boris with Michio Kurihara

Michio Kurihara is an experimental Japanese guitarist who has a history of collaborations/tours with Boris, Ghost, and the Stars.

2006 Rainbow [FLAC] - This is my 4th favorite Boris record. It's got heavy jazz-rock influence and the guitar tone is simply beautiful. I guarantee that this album is so chill that it's impossible to become upset while listening to it. 

2008 Cloud Chamber - heavy on the ambiance and feedback, but melodic and relaxing.

boris

2000 Flood [FLAC] - One long brilliant song (split int 4 parts). Starts off slow, but part 3 is so epic you might shed a tear.

2003 Akuma No Uta [FLAC] - My 3rd favorite Boris record (even though most of the world considers it their best). Blends jazz-rock, ambiance, and a pinch of drone metal (for good measure) perfectly. Truly a beautiful album.

2005 Pink [FLAC] - Definitely their most straight forward album, Pink encompasses nearly all of Boris' styles (which is why it's my 5th favorite Boris record). Each and every song is a little different and that is probably why this album is so critically acclaimed. This is definitely where you should start if you are new to Boris.

2008 Smile -  Their most recent and popular full length is definitely a step in a different direction.  As a metalhead it took me a long time to apreesh this album (there's not a single heavy song on it), but in recent times I've come to realize that the fact that every song has multiple styles/genres in it is aesthetically pleasing in a different but interesting way. This is probably the most accessible album next to Pink. THIS UPLOAD INCLUDES BOTH THE JAPANESE AND ENGLISH VERSIONS WHICH ARE, IN FACT, MIXED DIFFERENTLY and thus have pretty different feels to them.

B O R I S

here, my heavy friends, are the Boris records that fall under the drone/experimental/hardcore/metal umbrella.

Archives 

the first folder 1996-1998 contains live recordings of early material (including HUGE and Hama) that predates amplifier worship....it's heavy as fuck, and most people haven't heard these songs: "In Hush, Soul Search You Sleep, Vacuuum, Mosquito, Mass Mercury, and Scar Box"). 
the second contains a live drumless set consisting of Huge, Mosquito, and Vomitself.
the third contains a live performance of shortened/sped up versions of Absolutego and Flood.

1996 Absolutego [FLAC] - this is one long (about an hour) song of heavy feedback and drone progression.

1998 Amplifier Worship [FLAC] - this is not only my favorite Boris album, it is one of my favorite albums of all time, and is what i consider to be the greatest drone metal album of all time (yeah, it's better than sunn O)))'s black one AND Earth-2... fight me). Perfectly fluid and brilliant musical flow from start to finish.




2002 Heavy Rocks [FLAC] - My 2nd favorite Boris album. It's a perfect blend of Hard Rock/Punk with some drone elements akin to Floor/Torche

2003 Boris at Last - Feedbacker [FLAC] - Yet another "one long song" album (although it's split into 5 parts). Pretty good, but not the best. Heavy on ambient feedback.

The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked I (2004), II & III (2006) - This 3 part series is truly unique. Each has 3-4 songs on that range somewhat widely in style from feedback/drone to relaxing/mesmerizing ambient.






2005 DronEvil [FLAC] - this record is both amazing and revolutionary. it is in reality 2 LPs/CDs that you are supposed to listen to AT THE SAME TIME. the first disc is completely ambient and borderline nonrhythmic, while the second disc contains the "actual" songs that range from relaxing/groovy jazz-rock to blistering heavy drone. This blog is named after the second song "Evil Wave Form" which, imho, is one of Boris' masterpieces.

2006 Vein 
 - This album took me the longest to get into, but now I really like it. It can best be characterized as a hardcore punk album (more than half the drum beats are circle pit worthy) drenched in two layers of constant feedback/drone. It's definitely hard on the ears at first, but it grows on you and it will ultimately make you (as it does me) happy to see that Boris hasn't forgotten punk rock. This upload includes both the "hardcore" and "noise" versions of the album (which you can read about on the wiki if you don't already know what they mean).

*READ this 2nd* Boris likes a lot of little things to kick...

