A new Boris record with Wata taking lead vocals on all the songs? Well that should go over pretty well with the universe. Boris follow-up last year’s self-issued No (discussed here) by aligning with Sacred Bones Records for what’s simply been called W, though whether that’s because of Wata — and if so, are A and T soon to follow? — or if they’ll get distracted by a thing and go off and be brilliant in some other completely different direction is anyone’s best guess. But good for the perpetually-on-their-own-wavelength Japanese post-universe trio on picking up where they left off before continuing to do whatever the hell they want. It’ll still be a century or two before humanity has caught up to them, but one assumes by then we’ll have some AI specializing in WTF to help us mortals with the task.

Oh, and preorders are up. And a video. So there.

Sacred Bones Records sent word down the PR wire:

New Boris album W up for pre-order!

Huge announcement today: The legendary experimental band Boris, one of the heaviest bands ever to come out of Japan, has joined the Sacred Bones family! In their nearly three decades together, Boris has infused doom, hardcore, thrash, noise-core, ambient, free improv, drone, psychedelia, and more into their extensive discography and have earned legions of zealous fans along the way. We feel honored to be working with them and are excited to announce their forthcoming record W with an incredible video for the standout track “Drowning by Numbers.”

Preorder: https://www.sacredbonesrecords.com/products/sbr287-boris-w

In an effort to sublimate the negative energy surrounding everyone in 2020, legendary Japanese heavy rock band Boris focused all of their energy creatively and turned out the most extreme album of their long and widely celebrated career, “NO.” The band self-released the album, desiring to get it out as quickly as possible but intentionally called the final track on the album “Interlude” while planning its follow-up.

The follow-up comes with “W”, the band’s debut album for Sacred Bones Records. The record opens with the same melody as “Interlude” in a piece titled “I want to go to the side where you can touch…” and in contrast to the extreme sounds found on “NO”, this new album whispers into the listener’s ear with a trembling hazy sound meant to awaken sensation.

On all of “W” Wata carries the lead vocal duties. In general the styles on the album range from noise to new age, as is typical with one of our generation’s most dynamic and adventurous bands, but there is a thread of melodic deliberation through each song that successfully accomplishes the band’s goal of eliciting deep sensation. Be it through epic sludgey riffs, angelic vocal reverberations or the seduction of their off-kilter percussion, Boris will have you fully under their spell. This languid and liquifying sound is perfectly represented in the beautiful Kotao Tomozawa cover art and in suGar yoshinaga’s sound production.

“NO” and “W” weave together to form NOW, a duo of releases that respond to one another. In following their hardest album with this sensuous thundering masterpiece they are creating a continuous circle of harshness and healing, one that seems more relevant now than ever and shows the band operating at an apex of their musical career.

Additional details on EarthQuaker Devices exclusive pedal: https://www.sacredbonesrecords.com/products/sbr287-boris-w

Releases January 21, 2022.

Boris is:
Takeshi: Vocals, Guitar & Bass
Wata: Vocals, Guitar & Echo
Atsuo: Vocals, Percussion & Electronics

http://www.facebook.com/borisheavyrocks/
https://www.instagram.com/borisdronevil/
https://boris.bandcamp.com/
http://borisheavyrocks.com/
https://www.facebook.com/SacredBones
http://instagram.com/sacredbones
https://sacredbonesrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.sacredbonesrecords.com/

Boris, “Drowning by Numbers” official video

Well of course I looked up what Mienakunaru translates to in English. It’s Japanese for “become invisible.” Fair enough. Lost Bones of the Holy Butterfly, which is the album that the intercontinental project produced in 2020, however, will be a little bit more visible as Echodelick Records steps up to release it in the US in a red edition where the original, on Dronerock, was green. Whatever color and however invisible it might be, the record boasts two side-long guitar freakfests and is wildly consuming all the way through. Shit goes wild, kid. Jazz.

Note the inclusion of psych-drone veteran Mike Vest of Bong et al here. I’m not sure what the association between Vest and Echodelick is, but the guitarist’s Bandcamp page was also where one could find UK/European preorders the other day for the Lammping record, so there’s some deal worked out there for distribution, which is worth keeping an eye on. If Echodelick is going to end up bringing North American distro to more of Vest‘s releases, well, that’s a quick way to build a label catalog for sure.

Future’s in the future. Here’s this till that:

MIENAKUNARU – Lost Bones of the Holy Butterfly – Echodelick Records

Vinyl Release : August 2021

Mienakunaru ‘Lava Red US edition’ coming out on Echodelick Records later this summer. Originally released on Dronerock Records earlier this year to critical acclaim. Echodelick is doing a US reissue with an alternate cover. The first 75 orders will receive a Mienakunaru patch.

Mienakunaru is a power trio of psychedelic noise rock and space punk. Mienakunaru – Lost Bones Of The Holy Butterfly features Mike Vest of the bands Blown Out, Ozo, Lush Worker, Bong, Melting Hand and many more. With skills that most musicians only dream of, Mike Vest infuses this album with non-stop rock that is highly impressive. Junzo Suzuki of Tokyo, Japan is the second guitarist in this mind-blowing album. He is known for his role in many underground psychedelic rock bands and has collaborated with Snakes Don’t Belong In Alaska, 20 Guilders, Astro and has over 20 albums released under his name. These two cutting edge guitarists team up, along with Dave Sneddon (Gruel, Bad Ra), for a display of raw guitar power and battering drums that go way beyond the term ‘Heavy Psychedelia’. Be prepared for the rollercoaster of fast lead lines, dual solos, heavy stoner riffs, and more. Simply put, Mienakunaru lay waste to all lifeforms.

As Mike himself said in a recent interview; “I always wanted to make music with Junzo and Sned and it came together pretty easy. Everyone is good with production and being able to record well from home. The musicianship is top quality and it didn’t take long to all come together.”

Mienakunaru are:
Junzo Suzuki – Guitar
Mike Vest – Bass, Guitar and Mix
Dave Sneddon – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/mienakunaru/
https://www.facebook.com/ERECORDSATL
https://www.instagram.com/echodelickrecords/
https://echodelickrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.echodelickrecords.com/

Mienakunaru, Lost Bones of the Holy Butterfly (2020)

Friday morning and the Spring 2021 Quarterly Review draws to a close. It’s been a good one, and though there are probably enough albums on my desktop to make it go another few days, better to quit while I’m ahead in terms of not-being-so-tired-I’m-angry-at-everything-I’m-hearing. In any case, as always, I hope you found something here you enjoy. I have been pleasantly surprised on more than a few occasions, especially by debuts.

We wrap with more cool stuff today and since I’m on borrowed time as it is, let me not delay.

