By: TJ Kliebhan
Album Type:
Full-Length
Date Released:
18/03/2016
Label: Relapse
Records
The album as a whole sounds incredibly
well done. The dynamic range on this album is wide and no part of the album
feels murky or cluttered. The dark layers of Boris guitar and bass with
Merzbow’s agonizingly piercing sounds come through in vivid detail. “Gensho” is Boris and Merzbow playing
together and evidence of a partnership that has possibly maximized its given
potential with a release that serves as a highlight in both artists’ extensive
discographies.
“Gensho Part 1 & 2” CD//DD//LP track
listing:
Boris
1.
Farewell A
2.
Huge A
3.
Resonance B
4.
Rainbow B
5.
Sometimes B
6.
Heavy Rain C
7.
Akuma no uta C
8.
Akirame Flower D
9.
Vomitself D
"Sometimes"
written by Kevin Shields, published by EMI Music Publishing
Merzbow
1.
Planet of the Cows A
2.
Goloka Pt.1 B
3.
Goloka Pt.2 C
4.
Prelude to a Broken Arm D
BORIS is:
Takeshi
|Vocals, Guitar & Bass
Wata
| Vocals, Guitar & Echo
Atsuo
| Vocal, Percussion & Electronics
MERZBOW is:
Masami Akita | Electronics
The Review:
*This review is written from the
perspective of someone playing both pieces at the same time and at the same
volume.
The frequent collaborations of
legendary drone act Boris and pioneering
noise artist Merzbow subscribe to a specific formula. Boris comes to the table with some combination of old
tracks they’ve reworked and new tracks while Merzbow
composes original pieces of high frequency noise. Boris’
dense riffs and Merzbow’s harsh
grating tracks make for an intense experience and in the past the
collaborations between the two artists have felt a bit like two artists who
genuinely admire each other’s work, but were experimenting with how to combine
their two unique atmospheres into one cohesive piece. On the artists’ seventh
effort, Boris and Merzbow
have never sounded more satisfyingly synchronized, powerfully effective, or
sonically layered as they do on “Gensho”.
“Gensho” can roughly be translated to phenomenon in English which
proved to be an appropriate title because these tracks themselves feel so
highly biotic. Whether the pace is at a heavy trudging rhythm like “Vomitself”, a spiraling plod like on
the cover of My Bloody Valentine’s “Sometimes” or the frantic and lively
“Akirama Flower” these tracks always are sounding incredibly active.
This is largely thanks to the way Merzbow’s sounds both
contrast and compliment this collection of Boris tracks. When Boris slows down the pace Merzbow
is unrelenting. His high frequency noises and screeches are incredibly
unsettling when Boris seem to be functioning as a safety
blanket. While Boris play their expected repetitive sludge
riffs Merzbow’s pieces are surprisingly dynamic
and engaging. On “Huge” the rhythm
and safety Boris creates is entirely disturbed by Merzbow’s tense noise, but the two acts do it in a way that
keeps the listener always absorbing new subtleties. Merzbow’s
pieces are winding and changing in such obvious and discernable ways, while Boris remains steady.
The contrasts between the two at times are incredibly effective and
while they give Merzbow more of the spotlight the pieces
would not be nearly as interesting if it was not for the atmosphere Boris was creating. The music can only co-exist in its
greatest form because the other is there too.
When Boris
decides to pick up the pace on tracks like “Akirama Flower” and “Heavy
Rain” Merzbow’s noise functions perhaps even more
importantly. All of these tracks feature no drumming or percussion of any kind from
Atsuo, so Merzbow’s creations are what keep these
tracks from bottoming out. While Boris’ vibrant guitar
tones and walls of texture really shine during these portions of the songs, Merzbow’s compositions are vital to the sound’s monolithic ambitions.
When Boris typically use heavy rhythmic drone
pieces alone it can feel enormously steady and unchanging. Merzbow
provide their drones with an unpredictable instability. A jarring and more
unhinged effect is created as a result. The noise tends to drive the pace along
with Wata and Takashi’s vocals rather than any guitar work on the record which
serves more as texture than anything else.
These new incarnations of older Boris tracks feature nice ruffles that make them worth
revisiting. Many of these tracks feature cleaner vocals than their older
iterations or slight differences in the way they are mastered. Wata’s vocals on
“Rainbow” and “Heavy Rain” feature a nice double-track effect that they did not
have on the original mix which gives her soft delivery a bit more robustness to
it. The album as a whole sounds incredibly well done. The dynamic range on this
album is wide and no part of the album feels murky or cluttered. The dark
layers of Boris guitar and bass with Merzbow’s agonizingly piercing sounds come through in vivid
detail.
“Gensho”
is the best collaboration Boris and Merzbow have done by a significant margin. The album
perfectly encapsulates what Boris and Merzbow can both do at their best and also does a
remarkable job of meshing these two styles together in a way that is enjoyable
while also giving both artists an equal platform. Boris
chose some of their finest tracks to remaster and Merzbow’s
original compositions sound tailored to these tracks, but still are their own
organic pieces. Other collaborations between the artists have suffered from a
poor mix, live recordings whose master tapes muffled Merzbow’s
tracks, or sounded simply like Boris and Merzbow playing at the same time. “Gensho” is Boris and Merzbow playing together and evidence of a partnership that
has possibly maximized its given potential with a release that serves as a
highlight in both artists’ extensive discographies.
“Gensho
Parts 1 & 2” is available here
