Boris’ Culmination of Noise

Boris, the Tokyo-based experimental rock band, celebrates their 20th year in existence with the release of Noise, their most versatile album to date. Noise is a supreme showcase of the cartoon-theme and Japanese pop-inspired trio’s unique perspectives on sound and music as a whole.  Featuring examples across the spectrum of their capabilities, this album includes something that even the most judgmental Boris fan can enjoy.

The album starts out with “Melody,” a tunnel of reverb-ridden guitar work, poppy vocals and fast-paced drums  The song’s first 40 seconds forecasts a beautiful soundscape to follow, only to be shattered by the entrance of a fast-paced poppy drum rhythm.  It continues on its pop-fueled course through the next five minutes, contributing nothing special to the album as a whole.  The song that follows, “Vanilla,” is another example of the band’s pop prowess and sets the die-hard Boris fan up for a “what the hell?” moment,  concerns of deprivation of the true raw power of Boris.  As the album continues to “Ghost of Romance” and “Heavy Rain,” these two songs melt away into the recesses of memory like being in line outside a venue listening to a band do their sound check.  The latter songs cause the listener to realize that the first two were only warm-ups.

If the first two songs are the dregs of the album, “Angel” is the magnum opus, featuring almost eighteen and a half minutes of pure psychotropic brilliance.  In an age of digital recording that lacks the frequencies that are felt rather than heard, bands such as Boris still create songs like “Angel” that wash over the soul like a tidal wave.  Immediately after the immersion into the musical depth, the band provides a waking slap in the face with “Quicksilver,” the most brutal song on the album, showing that they can still rock hard.  “Quicksilver” is a testament for fans of Heavy Rocks and Pink as well as an homage to their heavier influences such as The Melvins.

Noise finishes up with the post-coital cigarette, “Siesta.”  This song, weighing in at two minutes and fifty-two seconds, is the shortest song on the album and comes to an abrupt end after providing a sense of relaxation and peace.  This album isn’t a graduation for Boris, nor a change, but a welcome culmination of all the styles the band has mastered after 20 years and 19 albums.