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| Boris and Ian Astbury - BXI |
| I
really shouldn't be surprised by anything anymore, but upon hearing
that Cult frontman Ian Astbury was going to hook up with Boris, it was
still a bit of a shock. It shouldn't be, not exactly. Both have made
careers out of grandeur and volume…but they've made careers out of
fairly different brands of grandeur and volume. Still, Boris can't be
accused of never leaving their comfort zone, and Astbury's has his
share of notable returns, so while the idea sounds like one of those
things that could either be brilliant or absolute garbage, it's
unimaginable that it would be uninteresting. Indeed, now that this collaboration has borne fruit in the form of the four song, twenty minute BXI, the EPs best moments stem directly from the contrast between their approaches. Boris has always been more insular. Even when they're enormous (e.g. Pink's "Just Abandoned Myself," or the albums Flood and Feedbacker,) there's a claustrophobic glow hovering at the edges. Astbury, on the other hand, is all about windswept, wide open spaces, pitched with a drama that makes you wonder if the guy was born on a motorcycle, wind whipping through his hair. This distance makes "Teeth And Claws," feel a bit disjointed at first, but further plays reveal an impossible hugeness, a glistening, triumphant swagger that's BXI's best moment. Too expansive to be The Cult, but too immediate to be Boris, it's a perfect and unique balance between their strengths, a heroic, defiant scream into the abyss. If the rest of the EP isn't as successful, it never out and out fails. "We Are Witches" is less seamless, more like the simple sum of Ian + Boris = The Heavy. That said, it's still quite good, Boris' unique brand of cock rock meeting Astbury's haunted, gothic romanticism. But the bracing distance that made "Teeth And Claws" so spine tingling is simply distance here, like they recorded their parts independently and stitched them together later. "Magickal Child" is also an "Ian sings over Boris" track, but fares better, with Boris' trademark power sludge amplifying Astbury's lonely mysticism. Its heroic, weary, but defiant feel would actually fit quite well at the end of The Cult's classic Love LP, which leads us to… The new version of The Cult's "Rain" has proven to be somewhat divisive, and it's not difficult to see why. Astbury's not on it, first of all, which means that it's only relevant to the project because he wrote it…there doesn't seem to have been any collaboration involved. On top of that, Wata's vocals take a baby-doll approach that's an awkward fit to the tune's primal howl. Wata's an excellent singer…her vocal on Boris and Michio Kurihara's Rainbow's title track was a clear highlight…but something just doesn't gel here. The selection also seems a bit arbitrary. Why "Rain," when "Black Angel" or even "Fire Woman" seem much more Boris-ready? Still, the psychedelic chug of the original is accented by Wata's warped, dayglo strums, and the group's signature trudge is hard to resist. Warts aside, BXI is a success, and an exciting one, well worth the measly four bucks it will cost to download it at the link to the left. If anything, the biggest complaint is that it's too short; there's enough hot blood coursing through these four tracks to suggest a full LP could be a stunning thing indeed. |