OK, so here’s the deal with the new Boris/Merzbow album. It’s actually two records, but you’re supposed to play them at the same time—which is fine if you have two turntables or multiple CD players. For the purpose of this experiment, I’m listening to Boris in Windows’ Groove Music and Merzbow on iTunes. This may or may not work…
Surprisingly, it does, although with both media players at full volume, Merzbow’s contributions are a little louder than I’d like. For Boris’ part, they’ve taken set staples such as “Farewell,” “Rainbow” and “Heavy Rain” and stripped out all percussion. Merzbow’s efforts are supposed to be original contributions, although I really wouldn’t know otherwise. Thing is, the Merzbow tracks are all 16+ minutes long, while Boris’ tunes range from four (“Resonance”) to nearly 12 (“Akuma No Uta”) minutes, so the former’s noisy barrages tend to overlap the latter.
With all that being said, I wouldn’t say that the harsh electronics improve the Boris songs in any way. It’s an interesting experiment, and I’ll give ‘em credit for creativity, but I don’t see myself listening to this more than once.
