heaviness is kept in reserve. Instead, this starts off with a very pretty, repeating guitar figure that gradually starts to layer and loop in upon itself. It's quite mellow and meditative. As the disc progresses, momentary echoes of doom emerge from the sonic background, like thunder in the distance, or waves crashing on shore. Meanwhile, the guitars, joined by drums, spin a quiet, gorgeous, dreamlike hypnosis sounding like something somewhere between Gastr del Sol and kosmische krautrock (Agitation Free, Gunter Schickert). Or Eddie Hazel's Funkadelic solo psych guitar masterpiece "Maggot Brain" stretched into infinity. Flood is a minimalist, psychedelic, post-rock masterpiece that can only be compared to the Melvins the way something like Bohren & Der Club of Gore can -- with an understanding that heaviness isn't always all about loudness and riffage. (And, well, even if it did get Melvins heavy at some point, we wouldn't tell you, 'cause you need to hear this unfold for yourself.) Brilliant. (And although this is great, fans of Boris' more usual heaviness needn't despair that they won't return to the rock -- we've heard some new Boris demos that make the Stooges sound mild!)
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 1"
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 2"