Boris.

There's so much to say.

The other day I took a walk and listened to Rock Dream, which is a collaboration with Japanese drone/doom/psychedelic/rock band Boris and Japanese noise artist Merzbow. I had heard a bit of it while I slept on the bus on the way home from my competition on Saturday and decided to take a walk and give it a full uninterrupted listen. I expected it to be good, but I really had no idea. I've never been one to be all "deep" and talk about how much the music that I listen to affects me, but I was just speechless. On the album, there are, of course, several songs from Boris' cool rock phase, which Merzbow adds his trademark static harsh noises to. I thought that he more or less detracted from the real energetic songs, which were just meant to be raw guitar, bass, and drums through fuzz pedals and Orange amps.

The less friendly songs of Boris included on the album are a 35 minutes rendition of Feedbacker, which (knowing how much of a faggot I am for Feedbacker, you should see this one coming) was no less than absolutely epic. It's followed by a handful of shorter songs, and then the second disc kicks in.

The real gem of this album is on the second disc. The fourth track on disc two is the energetic fan favorite "Ibitsu", which is very fast and catchy, with that psychedelic Motorhead vibe that can be found in Pink, Heavy Rocks, and Akuma no Uta. Just when you were ready for another real headbanger, they kick off the shorter-than-expected A Bao A Qu, which, while being quite captivating, seems to serve as more of a sedative to get your mind off of the stoner grooves played earlier in the concert. Immediately when The Evil One Which Sobs kicked off, I could really feel it. It was like nothing I had ever heard before. It was so mournful and morose, but it was absolute bliss at the same time. All thirteen minutes of it were nothing like I had ever heard before. I never thought I'd hear noise doing anything but, well, being noisy, but it serenaded the beautiful repetition and slow evolution perfectly, resulting in nothing less than a masterpiece. I've never felt so strongly about a composition before. I forgot everything else, I just kept listening, and it came to its noisy-yet-subtle climax. I was no less than floored. I looked around, saw a plane in the sky, and felt sorrow for them for being so unaware of this amazing world inside my head where nothing went wrong. It was like nothing else. Then it ended, and I felt satisfied. I wouldn't have complained if it had gone on longer, but it ended right where it should have.

They went on to play a newer song, Flower Sun Rain, from the Smile album. The vocals are back now, but they sing a more nostalgic and sad tone than on the grooves like Pink and Ibitsu. The rest of the tracks on the album are tastefully and perfectly layered with Merzbow's quirky but not orderless noises, and it fades off with the appropriate "Farewell" from the Pink album.

When I first heard them say that they would rather not think of themselves as a band, I thought it was rather pretentious. After really giving albums like Absolutego, Feedbacker, and now this one, I'm kind of starting to understand where they're coming from. Band or not, they're definitely not your average psychedelic band with a greatest hits album (if they did have a greatest hits, it would probably just be a re-release of Pink). They're more like an ever-changing need for the artists to express themselves as diversely as possible. An artistic force, if you will. They're geniuses.

On another note, I think I know why I haven't reviewed Feedbacker or even thought about giving Rock Dream a full review. I'm just not sure if I really grasp it. Maybe I'm giving too much credit to an almost purely instrumental album as being 'too deep for me'. I mean, I'm only eighteen and am already a pretty seasoned fan of music. But every time I listen, I feel like I never have before. I don't know why it is. Possibly it's just that they do such an incredible job of passing on a feeling through their instruments, that it just hits me. You can't review pure emotion, can you?