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| Boris - Feedbacker |
| Boris
has worn a lot of hats since their debut, an impossible wall of sludge
called "Absolutego." That album saw them exploring the kind of
unrelenting amplifier attack that the Melvins (a track of whose gave
Boris their name) had been poking around with. Not content to remain in
that particularly jarring idiom, the group has since tried their hand
at practically everything that has been affixed with the word "heavy:"
from straight up cock rock ("Heavy Rocks," "Pink") to thrash ("Vein")
to pitch black psychedelia ("Black, Implication Flooding," with the
king of Darkness, Keiji Haino) to electronic infused mayhem
("Megatone," "Sun Baked Snow Cave," both with Merzbow.) Generally, the critic's shorthand for keeping track of all this has been a handful of genres: metal, psych, doom, noise, stoner, etc. For some reason, I've never seen "prog" affixed to any of the band's efforts, despite the fact that "Flood" is about as clear a descendant to Pink Floyd's "Meddle" as one could imagine. Probably because prog rock doesn't have much hipster cachet. When was the last time you saw Pitchfork make a Gentle Giant reference? Anyway, "Flood" was an epic (70 minute) psych prog masterpiece that, yep, sounded like a flood. It was the first indication that Boris wasn't afraid to back off the pummel for extended periods, and it showed a surprising mobility with their chosen setup: the crushing heaviness of their amplifier worship slid into a more gentle, but no less huge, psych rock. It also showed they weren't afraid to demand close attention: while the previous albums beat the listener into submission, you could actually lose the plot, so to speak, with "Flood." While it's not entirely unfair to call "Feedbacker" a little brother to "Flood," it isn't really appropriate, either. Yes, it follows the same structure (one long song in sections, slow build featuring tripped out guitar work, manic peak, blissed out comedown,) but where the former album was a departure in sound that had more than a little uplift, "Feedbacker" was every bit as typically sinister as any other point in the band's catalog. Like anyone who sees the cover needs to be told that. According to interviews, the depiction of guitarist Wata's "death" was an attempt to kill off her status as an icon for the band (which had indeed grown tiresome because, let's face it, rock geeks can get a little fixated on hot women with guitars.) The sounds here, especially on the tortured machinelike Hell of the fourth track, are every bit the equal of the band's other abstract explorations into speaker destruction. The serpentine guitar psych of track two scrapes the mind expansiveness of "Flood" (and, improbably, channels Funkadelic's Eddie Hazel. Listen to the "Maggot Brain" cop at 9:40 if you don't believe me.) And the conclusion is just as narcotic and loose limbed (although a bit less comforting) as "Flood." All this results in what is, as of this moment (late 2008,) the most seamless blend of what the band can do. There aren't any tricks the band has tried (well, except maybe the trash of "Vein") that can't be found somewhere in "Feedbacker"'s 44 minutes. Which is all well and good, but summaries aren't artistic statements. How is it as an album? The answer to that is in how well it stands up to repeated plays, and the answer to that is: very well, thanks. Whereas the prospect of what is essentially one 44 minute song is a daunting one, the whole thing is so varied, so complete, so coherent, that it never drags. It's not one indigestible slab, nor is it a bunch of individual pieces strung together under the pretense of coherence. The "parts" (as described on the CD listing) really movements, distinct variations of a readily identifiable whole, that reach their logical peaks and conclusions without undue padding. Right now, Boris are touring on "Smile," a tour that will see them open for Nine Inch Nails in the US, possibly breaking them wide open. The intrigued would do well not to miss "Feedbacker," for it's the most thoroughly integrated and whole effort the band has yet made (which is not to belittle the straightforward rock 'n' roll of the excellent "Pink," "Rock Dreams," and others.) Boris might have occasionally been louder, more obscure, or more accessible on other albums, but they never brought it all together this completely. |