Quarterly Review #41-50:

Sonic Flower, Rides Again

Like Church of Misery‘s groove but feel kind of icky with all those songs about serial killers? Legit. Say hello to Tatsu Mikami‘s Sonic Flower. Once upon a 2003, the band brought all the boogie and none of the slaughter of Tatsu‘s now-legendary Sabbathian doom rock outfit to a self-titled debut (reissue review here), and Rides Again is the lost follow-up from 2005, unearthed like so many of the early ’70s forsaken classics that clearly inspired it. With covers of The Meters and Graham Central Station, Sonic Flower makes their funky intentions plain as day, and the blowout drums and full-on fuzz they bring to those cuts as well as the five originals on the short-but-satisfying 28-minute offering is a win academically and for casual fans alike. You ain’t gonna hear “Jungle Cruise” or their take on “Earthquake” and come out complaining, is what I’m saying. This is the kind of record that makes you buy more records.

Sonic Flower on Thee Facebooks

Heavy Psych Sounds on Bandcamp

—

 

Demon Head, Viscera

With Viscera, Copenhagen’s Demon Head make their debut on Metal Blade Records. It is their fourth album overall, the follow-up to 2019’s Hellfire Ocean Void (review here), and it continues the five-piece’s enduring exploration of darker places. Dramatic vocals recount grim narratives over backing instrumentals that are less doom at the outset with “Tooth and Nail” and “The Feline Smile” than goth, and atmospheric pieces like “Arrows” and “The Lupine Choir” and “A Long, Groaning Descent” and “Wreath” and certainly the closer “The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony” further the impression that Viscera, though its title conjures raw guts, is instead an elaborate entirety — if perhaps one of raw guts — and meant to be taken in its 36-minute whole. Demon Head make that LP-friendly runtime a progression down into reaches they’d not until this point gone, tapping sadness for its inherent beauty.

Demon Head on Thee Facebooks

Metal Blade Records website

—

 

Rakta & Deafkids, Live at Sesc Pompeia

Next time someone asks you what the future sounds like, you’ll have a good answer for them. Combined into a six-piece band, Brazilian outfits Rakta and Deafkids harness ambience and space-punk thrust into a sound that is born of a past that hasn’t yet happened. Their Live at Sesc Pompeia LP follows on from a 2019 two-songer, but it’s in the live performance that the spirit of this unity really shines through, and from opener/longest track (immediate points) “Miragem” through the semi-industrialized effects swirl of “Templo do Caos,” into the blower-noise dance party “Sigilo,” the weirdo-chug-jam of “Forma” and the space rock breakout “Flor de Pele” and the percussed buzz and echoing howls of “Espirais,” they are equal parts encompassing and singular. It is not to be ignored, and though there are moments that border on unlistenable, you can hear from the wailing crowd at the end that to be in that room was to witness something special. As a document of that, Live at Sesc Pompeia feels like history in the making.

Rakta on Thee Facebooks

Deafkids on Thee Facebooks

Rapid Eye Records website

—

 

Timo Ellis, Death is Everywhere

A madcap, weighted-but-anti-genre sensibility comes to life in supernova-experimentalist fashion throughout the four songs of Timo Ellis‘ Death is Everywhere. The lockdown-era EP from Ellis (Netherlands, Yoko Ono, Cibo Matto, on and on) makes post-modern shenanigans out of apocalypses inner and outer, and from lines like “this bridal shower is bumming me out” in the unabashedly hooky “Vampire Rodeo” to “the earth will still breathe fire without you!” in “Left Without an Answer,” the stakes are high despite the flittering-in-appreciation-of-the-absurd mood of the tracks themselves. The title-track and “Evolve or Die” blend sonic heft and the experimental pop movement that “Vampire Rodeo” sets forth — the third cut is positively manic and maniacally positive — while “Left Without an Answer” almost can’t help but be consuming as it rolls into a long fade leaving intertwining vocals lines as the last to go, telling the listener to “learn to say goodbye” without making it easy. Won’t be for everyone, doesn’t want to be. Is expression for itself. Feels genuine in that, and admirable.

Timo Ellis on Thee Facebooks

Timo Ellis on Bandcamp

—

 

Heavy Feather, Mountain of Sugar

With not-at-all-subtle nods to Humble Pie and Ennio Morricone in its opening tracks, Heavy Feather‘s second LP, Mountain of Sugar, has boogie to spare. No time is wasted on the 38-minute/11-track follow-up to 2019’s Débris & Rubble (review here), and true to the record’s title, it’s pretty sweet. The collection pits retro mindset against modern fullness in its harmonica-laced, duly-fuzzed title-track, and goes full-Fleetwood on “Come We Can Go” heading into a side B that brings a highlight in the soft-touch-stomp of “Rubble and Debris” and an earned bit of Southern-styled turn in “Sometimes I Feel” that makes a fitting companion to all the bluesy vibes throughout, particularly those of the mellow “Let it Shine” earlier. The Stockholm outfit knew what they were doing last time out too, but you can hear their process being refined throughout Mountain of Sugar, and even its most purposefully familiar aspects come across with a sense of will and playfulness.

Heavy Feather on Thee Facebooks

The Sign Records on Thee Facebooks

—

 

Slow Draw, Yellow & Gray

Don’t tell him I told you so, but Slow Draw is starting to sound an awful lot like a band. What began as a drone/soundscaping project from Stone Machine Electric drummer/noisemaker Mark Kitchens has sprouted percussive roots of its own on Yellow & Gray, and as Kitchens explores textures of psychedelic funk, mellow heavy and even a bit of ’70s proggy homage in “Sylvia” ahead of the readily Beck-ian jam “Turntable” and acousti-drone closer “A Slow Move,” the band-vibe is rampant. I’m going to call Yellow & Gray a full-length despite the fact that it’s 24 minutes long because its eight songs inhabit so many different spaces between them, but however you want to tag it, it demonstrates the burgeoning depth of Kitchens‘ project and how it’s grown in perhaps unanticipated ways. If this is what he’s been doing in isolation — as much as Texas ever shuttered for the pandemic — his time has not been wasted.

Slow Draw on Thee Facebooks

Slow Draw on Bandcamp

—

 

Pilot Voyager, Nuclear Candy Bar

Freak! Out! The 66-minute Nuclear Candy Bar from Hungarian psychedelicists Pilot Voyager might end mostly drifting with the 27-minute “23:61,” but much of the four tracks prior to that finale are fuzz-on-go-go-go-out-out-out heavy jams, full in tone and improv spirit however planned their course may or may not actually be. To say the least, “Fuzziness” lives up to its name, as guitarist/founder Ákos Karancz — joined by bassist Bence Ambrus (who also mastered) and drummers Krisztián Megyeri and István Baumgartner (the latter only on the closer) — uses a relatively earthbound chug as a launchpad for further space/krautrocking bliss, culminating in a scorching cacophony that’s the shortest piece on the record at just under seven minutes. If you make it past the molten heat of the penultimate title-track, there’s no turning away from “23:61,” as the first minute of that next day pulls you in from the outset, a full-length flow all unto itself. More more more, yes yes yes. Alright you get the point.

