Psychedelic Rainbows
* Boris with Michio Kurihara: Rafflesia (9.5 mb) | My Rain (2.5 mb) | Sweet No. 1 (11.5 mb)
From Rainbow : Drag City : DC338
Sometimes you just know that something is going to sound awesome, which is why I was super excited to hear that Boris and Michio Kurihara were teaming up for an album. Boris (look here and here) have been a favorite of mine since I first heard them last year. A trio consisting of Takeshi (Bass, Guitar & Vocal), Atsuo (Drums & Vocals) and Wata (Guitar), Boris have been exploring the dual genres of drone and psychedelics for a long time now. And just the thought of adding Michio Kurihara (look here), master of psychedelic guitar, got me reeling and drooling.
Luckily, the collaboration doesn’t suck. In fact, the album is pretty damn incredible with Kurihara’s freaked out guitar pyrotechnics really pushing Boris to pull out all the stops.
Rainbow is the most cohesive collaboration Boris has ever done. It towers over their recording with Sunn 0))) and is a completely different animal than anything they’ve done with Merzbow. It’s a sign of their sheer musicality and dynamic diversity as a group. As for Kurihara’s place, this album was a vehicle for him to shine as a player, as a creator of textures and tensions, but also to engage with a band that fully “gets” his other side apart from Ghost. This is what great, uncompromising neo-psychedelic rock is all about: it draws from the past and points ever forward into the unknown future. (AMG)
