If you are interested in ‘alternative’ Japanese contemporary music (as in, stuff that isn’t in the charts or a tie-in to an anime show) you may have heard of Boris. I heard their songs for the first time around a year ago in Tetsuya Nakeshima’s chilling psycho-thriller Kokuhaku (Confessions), in which a nosebleed-inducing guitar riff cuts through the murmured vocals of Rainbow like a hot knife through butter, and the crashing heartbreak of Farewell brings the movie to a close. I was hooked from that point on.
Quite honestly they’re such a prolific band, who tour so extensively and collaborate with so many artists internationally, I would have stumbled on them eventually. It’s only a shame this didn’t happen to me sooner, so I hope this article will help you avoid that “where has this band been all my life?!” feeling that I experienced.
Boris are a difficult band to categorise. Their early LPs, Absolutego and Amplifier Worship, might indicate that they’re a sludge/doom metal band while the likes of Akuma no Uta and Pink are closer to 70s-style psychedelic or garage rock. Then there are albums like Flood, Feedbacker and Attention Please, which cover the gamut from 90s style shoegaze, post rock and ambient. To make matters more complicated, they often release multiple editions of the same album, resulting in listeners in one country owning a record that sounds very different from fellow fans’ in others. Or, in the case of Heavy Rocks, they give a later album that has nothing in common with the earlier one the same title and similar sleeve artwork.
Some are comprised of one long track that fills the entire album: imagine the old days of Pink Floyd when one song sprawled across an entire side of vinyl, or was subdivided into different parts. They may or may not have names for them, either. The band members are genial and polite yet are often vague or reluctant to answer certain questions in interviews; the message I take from this is that their music is supposed to speak for itself.
This is Atsuo. He’s a cool guy. Due to a line-up change early on in their career, he plays drums but sometimes sings. He’s a bit like a J-rock Keith Moon, or Animal from the Muppets if drawn in the bishounen style of CLAMP. Many of the band’s Twitter messages, and associated photos (usually of soundchecks, food and beer), can be attributed to him.
This is Takeshi. He’s a cool guy. The aforementioned line-up change meant that he plays bass and rhythm guitar as well as doing some of the vocals. At the same time. For this reason he plays double-neck guitar/basses that are connected to two separate amplifier rigs on stage, and sometimes swaps between the two even during the same song while singing. He is also responsible for the Twitter updates and interviews.
This is Wata. She’s cool too. She doesn’t talk very much, but plays lead guitar and occasionally sings. For reasons I’ve never fully understood, there are sadly relatively few female rock musicians who are recognised for their musical proficiency rather than being eye candy for the fans, but it’s fair to say that she’s one of them. Not that it’s easy to ignore the fact that she’s an attractive female standing in front of a bright orange amp stack that’s taller than she is.
Although Boris are officially a trio, guitarist Michio Kurihara has contributed on several of their most recent records and accompanies them on tour, so he is for all intents and purposes a part-time member of the band. He doesn’t sing, but lends a less heavy and more psychedelic slant to the band’s sound. Other collaborators include the US doom/drone band Sunn o))), Japanese electronic noise artist Merzbow and the America/Japanese band Asobi Seksu.
Finding a ‘gateway’ Boris album is a daunting task. They are in my opinion equally proficient in a number of styles and genres, with the only common denominator being the combination of guitar, bass and drums. Their back catalogue is quite diverse, so if you don’t like one of their albums it doesn’t mean you won’t appreciate the others. The Variations compilation might be a good place to start because it covers several albums’ songs and also gives a glimpse into the energetic nature of their live shows. This is by no means an exhaustive list (which is my way of apologising in advance for any factual inaccuracies), and even at the time of writing they’re working on new material.
I see what you did there
Amplifier Worship is an early classic, and falls into the heavy sludge metal category with the likes of Huge and Ganbou-ki. Akuma no Uta is a noise rock album, instantly recognisable from the cover artwork that references Nick Drake and features the delightful tune Naki Kyoku. Pink is as close as they got to an international breakthrough, being as it is relatively accessible with tunes like the title track and the opener Farewell.
Currently widely available are their three most recent: Heavy Rocks (with a purple cover, not to be confused with that totally unrelated one with the orange sleeve), which is in their experimental heavy rock/metal vein; Attention Please, a quirky shoegaze/noisepop offering in which Wata does all the vocals; and the curiously-titled New Album, which features tracks from the other two in altered form. Like their 2008 release Smile, the tracks are remixed or rerecorded; some sound similar to their alternate versions while others are virtually unrecognisable.
Then there are the ‘long song’ albums. Their debut Absolutego is close to their Melvins-inspired roots. Flood was an early departure into a lighter, more atmospheric direction and Feedbacker is a forty-three minute jam that uses fuzz guitar, feedback and self-oscillating analogue tape delays. It sounds like everything I love about noisy guitar music rolled into one.
So then, what’s not to like? Partly because they’re not tied to a major international music label and also because the collaboration projects are with so many people, their back catalogue is scattered across different companies, depending on where the album in question is on sale. This becomes a problem when you’re trying to pick up copies of them all by legal means, as I’m starting to find out.
Hypnotoad says: BUY THIS ALBUM
Getting hold of the ‘purple’ Heavy Rocks, Attention Please and New Album is easy: they’re out on CD and can be purchased in digital form from their bandcamp page. Similarly, the Asobi Seksu and Joe Volk split EPs can be bought and downloaded if you don’t own a vinyl record player. Beyond that, it gets tricky.
Inevitably, the early albums are either out of print or have been reissued with different artwork, mixes and track listings. Some were produced in limited quantities, or only available through certain channels, such as at concerts. It makes the discovery of songs of theirs that you’ve not heard before to be a fun adventure, but it can also be a frustrating experience.
You know that really cool video of them you saw on Youtube? That track may be off a vinyl-only pressing or special edition CD of a just few thousand, available on an overseas tour from several years back, and it’s no longer available from the record company or the band themselves…although there’s another mix of the same song on another album that sounds completely different. Alternatively, you could pay several times the retail price on Ebay or something. You get the idea.
Overall Boris are one of the most talented, fascinating and under-appreciated guitar bands of recent years. In my limited face-to-face contact with them they’re a tremendous (and LOUD) live act, as well as being very pleasant and respectful to their fans. You really do need to give them a listen. And, if you really want a challenge, try to find all their albums and let me know what you make of them. It’s worth it in the end.