Pilot Voyager on Thee Facebooks

Psychedelic Source Records on Bandcamp

—

 

The Ginger Faye Bakers, Camaro

Sit with The Ginger Faye Bakers‘ Camaro EP for a little bit. Don’t just listen to the first track, or even the second, third or fourth, on their own, but take a few minutes to put it all together. Won’t take long, the thing’s only 17 minutes long, and in so doing you’ll emerge with a more complex picture of who they are as a band. Yeah, you hear the opening title-cut and think early-Queens of the Stone Age-style desert riffing, maybe with a touch of we’re-actually-from-the-Northeast tonal thickness, but the garage-heavy of “The Creeps” feels self-aware in its Uncle Acid-style swing, and as the trio move through the swinging “The Master” and “Satan’s Helpers,” the last song drawing effectively from all sides, the totality of the release becomes all the more sinister for the relatively straight-ahead beginning just a short time earlier. Might be a listen or two before it sinks in, but they’ve found a niche for themselves here and one hopes they continue to follow where their impulses lead them.

The Ginger Faye Bakers on Thee Facebooks

The Ginger Faye Bakers on Bandcamp

—

 

Neromega, Nero Omega

If you’re not yet keeping an eye on Regain Records offshoot Helter Skelter Productions, Rome’s Neromega are a fervent argument for doing so. The initials-only cultish five-piece are Italian as much in their style of doom as they are in geography, and across their four-song Nero Omega debut EP, they run horror organ and classic heavy rock grooves alongside each other while nodding subtly at more extreme fare like the death ‘n’ roll rumble in closer “Un Posto” or the dirt-coated low end that caps “Pugnale Ardore,” the drifting psych only moments ago quickly forgotten in favor of renewed shuffle. Eight-minute opener “Solitudine,” might be the highlight as well as the longest inclusion on the 24-minute first-showing, but it’s by no means the sum total of what the band have on offer, as they saunter through giallo, psychedelia, doom, heavy riffs and who knows what else to come, they strike an immediately individual atmospheric presence even while actively toying with familiar sounds. The EP is cohesive enough to make me wonder what their initials are.

Neromega on Thee Facebooks

Helter Skelter Productions website

—

 

Tung, Bleak

Some of the made-even-bigger-by-echo vocals from guitarist Craig Kasamis might remind of Maurice Bryan Giles from Red Fang, but Ventura, California’s Tung are up chasing down a different kind of party on 2020’s Bleak, though Kasamis, guitarist David Briceno (since replaced by Bill Bensen), bassist Nick Minasian and drummer Rob Dean have a strong current of West Coast noise rock in what they’re doing as well in “Runaway,” a lurcher like “Spit” later on or the run-till-it-crashes finisher “Fallen Crown,” which the only song apart from the bookending opener “Succession Hand” to have a title longer than a single word. Still, Tung have their own, less pop-minded take on brashness, and this debut album leaves the bruises behind to demonstrate its born-from-hardcore lineage. Their according lack of frills makes Bleak all the more effective at getting its point across, and while they’d probably tell you their sound is nothing fancy, it’s fancy enough to stomp all over your ears for about half an hour, and that’s as fancy as it needs to be. Easy to dig even in its more aggressive moments.

Tung on Thee Facebooks

Plain Disguise Records website

—

 

The Spring 2021 Quarterly Review begins here, and as our long winter of plague-addled discontent is made glorious spring by this son of York Beach, I can hardly wait to dig in. You know the drill. 50 records between now and Friday, 10 per day. It’s a lot. It’s always a lot. That’s the point.

Words on the page. If I have a writing philosophy, that’s it. Head down, keep working. And that’s the challenge here. Can you get over your own crap and say what you need to say about 10 records every day for five days straight out? I’ll be exhausted by the end of the week for sure. I’ll let you know when we get there if it feels any different. Till then, let’s roll.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

Wolvennest, Temple

The second full-length offering — and I mean that: ‘offering’ — from Belgium’s Wolvennest is an expansive and immersive follow-up to their 2018 debut, Void, as the Brussels six-piece offers next-stage extreme cult rock. Across 77 willfully-unmanageable and mind-altering minutes, the troupe caroms between (actual) psychedelic black metal and sheer sonic ritualism, and the intent is made plain from 12:26 opener/longest track (immediate points) “Mantra” onward. Wolvennest are enacting a ceremony and it’s up to the listener to be willing to engage with the material on that level. Their command is unwavering as the the heft and wash of “Alecto” and the ethereal swirl and dual vocal arrangement of “All that Black” show, but while King Dude himself shows up on “Succubus,” and that’s fun, especially followed by the penultimate downward march of “Disappear,” the greatest consumption is saved for “Souffle de Mort” (“breath of death,” in English; it’s not about eggs). In that 10-minute finale, marked out by the French-language declarations of Shazzula Vultura, Wolvennest not only make it plain just how far they’ve brought you, but that they intend to leave you there as well.

Wolvennest on Thee Facebooks

Ván Records website

—

 

Lammping, New Jaws EP

A 15-minute playful jaunt into the funk-grooving max-fuzzed whatever-works garage headtrip if Toronto’s Lammping is right on the money. The four-piece start channel-spanning and mellow with “Jaws of Life” — which is a righteous preach, even though I don’t know the lyrics — and follow with the complementary vibe of “The Funkiest,” which would seem to be titled in honor of its bassline and conjures out-there’est Masters of Reality in its face-painted BlueBoy lysergics over roughly traditional songwriting. Is “Neverbeen” weirder? You know it. Dreamily so, and it’s followed by the genuinely-experimental 40 seconds of “Big Time the Big Boss” and the closer “Other Shoe,” which if it doesn’t make you look forward to the next Lammping album, I’m sorry to say it, but you might be dead. Sorry for your loss. Of you. This shit is killer and deserves all the ears it can get with its early ’90s weirdness that’s somehow also from the late ’60s and still the future too because what is time anyway and screw it we’re all lost let’s ride.

Lammping on Instagram

Nasoni Records website

—

 

Lykantropi, Tales to Be Told

Tales to Be Told is the late-2020 third long-player from Swedish classicists Lykantropi, following 2019’s Spirituosa (review here) with a warmth of tone that’s derived from ’70s folk rock and vaguely retro in its tones and drum sounds, but remains modern in its hookmaking and it’s not exactly like they’re trying to hide where they’re coming from when they break out the flute sounds. Harmonies in “Mother of Envy” make that song a passionate highlight, while the respective side-endings in “Kom Ta Mig Ut” and “Världen Går Vidare” add to the exploratory and roots-proggy listening experience, the album’s finale dropping its drums before the three-minute mark to allow for a drifting midsection en route to a class finish that answers the choruses of “Spell of Me” and “Axis of Margaret” earlier with due spaciousness. Clean and clear and wanting nothing aesthetically or emotionally, Tales to Be Told is very much a third album in how realized it feels.

