Boris — Boris at last - Feedbacker

Any regular Musique[machine] reader should be aware of them by now. And people who are not should start to take notice before it’s too late and people start making fun of them 10 years from know for not having heard of Boris at the time Feedbacker was released.

I’m not going to lose any time on biographical info. If you need some, go check the reviews I wrote of some of their previous releases here. This album comes after the full-on rock assaults of Heavy Rocks and Akuma no uta. The latter was Boris’ fucking raw take on Venom, 70’s hard rock and The Melvins. In the months that followed its release and the unveiling of Feedbacker, one thing seemed quite clear: once more, Boris were going to give something different to their fans. Truth be told, I was expecting great things… but I wasn’t quite prepared for something this magnificent, even after having seen and touched and manipulated and opened the absolutely gorgeous packaging….

It all begins with… feedback. Ambient sounds. Fuzz. A sound that make me think of a Japanese version of a David Lynch movie that would feature a poor lonesome cow-boy in all his twisted grandeur. And it becomes obvious: Boris master the feedback, it acts at their command in a truly astonishing way. Then, Atsuo hits for the first time his cymbals and snare. They craft a trance-inducing mournful tune, a mind boggling moment of abandonment. It’s slocore that fucks with psychedelic rock for some of the most beautiful minutes of your life. One of those moments when you listen and do nothing and don’t feel like you’re losing your precious, so precious time. When Wata starts her first solo, it feels like you’re reaching a peak that you won’t come close to ever again. How wrong! This whole album sits comfortably on top of almost every other music I’ve heard in my whole life. And then Takeshi starts singing in a way you’ve never heard him do before, sad and fragile and distant and it’s even better. And then things start to get heavier and it’s even, even better. And I think of Keiji Haino, Kousokuya and Merzbow and everything great in Japanese music put together in one band, in one album. And I think of the legendary Mizutani and his Rallizes Denudes brought back to life. And then you get the “straightest” riffs of the album and then it’s all about rumble, distortion, fuzz, hammering and it makes you move as one with the sounds. And Takeshi screams and Wata riffs and “echoes” and Atsuo pummel and it’s difficult to hold back the tears, to fight the goosebumps, to write this review without too many typos or spelling mistakes because there are actually only two things you can do: hear and feel. And they know its over, and they know it might just be too much for some to take and they walk resolutely towards their amps so you get drone, feedback, noise, and echo for 9 minutes that feel like 2… And now that the amps are almost dead, they start playing their psyched slocore thing again, putting you on your fucking knees one more time muttering again and again and again “why? why? why? why?”

Photo by Shiva-Eri © Fangs Anal Satan

Official release outside Japan through Conspiracy Records