Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Are they real??

Boris - “Electric” via chinese restaurant in the forest
"Japanese grunge/sludge/metal/noise/alt. rock.."

This is how they were described by one website...Never really had chance to check them out as was always slaving away at my desk. I have since quit my job. It was listening to this band that inspired me. To leave. They blew my mind. I had bought the double vinyl of the new album. Didn't listen to it for a while but just loved the artwork and the packaging first. Thick double LP, card sleeve, free "acid" prints. Are they real? I do not know. Are Boris real? I do not know.
It may have been more the fact that I was listening to them at extreme volume on my headphones in the middle of the night, clutching the sleeve, staring at the picture on the back that shows them looking at you with their eyes closed. I just kept turning the volume up. I felt no pain as it got louder. And louder. And a bit more. The bass was tickling my ears as the headphones seemed to shake like in a cartoon. I got as far as side one, I think, of the double album. Three tracks of in your face punk rock - it's the sound of being at the front of a gig and you're way too close to the speakers. The sound of a band with so much energy. It's a very distorted sound.
After the three fast tracks they just hit you with a very slow, super heavy track called Blackout. The effect is like being dressed in armour and hitting a concrete, car park wall every five seconds. It is so slow and so, so heavy.
You may not get the full effect of the music from checking out a couple of dodgy MP3s. Especially as you are so busy that you need some music that's not gonna challenge you too much. Here's another taster of Boris: this is not a full track but you get most of it. It's linked from their label site, Southern Lord.

Boris - "Pink" via Southern Records

I'm tired now, anyway. After listening to this record I couldn't listen to anything else in my collection. Everything else sounded over produced, clunky, QUIET and boring and unimaginative and predictable. Enjoy.

These tracks were originally linked on my basic MP3 blog Clik and Lissen.