Lykantropi on Thee Facebooks

Despotz Records website

—

 

Mainliner, Dual Myths

Japanese trio Mainliner — comprised of guitarist Kawabata Makoto (Acid Mothers Temple), bassist/vocalist Kawabe Taigen (Bo Ningen) and drummer Koji Shimura (Acid Mothers Temple) — are gentle at the outset of Dual Myths but don’t wait all that long before unveiling their true freak-psych intention in the obliterating 20 minutes of “Blasphemy Hunter,” the opener/longest track (immediate points) that’s followed by the likewise side-consuming left-the-air-lock-behind-and-found-antimatter-was-made-of-feedback “Hibernator’s Dream” (18:38), the noisier, harsher fuckall spread of “Silver Guck” (19:28) and the gut-riffed/duly scorched jazz shredder “Dunamist Zero” (20:08), which culminates the 2LP beast about as well as anything could, earning the gatefold with sheer force of intent to be and to harness the far-out into some loosely tangible thing. Stare into the face of the void and the void doesn’t so much stare back as turn your lungs into party balloons.

Mainliner on Thee Facebooks

Riot Season Records website

—

 

DayGlo Mourning, Dead Star

On a certain level, what you see is what you get with the Orion slavegirl warriors, alien mushrooms and caithan beast that adorn DayGlo Mourning‘s debut album, the six-song/35-minute Dead Star, in that they’re suitably nestled into the sonic paraphernalia of stoner-doom as well as the visual. With bassist Jerimy McNeil and guitarist Joseph Mills sharing vocal duties over Ray Miner‘s drums, variety of melody and throatier shouts are added to the deep-toned largesse of riff, and the Atlanta trio most assuredly have their heads on when it comes to knowing what they want to do sound-wise. The hard-hit hi-hat of “Faithful Demise” comes with some open spaces after the fuzzy lumber that caps “Bloodghast,” and as “Ashwhore” and “Witch’s Ladder” remind a bit of the misogyny inherent in witchy folklore — at the end of the day it was all about killing pretty girls — the grooves remain fervent and the forward potential on the part of the band likewise. It’s a sound big enough that there isn’t really any room left for bullshit.

DayGlo Mourning on Thee Facebooks

Black Doomba Records webstore

—

 

Chamán, Maleza

Issued in the waning hours of Dec. 2020, Chamán‘s 70-minute, six-song debut album, Maleza, is a psicodelico cornucopia of organic-toned delights, from the more forward-fuzz of “Poliforme” — which is a mere six and a half minutes long but squeezes in a drum solo — to the 13-plus-minute out-there salvo that is “Malezo,” “Concreto” and “Temazcal,” gorgeously trippy and drifting and building on what the Mendozza, Argentina, three-piece conjure early in the proceedings with “Despierta” and “Ganesh,” each over 10 minutes as well. Even in Maleza‘s most lucid moments, the spirit of improv and live recording remains vibrant, and however these songs were built out to their current form, I’m just glad they were. Whether you put it on headphones and bliss out for 70 minutes or you end up using it as a backdrop for whatever your day might bring, Chamán‘s sprawling and melted soundscapes are ready to embrace and enfold you.

Chamán on The Facebooks

Chamán on Bandcamp

—

 

Sonic Demon, Vendetta

Italian duo Sonic Demon bring a lethal dose of post-Electric Wizard grit fuzz and druggy echoed snarl to their debut full-length, Vendetta, hitting a particularly nasty low end vibe early on “Black Smoke” and proving willing to ride that out for the duration with bouts of spacier fare in “Fire Meteorite” and side A capper “Cosmic Eyes” before the second half of the 40-minute outing renews the buzz with “FreakTrip.” Deep-mixed drums make the guitar and bass sound even bigger, and such is the morass Sonic Demon make that even their faster material seems slow; that means “Hxxxn” must be extra crawling to feel as nodded-out as it does. Closing duo “Blood and Fire” and “Serpent Witch” don’t have much to say that hasn’t already been said, style-wise, but they feel no less purposeful in sealing the hypnosis cast by the songs before them. If you can’t hang with repetition, you can’t hang, and the filth in the speedier-ish last section of “Serpent Witch” isn’t enough to stop it from being catchy.

Sonic Demon on Thee Facebooks

The Swamp Records on Bandcamp

Forbidden Place Records website

—

 

Sow Discord, Quiet Earth

Sow Discord is the solo industrial doom/experimentalist project of David Coen, also known for his work in Whitehorse, and the bleak feel that pervades his debut full-length under the moniker, Quiet Earth, is resonant and affecting. Channeling blowout beats and speaker-throbbing crush on “Ruler,” Coen elsewhere welcomes Many Blessings (aka Ethan Lee McCarthy, also of Primitive Man) and The Body as guests for purposefully disturbing conjurations. Cuts like “Desalination” and “Functionally Extinct” churn with an atmosphere that feels born of a modern real-world apocalypse, and it’s hard to tell ultimately whether closer “The World Looks on with Pity and Scorn” is offering condolence or condemnation, but either way you go, the bitter harshness that carries over is the thread that weaves all this punishment together, and as industrial music pushes toward new extremes, even “Everything Has Been Exhausted” manages to feel fresh in its pummel.

David Coen on Instagram

AR53 Productions on Bandcamp

Tartarus Records on Bandcamp

—

 

Cerbère, Cerbère

Formed by members of Lord Humungus, Frank Sabbath and Carpet Burns, Cerbère offer three tracks of buried-alive extreme sludge on their self-titled debut EP, recorded live in the band’s native Paris during a pandemic summer when it was illegal to leave the house. Someone left the house, anyhow, and the resultant three cuts are absolutely unabashed in their grating approach, enough so to warrant in-league status with masters of misanthropy like Grief or Khanate, even if Cerbère move more throughout the 15-minute closing title-track, and dare to add some trippy guitar later on. The two prior cuts, “Julia” — the sample at the beginning feels especially relevant in light of the ongoing Notre Dame rebuild — and “Aliéné” are no less brutal if perhaps more compact. I can’t be sure, because I just can’t, but it’s entirely possible “Aliéné” is the only word in the song that bears its name. That wouldn’t work in every context. Here it feels earned, along with the doomier lead that follows.

Cerbère on Thee Facebooks

Cerbère on Bandcamp

—

 

Dali’s Llama, Dune Lung

They’ve cooled down a bit from the tear they were on for a few years there, but Dali’s Llama‘s new Dune Lung EP is no less welcome for that. The desert-dwelling four-piece founded by guitarist/vocalist Zach and bassist Erica Huskey bring a laid back roll to the nonetheless palpably heavy “Nothing Special,” backing the opener with the fuzzy sneer of “Complete Animal,” the broader-soundscape soloing of “Merricat Blackwood,” and the more severe groove of “STD (Suits),” all of which hit with a fullness of sound that feels natural while giving the band their due as a studio unit. Dali’s Llama have been and continue to be significantly undervalued when it comes to desert rock, and Dune Lung is another example of why that is and how characteristic they are in sound and execution. Good band, and they’re edging ever closer to the 30-year mark. Seems like as good a time as any to be appreciated for the work they’ve done and do.