...mixes every single one that he could ever need.
Boris, feed... 
but friends don't
friends don't
lie/mind.
Let's make/take,
let's feel wanted.
Taken up and take 'em tall.
My shake,
minds monkey-matter.
Boris knows and
Boris likes it all.
It's like sin.

It's a killer
she's a killer maker.
It reaches in and takes
from the back of your mind.
I'm not awake...
still alive?
Twenty bucks has the back and see the lines...
I got a small,
got what they call the lack,
a lack o' halfway cooked
but its all my own.
I say I can't
but I really mean I won't.
In their arm or maybe up a nose.
I see it all...
See Boris has way of seeing through my eyes.
He touches in a fashion,
a master of mime,
manipulating me, my arms and legs and spine.
He's got you pawed...
I'm sinkin shoulder wake like a spin on through.
Let 'em hum.
- the Melvins 

Boris is my favorite band. They take their name from the first track from the Melvins' Bullhead record. There are many reasons why I love Boris, but I'll try and sum them up in as few words as possible: their catalog ranges from the heaviest, darkest, and most dissonant drone metal to the most beautiful, eloquent, and peaceful ambient rock, and they hit everything in between....at least twice. They play drone, punk, jazz, ambient, rock, indie, dance, and metal (and just about anything else you could imagine). Most of the time they change genre 5-10 times over the course of an album, but sometimes they'll change multiple times over the course of one song (a perfect example of this is their "Luna" track off of their split with Torche). My love for Boris is akin to my love for Pink Floyd (whom i consider to be the greatest band of all time) because of their similar ability to immerse the listener into a deeper and more meaningful realm of music, regardless of what style they are playing at that given moment.

In an interview Takeshi (drummer) was asked why some of their releases are labeled "BORIS" while others are labeled "boris." He replied that the reason for this was to help prepare the listener for the type of art that they would be experience on each record.

BORIS records tend to be more loud/experimental/drone, and are meant to aesthetically challange the listener.


boris records tend to be more straight forward rock/jazz/indie, and are a little lighter on the ears (and thus more accessible).


so, when i post Boris uploads, be mindful of whether or not it is labeled "BORIS" or "boris."

Boris discography

**READ THIS 1ST** defeating earth's gravity

so i've sort of fallen into the habit of starting blogs, investing a lot of time into them for a few weeks and then abandoning them as soon as i get a new video game. i'm hoping that taking a slightly different approach to this blog will enable me to better secure its longevity as well as make it more accessible to readers/music fans of different tastes and origins.

i intend to make smaller but more frequent posts containing maybe just an album or two (or a couple 7inches, etc.) instead of posting giant page long discographies.

these smaller posts will be labeled according to flavor/style/genre so that you are more easily able to seek out what interests you, instead of downloading the entire catalog of a band that you discover only wrote one or two albums that you enjoy.



here is a list *(which i will update as necessary) of labels and what they entail:

atmospheric/ambient - long, light, "spacey," relaxing, and somewhat abstract

blackmetal - if you don't know what it is, you don't like it.... but don't worry about it, it's "for geeks that aren't even cool enough to play dungeons and dragons."


chill - i'll probably just tack this on to things that i feel are nice to chill and listen to =P

deathmetal - probably the most debated genre of music...i will prefix this label with the band's country of origin and maybe another adjective to two to describe in more detail since deathmetal is such an ambiguous term in this modern life.

dronevil - long, slow, dark, heavy, and aimed at immersing the listener in layers of vibrational sound.

grind - blast mother fucking beats, kid.

hardcore/punk - the second most debated genre of music...i will attach adjectives such as "sXe, melodic, fast/slow, post-, etc."

indie - just like porn, "i know what it is when i see it."

there may be punk, ska, and rap if i feel so inclined, but it's not very likely.


so yeah, everybody cross your fingers (upside down) and hope that i actually stick to it this time.

I USE http://www.zshare.net/ BECAUSE YOU CAN UPLOAD UP TO A GIG AND THERE'S NO DOWNLOAD CAP. you can eat my poop if you have a problem with that.

I WILL BE UPLOADING ALL THE FLAC VERSIONS (that i have) OF POSTS ASAP.