Tag Archives: boris

BORIS Announce “Residency” US Tour Performing Flood and All-time Classics

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Legendary Japanese trio BORIS announce a series of US headlining residency shows in several major markets following their performance at Austin Psych Fest in late April. The residency tour, billed as “from the past, the present and through to the future” features BORIS playing 2 consecutive nights in each city. For the first night, the band will perform its all-time classics along with many new songs never before played in the US. The second night’s set features most of Boris’ cult classic album Flood along with a noise/drone/experimental set. Please see all current dates below.

Boris will also sell a limited edition tour-only release available only at the merch table.

BORIS US Tour 2013:

04/27  Austin, TX @ Carson Creek – Austin Psych Fest
05/01  Washington DC @ Rock and Roll Hotel
05/02  Washington DC @ Rock and Roll Hotel
05/04  Allston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
05/05  Allston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
05/06  New York, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge
05/07  New York, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge
05/10  Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
05/11  Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
05/18  Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile
05/19  Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile
05/21  San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop
05/22  San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop
05/23  Los Angeles, CA @ The Echoplex
05/24  Los Angeles, CA @ The Echoplex

BORIS Contributes Cover to MY BLOODY VALENTINE Tribute Album; Split 7″ with ASOBI SEKSU Available for Pre-Order

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BORIS have contributed their cover of “Sometimes” for the upcoming MY BLOODY VALENTINE tribute album, entitled Yellow Loveless. The line-up features all bands from Japan paying tribute to the shoegaze legends. The tribute comes out January 23, 2013 on High Fader Records.

In other news, BORIS‘ split 7″ release with ASOBI SEKSU with now available for pre-order. Check out the different pre-order bundles.

APESHIT’s Top Metal Albums of 2011

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2011 was a very productive and enjoyable year for extreme music, perhaps the best in years. Thus, it was not an easy task choosing what we enjoyed best since they were just so many. 2011 also gave us unforgettably bad albums by LOU REED and METALLICA, flops by THE HAUNTED as well as controversial ones by MORBID ANGEL.

We look forward to another strong year in 2012 in which we will celebrate our 10 years online. Cheers for all of your support in 2011! Radikult!!
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BORIS @ The El Rey, Los Angeles (11/12/11)

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Touring in support of their two recent new albums, Heavy Rocks, Attention Please, and forthcoming new album, New Album (our review), Japan’s BORIS made their return to the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles, on November 12th, having played there their last time in L.A. just over a year ago.

While known for their unpredictable and sometimes unconventional style of music output (doom, noise, drone, psych rock, pop, shoegaze), BORIS are relatively straightforward within a live setting. That is not to say, however, that their material isn’t (and wasn’t) varied.

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BORIS – New Album

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Album number three for 2011 from Tokyo’s BORIS proves to be the best of the trio. Originally meant to be a Japan-only release, New Album includes six songs from Attention Please and Heavy Rocks, which were released earlier this year plus three exclusive songs and one song that has previously been released. Before you decry that New Album is just three new songs with seven previously released songs slapped on, you should know that New Album is an entirely unique construction.

Teaming up with producer Shinobu Narita, the band produce a diverse collection of ear candy. Every song is given such vivacity with layers of synthesizers, effects pedals, filters, and other assorted instrumentation to create a very euphoric, imaginative, and creative whole. The team has carefully given each song the type of rearrangement, enhancement, and/or embellishment needed to make it extraordinary. Some songs feel like distinctly Japanese off the wall video games while others are straight up goa trance meets rock, or are exercises in blast beats with half time bass drums meet euphoria.

As far as the six songs that also appear on Attention Please and Heavy Rock, they exist in different forms/feel/versions on New Album. Essentially, they have been supercharged to fit the playful, experimental, and trippy nature of the album. Rearrangements or alternative instrumentation can be found in these versions. Arguable, they sound better and more stimulating here than in their original basic forms.

The four new songs are excellent as well. For example, “Flare” opens the record and not only has excellent arrangements but is a great opener with its multitude of rockin ways. The superb tracklisting also greatly helps them the listening enjoyment of not just these songs but all 10 songs. The diversity of the material is also another strength.

As with any BORIS record, there are different songs for different versions released in different territories and New Album is no different. Yup, they love to torment collectors.

Cohesion, amazing production work, and solid songwriting are truly what make New Album a fantastic album and a shining gem in BORIS‘ stacked back catalogue. Highly recommended. (Sargent House)

BORIS – Heavy Rocks

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In 2002, BORIS released the excellent Heavy Rocks and now in 2011, the band is back with yet another album titled Heavy Rocks. To put it bluntly, the former is flat out superior to the latter. It’s not because it’s heavier. The songs are just better.

In general terms, the new album is more about “rock” than “doom.” Heavy Rocks is also less serious or weighty in its delivery and displays the more playful, fun side to the band. But once the listeners gets to fifth track, “Missing Pieces,” the tone gets very somber and dreamlike. “Key” follows and serves as more of a segue piece before the band gets back to rockin’ on the uptempo “Window Shopping.” “Tu, la la” is by far the best song on the album. The excellent main riff just propels the song as it effortlessly glides by. “Aileron” brings things back down in the same fashion as “Missing Pieces” before the band decides to ends things on a metal note with “Czechoslovakia.” Soon after the song reaches a thrash crescendo, it simply fades out.