Dali’s Llama on Thee Facebooks

Dali’s Llama on Bandcamp

—

 

Kind of a spur of the moment thing, this Quarterly Review. I’ve been adding releases all the while, of course, but my thought was to do this after my year-end list went up, and I realized, hey, if I’ve got like 70 records I haven’t reviewed yet, maybe there’s some of that stuff worth considering. So here we are. I’ve pushed back my best-of-2020 stuff and basically swapped it with the Quarterly Review. Does it matter to you? I seriously, seriously doubt it, but I believe in transparency and that’s what’s up. Thought I’d let you know. And yeah, this is going to go into next week, take us through the X-mas holiday this Friday, so whatever. You celebrate your way and I’ll celebrate mine. Let’s roll.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

Boris, No

As a general project, reviewing Boris is damn near pointless. One might as well review the moon: “uh, it’s big and out there most of the time?” The only reason to do it is either to exercise one’s own need to hyperbolize or help the band sell records. Well, Boris doesn’t need my push and I don’t need to tell them how great they are. No is 40 minutes of the widely and wildly lauded Japanese heavy rock(s) experimentalists trying to riff away existing in 2020, delving high speed into hardcore here and there and playing off that with grueling sludge, punk, garage-metal and the penultimate “Loveless,” which is kind of Boris being their own genre. Much respect to the band, and I suppose one might critique Boris for, what?, being so Boris-y?, but there really isn’t a ton that hasn’t been said about them because such a ton has. I’m not trying to disparage their work at all — No is just what you’d expect as regards defying expectation — but after 20-plus years, there’s only so many ways one wants to call a band genius.

Boris on Thee Facebooks

Boris on Bandcamp

—

 

DVNE, Omega Severer

Kind of a soft-opening for Edinburgh’s DVNE as an act on Metal Blade Records, unless of course one counts the two songs on the Omega Severer EP itself, which are post-metallic beasts of the sort that would and should make The Ocean blush. Progressive, heavy, and remarkably ‘next-wave’ feeling, DVNE‘s awaited follow-up to 2017’s Asheran may only be about 17 and a half minutes long, but it bodes remarkably well as the band master a torrent of intensity on the 10-minute opening title-cut and answer that with the immediately galloping “Of Blade and Carapace,” smashing battle-axe riffing and progressive shimmer against each other and finding it to be an alchemy of their own. Album? One suspects not until they can tour for it, but if Omega Severer is DVNE serving notice, consider the message received loud, clear, dynamic, crushing, spacious, and so on. Already veterans of Psycho Las Vegas, they sound like a band bent on capturing a broader audience in the metallic sphere.

DVNE on Thee Facebooks

Metal Blade Records website

—

 

Hydra, From Light to the Abyss

There’s no questioning where Hydra‘s heart is at on their debut full-length, From Light to the Abyss. It belongs to the devil and it belongs to Black Sabbath. The Polish four-piece riff hard and straightforward throughout most of the five-track offering (released by Piranha Music), and samples set the kind of atmosphere that should be familiar enough to the converted — “No One Loves Like Satan” reminds of Uncle Acid in its initial channel-changing and swaggering riff alike — but doomly centerpiece “Creatures of the Woods” and the layered vocal melodies late in closer “Magical Mind” perhaps offer a glimpse at the direction the band could take from here. What matters though is where Hydra are at today, and that’s bringing riffs and nod to the converted among the masses, and From Light to the Abyss offers no pretense otherwise. It is doom rock for doom rockers, grooves to be grooved to. They’re not void of ambition by any means — their songwriting makes that clear — but their traditionalism is sleeve-worn, which if you’re going to have it, is right where it should be.

Hydra on Thee Facebooks

Piranha Music on Bandcamp

—

 

Jason Simon, A Venerable Wreck

Dead Meadow guitarist/vocalist Jason Simon follows 2016’s Familiar Haunts (review here) with the genre-spanning A Venerable Wreck, finding folk roots in obscure beats and backwards this-and-that, country in fuzz, ramble in space, and no shortage of experimentalism besides. A Venerable Wreck consists of 12 songs and though there are times where it can feel disjointed, that becomes part of the ride. It’s not all supposed to make sense. Yet what happens by the time you get around to “No Entrance No Exit” is that Simon (and a host of cohorts) has set his own context broad enough so that the drone reach of “Hollow Lands” and sleek, organ-laced indie of closer “Without Reason or Right” can coexist without any real interruption of flow between them. The question with A Venerable Wreck isn’t so much whether the substance is there, it’s whether the listener is open to it. Welcome to psychedelic America. Please inject this snake venom and turn in your keys when you leave.

Jason Simon on Bandcamp

BYM Records website

—

 

Cherry Choke, Raising Salzburg Rockhouse

You won’t hear me take away from the opening psych-scorch hook of “Mindbreaker” or the fuzzed-on, boogie-down, -up, and -sideways of “Black Annis” which follows, but there’s something extra fun about hearing Frog Island’s Cherry Choke jam out a 13-minute, drum-solo-inclusive version of “6ix and 7even” that makes Raising Salzburg Rockhouse even more of a reminder of how underrated both they are as a band and Mat Bethancourt is as a player. Look no further than “Domino” if you want absolute proof. The whole band rips it up at the Austrian gig, which was recorded in 2015 as they supported their third and still-most-recent full-length, Raising the Waters (review here), but Bethancourt puts on a Hendrixian clinic in the nine-minute cut from 2011’s A Night in the Arms of Venus (review here), which is actually less of a clinic than it is pure distorted swagger followed by a mellow “cheers, thanks” before diving into “Used to Call You Friend.” A 38-minute set would be perfect for an vinyl release, and anytime Cherry Choke want to get around to putting together a fourth studio album, well, that’ll be just fine too.

Cherry Choke on Thee Facebooks

Cherry Choke on Bandcamp

—

 

Pariiah, Swallowed by Fog

It’s a special breed of aggro that emerges as a result of living in the most densely populated state in the union, and New Jersey’s Pariiah have it to spare. Bringing together sludge tonality with elder-style New York hardcore lumbering riffs on their Trip Machine Laboratories tape, Swallowed by Fog, they exude a thickened brand of pissed off that’s outright going to be too confrontation for many who take it on. But if you want a middle finger to the face, this is what it sounds like, and the six songs (compiled into four on the digital version of the release) come and go entirely without pretense and leave little behind except bruises and the promise of more to come. They’re a new band, started in this most wretched of years, but there’s no learning curve whatsoever among the members of Devoid of Faith, The Nolan Gate, Kill Your Idols, Changeörder and others. I’d go to Maplewood to see these cats. I’m just saying. Maybe even Elizabeth.

Pariiah on Bandcamp

Trip Machine Laboratories website

—

 

Saavik, Saavik

So you’ve got both members of Holly Hunt in a four-piece sludging out with spacey synth and the band is named after a Star Trek character? Not to get too personal, but that’s going to pique my interest one way or the other. Saavik — and they clearly prefer the Kirstie Alley version, rather than Robin Curtis, going by drummer Beatriz Monteavaro‘s artwork — are damn near playing space rock by the end of “He’s Dead Jim,” the opener of their self-titled debut EP, but even that’s affected by a significant tonal weight in Didi Aragon‘s bass and the guitar of Gavin Perry, however much Ryan Rivas‘ synth and effects-laced vocals might seem to float overhead, but “Meld” rolls along at a steadier nod, and “Horizon” puts the synth more in the lead without becoming any less heavy for doing so. Likewise, “Red Sun” calls to mind Godflesh in its proto-machine metal stomp, but there’s more concern in Saavik‘s sound with expanse than just pure crush, and that shows up in fascinating ways in these songs.

