Boris reviewed
Boris With Michio Kurihara
Rainbow
(Drag City)
Low-end, Japanese noise terrorists call in a reinforcement for psychedelic doodling.
Appearing: October 30th at Empty Bottle in Chicago.
There’s psychedelia, and then there’s psychedelia. It’s one thing to glob on a little extra reverb or “out” solowork into the mix. It’s another thing to completely sail away. Boris have no problem in letting go of inhibition in unique ways to complement their surroundings. From drone metal to straight rock ‘n’ roll, Boris can assist (call them the great subcontractors of the subculture). Rainbow finds Boris adding fuzzed-out and amped-up freak-out to the pop of guitarist Michio Kurihara. It also finds them seamlessly dissolving into the light frailty of what becomes Kurihara’s mild-mannered baby. The title track and “Starship Narrator” believe themselves to be from the folkier side of the first British Invasion. Then guitarists Takeshi and Wata trounce paper-thin melodies with ugly volume, and they’re more like the Iron Maiden side of New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. The attack is fleeting. With the Mono-like fluidity of “My Rain,” Boris do watery post rock, too.
— Mike Meyer