Overall, Heavy Rocks is a mixed bag and as a whole, doesn’t rise to a compelling level of quality. If you take the album for what it’s worth as a “light” album, then it might be sufficient. However, we’ve heard much better from BORIS and should not expect anything less. (Sargeant House Records)

Download New BORIS Track, “Hope,” from Forthcoming Attention Please Album

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Japan’s BORIS have released the first single, “Hope,” from Attention Please, one of two all-new full length BORIS albums to be released on April 26th via Sargent House.

Attention Please is this first to feature guitarist Wata on lead vocals the whole album, and showcases a distinctly different style from their previous drone/noise or doom/psych rock offerings. The album came to be after their round of touring in 2008. The trio set about recording new material and a new album was completed, then abandoned. The band sought to challenge themselves further, and the end results are two new albums, Attention Please and Heavy Rocks.

Heavy Rocks is the other album coming out on the same day, and carries the same title as their 2002 album, Heavy Rocks. Even the cover art is similar (purple instead of orange). This edition of Heavy Rocks, however, is an entirely different album.

Attention Please and its counterpart, Heavy Rocks will be available worldwide (excluding Japan) on CD and digital download via Sargent House on April 26th, 2011. The vinyl version of Attention Please will be available on Record Store Day, April 16th; the vinyl version of Heavy Rocks (featuring extended versions of “Missing Pieces” and “Czechoslovakia“) will be available on April 26th.

Listen to and download “Hope“: http://www.sargenthouse.com/boris/Hope.mp3

For the uninitiated, BORIS actually have a third album, New Album, coming out March 16th via Tearbridge/Daymare, though this is only being released in Japan. The track “Party Boy” (which also appears on Attention Please), is streaming over here: http://soundcloud.com/qetic-1/partyboy-boris

Metal Swim: Free Compilation of Rare, Unreleased Metal Courtesy of Adult Swim and Scion A/V

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Adult Swim, the home of DETHKLOK and Metalocalypse, and Scion A/V, who have been responsible for a wave of metal fests and free shows, have come together to bring you Metal Swim, a collection of 16 rare or unreleased metal. The album is free to download and features the following tracks:

DEATH ANGEL – “Truce”
SKELETONWITCH – “Bringers of Death”
TORCHE – “Arrowhead”
LUDICRA – “Path of Ash”
KYLESA – “Forsaken”
BLACK TUSK – “Fatal Kiss”
RED FANG – “Hank is Dead”
BLACK COBRA – “Frozen Night”
SAVIOURS – “Dixie Dieway”
WITCH MOUNTAIN – “Veil of the Forgotten”
ISIS – “Pliable Foe”
JESU – “Dethroned”
PELICAN – “Inch Above Sand”
ZOROASTER – “Witch Hammer”
WITHERED – “Extinguished With the Misery”
BORIS – “Luna”

Visit the Metal Swim site to download the free album and view interviews and performance footage from past Scion Rock Fests: http://www.adultswim.com/promos/201009_scion/index.html

BORIS @ The El Rey Theatre, Los Angeles (8/27/10)

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Last night, Japan’s BORIS polluted Los Angeles with their sweet, amplified, audial nectar. Playing to a packed El Rey Theatre, the band showcased songs from their recently released 7″ series Japanese Heavy Rock Hits. The set also included some of their usual winners… “Farewell,” “Pink,” “1970“, “A Bao a Qu,” “Rainbow” with Wata on vocals, etc.

Distortion was at deliciously high volume, though better, sound-wise, from the back of the venue. Up front, house right (where I was) was overpowered by Michio Kurihara‘s guitars providing an unfortunately unbalanced mix of BORIS‘ wall-of-sound.

The band closed with the almost 20 minute “Untitled” track off their latest full-length of new material, Smile. The house lights came on during the epic, but the band played on… and loudly.

Check out some snapshots from the show…

[slidepress gallery='boris-100827']

BORIS‘ tour ends tonight after they play The Glass House in Pomona. Then they will head to New York for the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival where they and SUNN O))) will be performing their Altar album in its entirety, and again at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple on September 7th. (which I, @roycifer, will be in attendance).

Southern Lord to Release BXI, a Collaboration between BORIS and Ian Astbury

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A previously cryptic press release has been revealed to be a unique collaboration between BORIS and Ian Astbury of THE CULT and THE DOORS. The team has recorded a four-song EP, entitled BXI, which consists of three original songs and a cover of THE CULT‘s “Rain,” with BORIS guitarist, Wata, on vocals. The effort was tracked and mixed in Tokyo in late April. Southern Lord will be releasing BXI this September on CD, LP, and digital formats.

Head over to Pitchfork to read an interview with BORIS drummer, Atsuo, about BXI:
http://pitchfork.com/news/39000-boris-team-with-the-cults-ian-astbury/

BXI tracklist:
1. “Teeth and Claws”
2. “We are the Witches”
3. “Rain”
4. “Magickal Child“

BORIS, who will be touring North America this summer, were joined by Astbury on stage this past weekend at Australia’s Vivid LIVE, performing material from the EP and covering THE DOORS‘ “The End“.