Boris live on March 23, 2012 at The Hifi in Brisbane, Australia all photos by Stephen Booth. Click here to see full gallery.
Rave Magazine March Cover Story: Boris
JAKEB SMITH talks to ATSUO MIZUNO, drummer and vocalist of the indefatigable, genre-hopping, Japanese experimental rock trio BORIS; a band who are constantly calling into question the nature of who they are, what they do and what our roles, as listeners, should be.
(Source: ravemagazine.com.au)
VERI Magazine Feature: Boris
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Sludge Factory: 7 Questions with Boris
Japanese quartet, Boris, will be heading to Australia next week. Ahead of their tour, Atsuo answered a couple of questions.
1. Do you guys ever fight or disagree, and if so what about?
Atsuo: None at all these days. We had some long ago though as I was control freak. It is quite peaceful among us now, we have realised that democracy during song writing process is way wiser and it will lead better result and possibility. Any specific visions or goal hide the best one.
2. Apart from playing gigs, is there anything else you specifically want to do or see in Australia/Melbourne?
A: Wata would like to hold koala. We haven’t had a chance, we visited zoo last time.
Blunt Magazine Feature: Boris “Where Ever I May Drone”
Time Off : Boris
Boris to Tour in Australia & New Zealand - March 2012
Boris will be playing the following shows in Australia & New Zealand in March 2012.
BORIS AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND 2012
March 20 - Perth, AU @ The Bakery
March 22 - Sydney, AU @ Metro Theater
March 23 - Brisbane, AU @ The Hi-Fi
March 24 - Melbourne, AU @ Corner Hotel - SOLD OUT
March 25 - Melbourne, AU @ The Northcote Social Club - 2nd show added
March 27 - Wellington, NZ @ Bodega
March 28 - Auckland, NZ @ The Kings Arms Tavern
Boris for Nintendo Japan
Treble Review: Boris’ New Album
Boris - New Album (Sargent House)
It’s not quite enough to say that Boris is a versatile band. The Japanese trio, who once began life as a doom metal band, has taken heavy music well beyond the expected journey of balancing atmosphere, heaviness, noise and melody, and deeper into genres that sometimes expand outside some heshers’ comfort zones. But even more curious than the band’s forays into folky psychedelic rock or dance-friendly doom pop are their tendencies to revisit and re-contextualize their material. They’ve released two separate and unrelated albums under the same title — Heavy Rocks — and issued two strikingly different versions of their 2008 album Smile, the Japanese version revealing a more abstractly mixed version of the more straightforward stoner rock of the U.S. version.
Whatever confusion and surprise resulted in the odd Smile division is likely to be muted with any of the band’s further experiments, yet the transformation on New Album, their third full-length release of 2011, is the most drastic of the band’s catalog. New Album, originally released in Japan in March, compiles a handful of new tracks alongside songs from Heavy Rocks and Attention Please, re-imagined as glittery, dreamy J-Pop anthems. Where, in another life, these songs may have boomed, buzzed, slithered or slunk, here they flash and glisten with blinding starbursts. It would almost come a complete shock to the system, had the band not sent off a warning shot with Attention Please and its ensuing tour with American dream-pop outfit Asobi Seksu.
Though not entirely without precedent, New Album is Boris’ glossiest, most melodic and, unquestionably, weirdest album to date. At times, such as on opening track “Flare,” the exclamatory nature and avoidance of subtlety can seem like being transported into a frenetically paced video game. Yet, that’s also what makes New Album all the more charming in the long run. It’s a multi-colored firecracker of a record, popping and spinning in every direction with brilliant giddiness.
Guitar World Names Wata in Top 10 Female Guitarists To know
Wata from Boris
“Tight, skilled and never a dull moment, Japanese trio Boris are known for combining metal, noise, psychedelic rock, ambient and pop to create their own unique take. Launched in 1996, the band has recorded 17 studio albums. Drummer-vocalist Atsuo, bassist-guitarist-vocalist Takeshi and guitarist-vocalist Wata rely on instinct and raw emotion to guide their creative path. Check out the slinky, cranky solo by Wata on “Statement.” So stoic and yet so badass!”
Kicking Against The Pricks : An Album of the Year - Boris’ - Attention Please
Speaking objectively, there were better and more elaborate albums that 2011 had to offer. Bolder, though? Not really.