Saavik on Thee Facebooks

Other Electricities on Bandcamp

—

 

Mountain Tamer, Psychosis Ritual

There’s been a dark vibe all along nestled into Mountain Tamer‘s sound, and that’s certainly the case on Psychosis Ritual, with which the Los Angeles-based trio make their debut on Heavy Psych Sounds. It’s their third full-length overall behind 2018’s Godfortune // Dark Matters (review here) and 2016’s self-titled debut (review here), and it finds their untamed-feeling psychedelia rife with that same threat of violence, not necessarily thematically as much as sonically, like the songs themselves are the weapon about to be turned on the listener. Maybe the buzz of “Warlock” or the fuckall echo of the prior-issued single “Death in the Woods” (posted here) aren’t out there trying to be “Hammer Smashed Face” or anything, but neither is this the hey-bruh-good-times heavy jams for which Southern California is known these days. Consider the severity of “Turoc Maximus Antonis” or the finally-released screams in closer “Black Noise,” which bookends Psychosis Ritual with the title-track and seems at last to be the point where whatever grim vibe these guys are riding finally consumes them. Mountain Tamer continue to be unexpected and righteous in kind.

Mountain Tamer on Thee Facebooks

Heavy Psych Sounds on Bandcamp

—

 

Centre El Muusa, Centre El Muusa

Hypnotic Estonian psychedelic krautrock instrumentals not your thing? Well that sounds like a personal problem Centre El Muusa are ready to solve. The evolved-from-duo four-piece get spaced out amid the semi-motorik repetitions of their self-titled debut (on Sulatron), and that seems to suit them quite well, thanksabunch. Drone trips and essential swirl brim with solar-powered pulsations and you can set your deflectors on maximum and route all the secondaries to reinforce if you want, there’s still a decent chance 9:53 opener an longest track “Turkeyfish” (immediate points, double for the appropriately absurd title) is going to sweep you off what you used to call your feet when that organ line hits at about six minutes in. That’s to say nothing of the cosmic collision later in “Burning Lawa” or the just-waiting-for-a-Carl-Sagan-voiceover “Mia” that follows. Even the 3:46 “Ain’t Got Enough Mojo” lives long enough to prove itself wrong. Interstellar tape transmissions fostered by obvious weirdos in the great out-there in “Szolnok,” named for a city in Hungary that, among other things, hosts the goulash festival. Right fucking on.

Centre El Muusa on Thee Facebooks

Sulatron Records webstore

—

 

Population II, À La Ô Terre

The first Population II album, a 2017 self-titled, was comprised of two tracks, each long enough to consume a 12″ side. Somehow it’s fitting with the Montreal-based singing-drummer trio’s aesthetic that their second long-player, À la Ô Terre, would take a completely different tack, employing shorter freakouts like “L’Offrande” and “La Nuit” and the garage-rocking “La Danse” and what-if-Jefferson–Airplane-but-on-Canadian-mushrooms “À la Porte de Demain” and still-more-drifting finisher “Je Laisse le Soleil Briller” amid the more stretched out “Attaction,” the space-buzzer “Ce n’est Réve” while cutting a middle ground in the greaked-out (I was gonna type “freaked out” and hit a typo and I’m keeping it) “Il eut un Silence dans le Ciel,” which also betrays the jazzy underpinnings that somehow make all of À la Ô Terre come across as progressive instead of haphazard. From the start to the close, you don’t know what’s coming next, and just because that’s by design doesn’t make it less effective. If anything, it makes Population II all the more impressive.

Population II on Thee Facebooks

Castle Face Records website

—

 

Right on. Live Kikagaku Moyo recorded at Austin, Texas’ Levitation Fest in 2014 (when it was still Austin Psych Fest) and 2019. Hey that’s awesome. Guruguru Brain puts out wild shit, the band is rad, and preorders are up. There’s a video and that’s a good time too. If you’re turned onto these cats, that’s its own best argument in favor of digging in. I’m not really cool enough for the Kikagaku Moyo, their label — the band put out a reissue of 2014’s Mammatus Clouds, in August and I didn’t get to hear it — or Levitation Fest, so I doubt I’ll be high on the list of reviews they’re seeking, but whatever. Still looks like something worth your time, so I figured the least I could do was post the release info.

And you know I’m all about doing the least. Ha.

Here’s PR wire info:

Kikagaku Moyo – Live at Levitation Out January 15

The Reverberation Appreciation Society Launches New Album Series: Live at LEVITATION

The Reverberation Appreciation Society is proud to launch a brand new live series, Live at LEVITATION. Recorded over the history of the world-renowned event, the series captures key moments in psychedelic rock history, and live music in Austin, Texas. The artists and sets showcased here have been chosen from over a decade of recordings, and captures key artists in the scene performing for a crowd of their peers and fans who gather at Levitation annually from all over the world.

The first LP in this series features Japanese psych heavyweights Kikagaku Moyo. This particular record is as strong sonically as it is meaningful in the band’s history. It showcases one of the band’s very first US shows in 2014 on the A-side, and their triumphant return in 2019 on the B-side with them firing on all cylinders amid a sold out US tour.

“Playing Austin Psych Fest / Levitation was always a goal from our earliest days of the band – to join the psychedelic community for a weekend of music and present our live performance. This show in 2014 was a landmark for us. To return years later in 2019 and find the same welcome, the dream was still very much alive and well.”
– Kikagaku Moyo

Kikagaku Moyo have come a long way – both literally and metaphorically– since their humble beginnings busking on the streets of Tokyo back in 2012. A tight-knit group of five friends who bonded over the desire to play freely, and explore psychedelic music. The band’s progressive, folk-influenced take on psychedelia marked them out from their peers, helped revive Japan’s psych rock scene, and soon brought them international acclaim. Fast forward a few years, and you find the band crushing headline sets at festivals, embarking on sprawling international tours, and with a dedicated fanbase for their music and record label Guruguru Brain – all while steadfastly maintaining their creative freedom and DIY ethos.

Kikagaku Moyo are the real deal: masterful musicians, a powerful creative force, and one of key bands in the psychedelic rock movement. The Reverberation Appreciation Society is thrilled to have them kick off the Live at Levitation Series with this incredible record.

Kikagaku Moyo Live at Levitation has been given deluxe treatment, with two eye-popping vinyl options available exclusively through the Levitation webstore + an Indie Store exclusive audiophile version, available at your favorite record store. A t-shirt and tie dye t-shirt is also available, featuring the artwork from their 2019 appearance at Levitation by South African artist Simon Berndt.

