Boris: Akuma No Uta (2003)
You may wanna play this song -- and ‘medicate’ yourself accordingly -- before reading on ...
Today, Tokyo, Japan’s Boris need little introduction, at least among hip fans of indie/stoner/doom/drone/experimental music, as the prolific, microphone-swapping trio of Wata (guitar/keyboards), Takeshi (guitar/bass), and Atsuo (drums) has churned out nearly 50 recorded works since they formed in 1992.
Easily identifiable by its rather clever, Nick Drake/Bryter Layter-inspired cover art, the 20-year-old Akuma No Uta was the group’s fifth long-player (not counting their many collaborations with other artists) and its title, I only recently discovered, translates to ‘The Devil’s Song.’
Which may explain (along with Boris’ association with Southern Lord) why a promotional copy of the CD was once shipped to my West 27th Street studio apartment, where I routinely supplemented my meager music industry income by writing passionate and often vitriolic heavy metal reviews for the All-Music Guide.
And I did, in fact, submit one for Akuma No Uta, stating that the album “offers a back-to-front cross-section of the Japanese trio’s entire career, in all of its many stylistic varieties,” though I honestly can’t remember if I knew that for sure or was just taking a flyer in those misty days before all-you-can-eat music streaming.
In any case, I was almost literally knocked off my feet by the album’s frugally, criminally-named “Intro” (the same track I linked to overhead), which unleashed a series of reverberant, rumbling, tectonic shockwaves, and remains one of the most exceptional examples of droning stoner rock riff/tone/feedback-sculpting I’ve ever encountered.
Later revisited in rather-less life-altering fashion by Akuma No Uta’s similarly instrumental, ragged reprise of a title track, that initial, near-ten-minute excursion showed Boris could go amp-to-amp with just about anyone, even formidable label mates like Earth and Sunn 0))), and they soon would.
If only the rest of the album were as impressive, or even cut from the same sonic cloth, I might now own a dozen Boris LPs, but ensuing numbers like “Ibitsu,” “Furi,” and “Ano Onna No Onryou,” delivered comparatively unsurprising outbursts of rudely distorted acid/garage/psych: think The Stooges or Spine of God-era Monster Magnet -- wilder, faster, heavier, but frankly not as good.
And then there’s the twelve-minute “Naki Kyoku,” which takes a little too long, if you ask me, to abandon its psychedelic beginnings for extended vocal-chanting, guitar-strangling, bass-twiddling, and drum-abusing over ambient space rock on its way to a shuddering feedback-laced climax that could level Tokyo like ... you know who.
All kidding aside, if I’d known two decades ago, as I sat pondering these sounds in my crumbling Manhattan studio (now probably renting for $3,000/month or some such outrageous sum!) that Boris allegedly captured all of these tracks to analog tape in ONE take, my respect for their achievement would have grown tenfold.
And despite my personal ambivalence, Akuma No Uta did a lot to raise Boris’ career profile beyond Japan (they were even astute enough to tap into the Nick Drake revival initiated by “Pink Moon’s” appearance in that Volkswagen commercial), and it was great fun to witness the band’s explosive performance in some long-forgotten hole-in-the-wall at SXSW 2007.
Plus, there’s always that perfect “Intro,” which I’ve been spinning on repeat for almost a week while preparing this blog, and even as I tap this final punctuation.
More Droning Sounds: 35007’s Liquid, Acrimony’s Tumuli Shroomaroom, Belzebong’s Sonic Scapes & Weedy Grooves, Black Capricorn’s Born Under the Capricorn, Bongripper’s Satan Worshiping Doom, Bongzilla’s Stash, Cavity’s Supercollider, Dead Meadow’s Dead Meadow, Dopethrone’s Hochelaga, Electric Wizard’s Come My Fanatics …, Eternal Elysium’s Spiritualized D, Green Druid’s Ashen Blood, Haunted’s Haunted, Karma to Burn’s Karma to Burn, Lowrider’s Ode to Io, Mammoth Storm’s Fornjot, Monster Magnet’s Spine of God, The Mystick Krewe of Clearlight’s The Mystick Krewe of Clearlight, Los Natas’ Corsario Negro, On Trial's New Day Rising, Reverend Bizarre’s In the Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend, Samothrace’s Life’s Trade, Sleep’s Holy Mountain, Sons of Otis’ SpaceJumboFudge, Spaceslug’s Lemanis, Spirit Caravan’s Dreamwheel EP, Sunn O)))’s Dømkirke, Toner Low’s Toner Low, UFOMammut’s Snailking, The Wandering Midget’s From the Meadows of Opium Dreams, Yuri Gagarin’s Yuri Gararin.
