BORIS: SMILE (2008)
1) Messeeji; 2) Buzz-In; 3)
Hanate!; 4) Hana, Taiyou, Ame; 5) Tonari-no Sataan; 6) Kare Hateta Saki; 7)
Kimi-wa Kasa-o Sashiteita; 8) Untitled.
As usual, there are about a million different
versions of this album — Japanese, American, European, CD versions, vinyl
versions, orange vinyl versions, yellow vinyl versions, limited edition
gift-packed 8-track polka-dot versions with sugar on top, in short, just about
anything possible to emphasize the creative freedom, psychedelic spirit, and
unique individuality of the music and the artistic process behind it. As far as
I understand, the American editions, distributed by the Southern Lord label,
are significantly different in terms of tracks, running lengths, and mixes from
the Japanese Diwphalanx editions. But guess what? I'm wasting enough time
already on one version (Diwphalanx);
I have no desire whatsoever to learn whether the Southern Lord version improves
on it in any way, or, at least, I have a certain premonition that is much stronger
than any such desire.
This is where Boris kinda sorta «go pop», in
that they use drum machines, samples, and, most importantly, sing on every track — and while Wata's
guitars are still very much recognizable, the focus is never so much on noise
and drone as it is on melody, or, at least, painful attempts to create something
by way of melody. The band members themselves called it their «sell-out album»
and went on to tell everybody how it is supposed to be taken ironically,
because, well, if you name one of your tracks ʽMy Neighbor Satanʼ and everybody
starts thinking of it seriously, you might
get in some trouble, at least once you set foot outside Japan, where cajoling around
with demons is not looked upon with as much prejudice as in Christian
territories.
Unfortunately, the «irony» is largely confined
to the lyrics, which are in Japanese, and are largely devoted to in-jokes, such
as describing the contents of an old live concert video by the Melvins (ʽBuzz-Inʼ).
Outside of any specific context, Smile
just sounds like an odd mix of styles (electro-pop, hardcore punk, industrial
metal, atmospheric post-rock), all of which, in one way or other, had already
been tasted by Boris before, and now they are back with this strange attempt to
put it all together and make something comprehensive, cohesive, and ambitious.
The result is a meandering, directionless, and
utterly useless mess that fails this particular reviewer's «bullshit test» on
just about any count imaginable. The only track that makes any sense is
ʽMessageʼ (ʽStatementʼ) that opens the album — its combination of a «huge
typewriter»-type drum machine, a scary bassline, and ʽSympathy For The
Devilʼ-style falsetto ooh-oohs sets up a tense anticipation for Wata's
shrieking wah-wah leads, and even though the track is still spoiled with bad
singing, it takes up seven genuinely nightmarish minutes and it could point the
way to something even more
nightmarish, but...
...this is where the mess starts for real. ʽBuzz-Inʼ
is two and a half minutes of boring metalcore. ʽHanate!ʼ is four minutes of
ear-destructive industrial metal, followed by one minute of boring acoustic
psycho-folk. ʽFlower, Sun, Rainʼ is a «beautiful» ballad that seems to be an
attempt to write something in the old San Francisco vein, with phased acoustic
power chords and Big Brother & The Holding Company-style passionately ugly
feedback solos — all of it sounding like some particularly stupid pastiche. ʽMy
Neighbor Satanʼ tries to cross Sigur Rós vocals with noise and psychedelic
rock, but the singer sounds like an American Idol loser and the music sounds
like all the individual instrument parts were randomly pulled out from a
samples library and superimposed over each other without any plan whatsoever.
And then, as the tracks get longer and longer (culminating in the 20-minute
untitled finale), the «post-rock adoration syndrome» gets wilder and wilder as
they relocate from Japan to Iceland — only to find out that a tourist is still
a tourist, and that Takeshi's chances at becoming Jónsi are slim at best.
Most importantly, it just seems to me much of
the time that these guys have totally no idea of what it is that they do, what it is that they want, and what it is that they can. Quite possibly, that is the idea: get in the spirit (at
least, formally) of styles and artists they like, and then just get carried
away by the moment. But liking
industrial music, or ambient-style post-rock, or hardcore punk, is not quite
the same as understanding it, so that
you can then add something of your own to it, and these guys, so it seems,
understand nothing. This is not the way it's all supposed to be sung, or be
played, or be combined together — it's like taking a coherent book and rearranging
all the words so they no longer form grammatically correct, or at least
stylistically engaging sentences. Be it intended as serious or ironic, an
album like Smile ultimately has no
meaning, and trying to «relate» to it is like trying to adapt to a useless
genetic mutation. Thumbs down, of course.
Oh George, why are you subjecting yourself to this? I can think of a number of bands you have skipped who would have been less soul crushing. Oh well, they are your ears ( and brain). Do with them what you will.
ReplyDeleteLol for God's sake he could have done America instead of this tripe. I know he ripped them in the Amazing Blondel reviews as typical shitty mid-70s soft rock, but hey, their first four or five albums were decent and pleasant-sounding.
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DeleteHa, I didn't even think of America. I think his Add N to (X) reviews could have been funny, though. Or U2 wannabe bands like The Alarm or Big Country.
DeleteI don't know about you guys but I love that someone is seeing past the flashy album covers, ironic titles and gimmicky genre charades and calling out Boris for the (mostly) shit that they are.
ReplyDeleteSo after reading the previous "review", out of bored curiosity I decided to go look at this band's Wikipedia page and look at the remaining albums George has to comb through. And after scrolling to the Discography sub-section and not looking at any of the pictures of the band members (that's a Japanese thing to remain super-anonymous about your identity, isn't it?) became mortified to discover they have, like, a dozen albums remaining. Including three released this year ALONE. And there's still half a year left too...
ReplyDeleteGeorge, if you really are fed up with this shit, I won't hold it against you to move on to the next 'B' artist. Or maybe move Boris reviews to Sunday and get a new artist to review on Fridays, and then alternate Sunday between a 'catch-up-with' artist and Boris until you finally reach the finish line. I mean, I'm not saying they'll never return to 'Flood'-levels of quality, but at this point...I'm not holding out my hopes, either.
I second that suggestion -- hell, screw the whole system and review Budgie next. Best discovery I made off of the old sight (other than Sparks).
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