The record will be released on January 15, 2021, and is available now for pre-sale: https://shop.levitation-austin.com/products/rvrb-046-kikagaku-moyo-live-at-levitation

Track Listing:

Side A:
1: Elevation Jam
2: Streets of Calcutta
3: Tree Smoke
4: Smoke and Mirrors

Side B:
5: Dripping Sun
6: Gatherings
7: Nazo Nazo

Credits:

All Music by Kikagaku Moyo

Side A – recorded at Carson Creek Ranch, APF 2014
Recorded and mixed by Craig Lawrence

Side B – recorded at Barracuda, LEVITATION 2019
Recorded by Alexander Dubois, mixed by Craig Lawrence

Mastering and Lacquers Cut by Nick Townsend
Track Sequencing by Harry Portnof
Layout by Rob Fitzpatrick
Photos by Daniel Cavazos (front) and Alicia Santiago (back)
All Rights Reserved 2021, The Reverberation Appreciation Society

https://www.facebook.com/kikagakumoyo
https://www.instagram.com/kikagaku.moyo/
https://www.kikagakumoyo.com/
https://kikagakumoyoggb.bandcamp.com/
https://shop.levitation-austin.com/
https://reverberationappreciation.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/austinpsychfest/
https://www.instagram.com/levitation/
https://levitation-austin.com/

Kikagaku Moyo, “Smoke and Mirrors” live at Levitation

There was word early in 2019 that renowned bassist/riffmaker Tatsu Mikami was working on new material with his Church of Misery offshoot project, Sonic Flower. Any new record that might’ve surfaced — and none has yet — would be first the band has done since their 2003 self-titled debut (reissue review here), and it seems now that not only will the band’s awaited new full-length come out through Heavy Psych Sounds, but the Italian label will also publish the band’s lost Rides Again second album from 2005 and a reissue of the self-titled to boot. Preorders are live for Sonic Flower and Rides Again as of… right now. Now. Okay now.

Now.

To celebrate that fact, one can dig into a premiere of the ripper opener “Super Witch” from Rides Again, which also boasts in its ranks not only a cover of The Meters, but one of Graham Central Station as well. Really nailing home the point of classic heavy rock and funk crossing over there, but it’s a point too often forgot and well worth making.

The lost album should and will be a gotta-grab for collector types and other interested parties, but I’m dying too to find out what Tatsu and co. have in store for a new record. Either way you go, you don’t lose, and if you’ve never checked out Sonic Flower before, take the time to get introduced.

PR wire info follows. “Super Witch” is at the bottom of the post.

Dig:

Sonic Flower were formed as a side project of Church of Misery in 2001. Tatsu Mikami (bass) and at that time Church’s guitarist Takenori Hoshi (guitar on Church of Misery’s 2nd album “The Second Coming”), teamed up to play more bluesy & non Doomy taste instrumental Heavy Rock. They were influenced by famous 70’s heavy rock bands like CACTUS, GRAND FUNK RAILROAD, GROUNDHOGS, SAVOY BROWN etc. Soon female guitarist “Arisa” and drummer Keisuke Fukawa joined the band. In 2003, they released the self titled debut album “SONIC FLOWER” on Japanese Heavy rock label “Leafhound Records”. All instrumental bluesy heavy rock and improvised doubleguitar, they got a tons of good response from all over the world. They also played some shows as support for some foreign band’s Japan appearance like Electric Wizard, Bluebird (Amen’s side project), Acid King etc.

In 2005 they went to studio for new recordings. At that time the band has some problems and after the recording quit. So this recordings were long years sleeping in the vault. Totally unreleased studio materials. In 2018 Tatsu decided to re-form the band. He has already tons of new songs. This time he teamed up with old Church singer and his old friend. A new album is in progress and will be released in 2021.

SONIC FLOWER ‘Sonic Flower reissue out 22.01.20 on Heavy Psych Sounds Records
Presale start November 4th on heavypsychsounds.com

TRACKLIST:
A01 Cosmic Highway – 3:22
A02 Black Sunshine – 4:37
A03 Astroqueen – 3:45
B01 Sonic Flower – 3:39
B02 Indian Summer – 4:42
B03 Going Down – 5:10

Available as:
Test Press Vinyl
150 Ultra Ltd Splatter Red/Orange Vinyl
350 Ltd Fucsia Vinyl
Black Vinyl
Digipak
Digital

This Sonic Flower self-titled debut album is an instrumental bluesy heavy rock with no DOOM taste. A lot of improvised double guitar solo and a very special groovy rythm section. The release got a real unexpected awesome response all over the world. All the tracks are 100% original, except the cover of the blues classic “Going Down”.

SONIC FLOWER New album ‘Rides Again’ out 29.01.20 on Heavy Psych Sounds Records
Presale start November 4th on heavypsychsounds.com

TRACKLIST:
A01 Super Witch – 3:26
A02 Black Sheep – 3:10
A03 Jungle Cruise – 4:19
A04 Captain Frost – 3:45
B01 Stay Away ( Meters cover ) – 4:42
B02 Quicksand Planet – 4:08
B03 Earthquake ( Graham Central Station cover ) – 4:26

Available as:
Test Press Vinyl
150 Ultra Ltd Half – Half Orange/Blue Vinyl (With Alternative Orange Cover)
350 Ltd Transparent Red Vinyl
Black Vinyl
Digipak
Digital

All the tracks on this Rides Again album are unreleased studio material recorded after 1st album came out in 2005. At that time the band members had some troubles during recording, so after the recording sessions they broke up. These tracks were sleeping in the vault for more then fifteen years. The music is a mixture of psychedelic groove, rock, funk, and doom metal. For fans of Cactus, Grand Funk Railroad, Mountain, Sir Load Baltimore, Captain Beyond, Meaters, Graham Central Station and Funkadelic. On the album you can find four original songs plus two cover tracks: “Earthquake” from Graham Central Station and “Stay Away” from Meters.

https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS
https://instagram.com/heavypsychsounds_records/
http://www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com

Sonic Flower, “Super Witch” official track premiere

Damn, Boris. I guess the selling-via-Bandcamp process for their latest studio album, NO (discussed here), went pretty well, because here they are about a month later following it up with an archive of six out-of-print or otherwise previously-unavailable offerings. If that New York show that’s on Pink Days was at the old Knitting Factory in Manhattan, I was there that night, though I can’t remember if that was for Pink or Smile. Hard to keep up with Boris, and things like this are pretty much why. But hell, I’ll take the excuse to listen to “Flood” today, that’s fine by me, and those demos and whatnot should be plenty blown out, so even for established fans, there’s a lot to dig into as they continue to deal with firelung-induced societal collapse. So it goes.

More Boris though. That’s good news.

Check it out:

BORIS ANNOUNCE SIX-VOLUME ‘ARCHIVE’ SERIES

These long out-of-print releases will be available Friday, August 7 on Bandcamp.

Boris will begin to archive past limited releases on their Bandcamp page.

In July, among the turmoil of the Coronavirus sweeping the world, Boris suddenly dropped their new album “NO” as a Bandcamp-only release, which garnered a tremendous response as the band themselves are trying to find a new means of communication with listeners in times of the Coronavirus.

Tomorrow, and over the course of several months, the archiving of Boris past limited releases will take place on their Bandcamp. They’ll start off appropriately with the “Archive” series, 3 live album CD’s released in 2005 from the US label, “aRCHIVE”, limited to 600 copies that sold out immediately.

