BORIS
Smile
(Southern Lord)

HELLBLOCK 6
Nuclear Age
(World Eater)

AHLEUCHATISTAS
Even in the Midst...
(Cuneiform)

GLOOMY SUNDAY
Beyond Good and Evil
(Solitude Prod)

SQUALORA
S/T
(Wantage)

BUSH TETRAS
Very Very Happy 

(ROIR)

POPULATION
REDUCTION
At the Throats of Man Forever

(Tankcrimes)

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I have served society. I said it right there. Backtrack a few years ago when I was a broke ass hanging out at the local library swallowing books and checking out movies at the expense of the tax payer, I desperately wanted to get a hold of a copy of Boris’ Akuma No Uta.  The equation was plain and simple; if I purchased Akuma No Uta I would have had no money to eat. And if I had had no money to eat I would have had no life to listen to Akuma No Uta. Talk about catch 22 for fuck’s sakes. Clearly thinking my plea would land on blind eyes but that I had nothing to lose, I proceeded to suggest the item to my county’s library. A couple of months later I got an automated message in my cell phone, a mechanized voice claimed; ‘your requested item has arrived and is now waiting for you at blah blah location’.  Now, a copy of Boris’ Akuma No Uta is part of my county’s public library, sitting alongside classical and jazz records, is a masterpiece of stoner sludge, awaiting for the next willing listener. 

A few years have passed since then and ever since this Japanese masters of all things heavy and organically experimental have continuously regaled us with full-lengths, collaborations (among the most memorable are those with Sunno))), Michio Kurihara and Merzbow), soundtracks for films that only exist in the band’s minds and limited editions. Now, with the release of Smile, the band takes a conscious stab at broadening their influences to include obscure hair metal, cartoon music and 80’s Japanese songs. Frankly, had I not known these were their intentions, I still would have known this was Boris.

Not that the band doesn’t depart from charted waters. “Flower Sun Rain” is mellow weirdness; drenched in distant psychedelia slowly breaks its Sunday moods into a brief solo, a chorus and then goes full-fledged heavy into distortion. Whether its influence is rooted in hair metal or 80’s Japanese pop, I am not sure. “Buzz-In” and “Laser Beam” contain the most typical patterns we have all come to know and love from the stoner/sludge Boris but is all laced up with funk (and I am not talking some James Brown type of shit); it is free flowing heavy rock teased up with feedback, unorthodox choruses and verses and that magnificent sense of volume this trio has mastered.  When all the informed heard about Boris’ intentions for this album I don’t think many people were surprised. All in the know knew about the band’s propensity to experiment; going polka would have been a surprise.  Regardless, their new influences are audible within the song structures; odd lines and melodies, delicate textures (“My Neighbor Satan”) interlaced with noise, bursts of rock amidst lullaby-like ambience, etc. Definite kudos to the band for another quality release; much of their merit goes to making seemless music from such despair rags. What I don’t understand is why the promo copies of Smile only contain seven songs instead of the eight of the CD version or the ten of the 2xLP versions. That means I am missing a few songs from their discography.  I am pissed.

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