Thinking about music in 2011, especially in the “indie” sense of the word, terms like “safe,” “sanitary,” “sterile” come to mind. The threat of a non-accessible, non-commercial and non-saccharine underground being bolstered by do-it-yourself record labels seems more like a memory, the often ear-splitting, alienating and dangerous sounds of the independent music scene notably in absentia. This isn’t to say that performers and bands of this ilk no longer exist, but it’s difficult to associate any extreme with the idea of “indie” music, its sound having slacked and its bands growing formulaic and obtuse. This music is no longer doing its job.
To hear Japanese experimental rock trio Boris back away from their usual metallic and distortion-laden exuberance, opting instead to navigate their way through something more closely relatable to pop music, is the type of move that makes you consider what options you have once the supposed bastard stepchild of the music industry turns darling. For Boris, Attention Please is an initially confusing but ballsy interpretation of post-punk or new wave, a glam’d up push towards a more avant-garde idea of pop music and its potential. While a track like ‘Attention Please’ evokes dance music’s repetition and reliance on rhythm, something like ‘Hope’ defies the indie paradigm, its pose and grace the type of college rock perfection that many groups in the genre could only dream of reproducing. The song refuses to abandon its strength for the sake of sensitivity.
New Albums Debuts #1 CMJ Most Added
Boris’ “New Album” is the #1 most added on CMJ in it’s debut week. Nice. If you haven’t heard it yet you can stream it at SPIN in full - New Album is now available everywhere.
Purchase CD or Vinyl
Boris Announce Australian Tour - March 2012
Boris will be playing 4 select shows in Australia in March 2012.
BORIS AUSTRALIA 2012
March 20 - Perth @ The Bakery
March 22 - Sydney @ Metro Theater
March 23 - Brisbane @ The Hi-Fi
March 24 - Melbourne @ Corner Hotel
Boris Announce 3 December Shows in Japan
HOPE” -Boris Japan Tour 2011
2011.12.16 (FRI)
Ikeshita Club Upset (Nagoya)
w/ ETERNAL ELYSIUM
OPEN 18:00 / START 19:00
TICKET: ADV 3,000yen+Drink
10/22(SAT)~ ぴあ (P:152-726), ローソンチケット (L:45999), イープラス (プレ:10/15-17)
Info: 052-936-6041 (JAIL HOUSE)
2011.12.17 (SAT)
Unagidani Sunsui (Osaka)
w/ SOLMANIA
OPEN 18:00 / START 19:00
TICKET: ADV 3,000yen+Drink
10/22(SAT)~ ぴあ (P:152-771), ローソンチケット (L:54172), イープラス (プレ:10/11-16)
Info: 06-6535-5569 (SMASH WEST)
2011.12.30 (FRI)
Daikanyama Unit (Tokyo)
w/ 9dw
OPEN 17:00 / START 18:00
TICKET: ADV 3,000yen+Drink
10/22(SAT)~ ぴあ (P:152-781), ローソンチケット (L:75715), イープラス (プレ:10/11-16), 岩盤
Info: 03-3444-6751 (SMASH)
協力: tearbridge records / Daymare Recordings / DIWPHALANX records / Inoxia Records
http://smash-jpn.com http://smash-mobile.com
(Source: homepage1.nifty.com)
PREFIX Review: Boris’ New Album - Out Now
It’s been a very strange year for Boris, and that’s seriously saying something. 2011 saw the long-running Japanese experimental rock trio put out a total of three full-length albums this year (four, if you count Klatter, their sixth co-release with Merzbow). A quick summary for those just arriving to the game: Heavy Rocks, named after their 2002 album of the same name, was their fastball, a straight-forward collection of, well, heavy rockers that saw them playing entertainingly, but somewhat disconcertingly safe. Attention Please was the curveball, an album that featured guitarist Wata singing on all of its tracks, and the band exploring poppier, quieter new directions. Now, at the tail end of the year, we have the bluntly titled New Album, which features several higher production quality versions of four Attention songs, two HeavyRocks tracks, and exactly three songs it can call its own.
Despite those numbers, it’s the best of the bunch. In Japan, New Album was released through Tearbridge Records, an imprint of major label conglomorate Avex. This label support allowed them to link up with producer Shinobu Narita, who remixed and rearranged songs from the other two albums. An Auto-Tune-esque program called Vocaloid was also utilized. What results is Boris’ shining pop moment. While some would interpret that statement to mean their heft and grit has been removed, a more accurate statement would be to say that these songs have been strapped to an arsenal of high-powered rockets stuffed with fireworks and shot into the stratosphere to explode in glorious slow motion.