These 3 live albums were reissued as “Archive I” (Vol. 1, 2, & 3) along with “Archive II” (Vol. 4, 5, & 0) in 2014. Both sets of 3 CD’s each were limited rereleases of 1,000 copies, and thus quite difficult to obtain.

Boris’s early demo tape recordings, as well as a compilation of at the time unreleased live recordings spanning “Heavy Rocks,” “Akuma no Uta,” ”dronevil -final-, ”mabuta no ura,” up through “PINK” can be found on “Archive II”.

These 6 CD’s worth of material, labeled as Boris “Archive” Volume Zero to Five, are a total of 6 releases. Getting a glimpse at a piece of the band from the Boris Book of Genesis to the present, these are some precious recordings indeed.

As a result of the current COVID-19 situation, long-term overseas tours are postponed with no sign of resuming, and the continuation of music culture is in critical condition. Thank you all for your understanding and backing of cultural activity. Your continued support to artists is much appreciated. Please look forward to further successive releases going forward.

Details for each Archive release can be found below. Look for more news and music from Boris in the near future.

—
Boris Archive Volume Zero “Early Demo”

9 songs selected and compiled from 3 independently produced demo tapes, from the early period of Boris’s formation.
The final 10th track, “Soul Search You Sleep,” was recorded in 1996 during Boris’s first tour of the US west coast, and has been brought out of a long slumber to complete Volume Zero.
(Originally released on March 5, 2014. Included in Archive 2, limited to 1,000 copies)

1. Loudd
2. AYA
3. Spell Down
4. Nods
5. Scar Box
6. Mosquito
7. Matozoa
8. Deep Sucker
9. Water Porch
10. Soul Search You Sleep

Track 1,2 from 1st Demo 1993
Track 3,4 from 2nd Demo 1993
Track 5-9 from 3rd Demo 1994

Recording Engineered by Kokage
Mixed by fangsanalsatan

Track 10 Recorded at Capitol Theater, Olympia, WA. Mar 1st & 2nd 1996

Takeshi: Bass & Vocal
Wata: Guitar & Echo
Atsuo: Drums & Vocal
Nagata: Drums(Track 2,3,4,6,7,8,9)

Mastering: Soichiro Nakamura
Design: fangsanalsatan
Produced by Boris

—

Boris Archive Volume One “Live 96-98”

Originally released in 2005 from the US label “aRCHIVE,” limited to 600 copies which sold out immediately. Compiled from live recordings during Boris’s “Power Violence” period 1996 – 1998, including songs from the 1998 studio album “Amplifier Worship” and Archive Volume Zero “Early Demo.”
(Reissued as part of Archive 1 on March 5, 2014. Limited to 1,000 copies)

1. Huge
2. In Hush
3. Soul Search You Sleep
4. Vacuuum
5. Mosquito
6. Mass Mercury
7. Scar Box
8. Hama

Track 1,2 Recorded at Koenji 20000V 21st Dec 1996
Track 3,4,5 Recorded at Koenji 20000V 21st June 1996
Track 6,7 Recorded at Shinjuku Loft 4th Oct 1997
Track 8 Recorded at Koenji 20000V 2nd Aug 1998

Takeshi: Bass & Vocal
Wata: Guitar & Echo
Atsuo: Drums & Vocal

Re-Mastering: Soichiro Nakamura
Design: fangsanalsatan
Produced by Boris

—

Boris Archive Volume Two “Drumless Shows”

Originally released in 2005 from the US label “aRCHIVE,” limited to 600 copies which sold out immediately. Includes 2 songs recorded live from Boris’s 1998 studio album “Amplifier Worship” and 1 song from “Early Demo,” all arranged for a drumless performance. The beginning of Drone Metal history in 1997.
(Reissued as part of Archive 1 on March 5, 2014. Limited to 1,000 copies)

1. Huge
2. Mosquito
3. Vomitself

Track 1 Recorded at Nagoya Music Farm 9th Aug 1997
Sound Engineer: Yukihito Okazaki (from ETERNAL ELYSIUM)

Track 2,3?Recorded at Koenji 20000V 8th Aug 1997

Takeshi: Bass & Vocal
Wata: Guitar & Echo
Atsuo: Drums & Vocal

Re-Mastering: Soichiro Nakamura
Design: fangsanalsatan
Produced by Boris

—

Boris Archive Volume Three “2 Long Songs”

Originally released in 2005 from the US label “aRCHIVE,” limited to 600 copies which sold out immediately. A precious live recording from their early days, of Boris’s 1996 debut single song release, “Absolutego,” and “flood,” released in 2000, performed live together as “1 song, 1 production.”
(Reissued as part of Archive 1 on March 5, 2014. Limited to 1,000 copies)

1. Absolutego
2. flood

Recorded at Koenji 20000V 3rd May 2001

Takeshi: Bass & Vocal
Wata: Guitar & Echo
Atsuo: Drums & Vocal

Re-Mastering: Soichiro Nakamura
Design: fangsanalsatan
Produced by Boris

www.borisheavyrocks.com

—

Boris Archive Volume Four “Evil Stack Live”

Full set live recording that was broadcast on Japanese government-owned radio. The setlist is compiled from songs representative of their “Uppercase BORIS” distinction, including tracks from “Heavy Rocks” (2002) and “Akuma no Uta” (2003).
(Originally released on March 5, 2014. Included in Archive 2, limited to 1,000 copies)

1. Heavy Friends
2. Korosu
3. Ibitsu
4. Death Valley
5. Naki Kyoku
6. Furi
7. Akuma no Uta
8. Dyna-Sore
9. 1970

Recorded at NHK Tokyo 15th May 2003
Sound Engineer: Yasuaki Satake

Takeshi: Bass, Guitar & Vocal
Wata: Guitar & Echo
Atsuo: Drums & Vocal

Mastering: Soichiro Nakamura
Design: fangsanalsatan
Produced by Boris

—

Boris Archive Volume Five “Pink Days”

Recorded live in New York during Boris’s 2006 US tour. Selections from “dronevil” “mabuta no ura” and “Akuma no Uta” combined with songs from “PINK,” during the period of its release that transmits wild enthusiasm; the songs in this full set recording could even be called their greatest hits.
(Originally released on March 5, 2014. Included in Archive 2, limited to 1,000 copies)

1. Blackout
2. PINK
3. Woman on the Screen
4. Nothing Special
5. ibitsu
6. Electric
7. A Bao A Qu
8. the evilone which sobs
9. Akuma no Uta
10. Just Abandoned My-Self
11. Farewell

Recorded at New York 31st May 2006
Sound Engineer: Randall Dunn

Takeshi: Bass, Guitar & Vocal
Wata: Guitar & Echo
Atsuo: Drums & Vocal

Mixing: fangsanalsatan
Mastering: Soichiro Nakamura
Design: fangsanalsatan
Produced by Boris

http://www.facebook.com/borisheavyrocks/
https://boris.bandcamp.com/
http://borisheavyrocks.com/

Boris, Pink Days (2020)