Boris are easily one of the best bands of recent times. So few outfits have turned their hands to such a vast array of styles and come away the masters of each and every one. They’ve been responsible for some of the most beautiful (“Flood”) and ugliest (“Absolutego”) moments in rock, with a diversity that scores of bands couldn’t achieve in their combined lifetimes, ranging from beautifully shameless rocking stoner action that could scrape the charts (the “Heavy Rocks” album) to wilfully obscure noise that scrapes your eardrums (the Merzbow and Keiji Haino collaborations).
This record is a bit of a stop-gap for them though, exorcising some drone demons that the band couldn’t probably get away with over the course of an entire album (although this does clock in at a quite considerable length), at least not without having a bit in the middle where they rock out properly.
This record definitely falls into the experimental part of their canon. The first track contains droning, beautiful in a way, waxing and waning between ethereal and the harsh noise. Relaxing, calming, beautiful. The same can’t be said of the second, which begins with atmospheric echoing acoustic, before suddenly being overwhelmed by some seriously worrying power-electronics. The third, lengthiest, track features a droning, downtuned chord, which slowly morphs into a riff just about discernible from the feedback, much like Earth’s second album. My crappy dry descriptions of noise and droning can’t convey how well these tracks work where so many other noise tracks don’t. Boris have the X factor. If that doesn’t sway you, this release also comes beautifully packaged in a die-cut sleeve on orange vinyl (a tribute to the band’s favourite brand of amplifier perhaps?). Get it.