Boris – Japanese Heavy Rock Hits Vol. 1 – 4
[Southern Lord, 2009]
genre: experimental, metal, post-metal, drone, stoner, indie rock, alternative rock
Review by Sovereign
3 volumes of boris rock hits and a present only if you order the 3 package 7’’. Here are all of them. Four volumes and 7 tracks played by Boris in a more experimental way and a new dimension of sound. The veterans from Japan can really produce fantastic sounds and if you are a fan just order these records. They still make strange music and they still change genres and moods in every single track. In these releases there are 7 tracks and you can find everyhting in! Metal, rock, indie, drone, noise and many more. Their minds never end and their inspiration is endless.
the EPs:
Japanese HEAVY ROCK hits Vol 1-4 collection rapidhsare
http://www.southernlord.com
http://www.myspace.com/borisdronevil
http://www.inoxia-rec.com/boris/
http://www.catune.com/
http://homepage1.nifty.com/boris/top.html
Track-lists:
Vol. 1:
1. 8
2. Hey Everyone
Vol. 2:
1. H.M.A. (Heavy Metal Addict)
2. Black Original
Vol. 3:
1. 164752
2. …And Hear Nothing
Vol. 4:
1. Seasons (Earth and Fire cover) (exclusive)
The 11th issue of White Fungus is the first to be produced since two of its editors, brothers Ron Hanson and Mark Hanson, relocated to Taiwan from New Zealand at the beginning of 2009. The new issue features material generated from the move, including a short history of Japanese noise group Hijokaidan, an article on Chinese experimental and non-academic music by Beijing writer Yan Jun, work by Taiwan artists Yao Jui-chung, Su Hui-yu and Cheng Shih-chun, and an interview with Isa Ho.
Los Campesinos produced their new album named “Romance is boring”. This is their third album in 2 years and probably their best album so far. This album is a 45 minutes exploration into the modern pop sound with a happy mood. What I really enjoy in this album is the band’s idea to introduce more sonic sounds into their traditional pop. This mixture made their sound much more interesting. This mix made me listen to this album more and more.
“Long Grass” is the first emerging sound of the forthcoming, long anticipated full length album of the band called ‘The Quiet Lamb’, which follows in the fitting season of spring. From this initial offering, it’s clear that the eventual release is far removed from the projected vision of years past. A swollen, heartfelt Her Name is Calla shovel and uncover a folksier, delicate undertone amidst the soil of a now buried recent past. Piano, mandolin, banjo and violin pluck and punctuate the soft, acerbic, breathy air of age and abandonment. These are three beautiful tracks that make me be impatient to listen to the new album. The sound is again ethereal, slow and really dreamy. This collective can produce excellent music. Follow them.
Last year the band released their 
Two years after the release of their successful self-titled album, Vampire weekend are back with “Contra”. This album follows the same path that the band left off. This means that they produce and compose songs with the same happiness and energy that they had in their previous album.
Watzlawick’s sound is a bit experimental and their way is really heavy. “Prologue” EP contains 6 tracks every one tragically different from the others. The general profile and their music attitude are alternative and I can say that they reach metal paths. There is a progressive structure inside the compositions. They do remind me a Greek alternative metal band named ROT. I do like their sound and I think this kind of music is what we miss from the recent alternative and progressive metal and rock releases. They are influenced by ‘System of a Down’ and ‘Tool’ but on the other hand there are influences from ‘Mogwai’ and ‘God Is An Astronaut’ in their sound, somewhere in the background I can detect sounds of ‘the Mars Volta’ and ‘the Music’. A little problem is the amateur production of the sound, but this element offers to the sound a more pure and crude character. The music is quite cool but there is something missing on the music structure and the whole tracks sounds a bit choked up. The tones are fantastic and their ideas are really fresh. Their advantage is that they mix rock and metal in a crazy way, I can connect them (in sound matters) with ‘Russian Circles’ and this is honorable. The Italians self release their first ever EP and this release is on Creative Commons Attribution/Non-Commercial/Share-Alike, meaning Watzlawick are releasing their stuff out into the freedom for anyone to remix or mess around with as they see fit, so long as they credit the originators and don’t make a financial profit from it. The future is bright for this band from Pisa. This EP is on a limited edition, try to find it and prepare yourself for huge riffs, screams and shouts, beautiful passages and modern metal creations.
Μπορούν η καφρίλα, το head banging, το ξύλο, ο ιδρώτας και η αποπνικτική ατμόσφαιρα να προκαλέσουν ευτυχία; Μηπως η «αντρίλα» και η βαρβατίλα μπορουν; Μπορεί δηλαδή το heavy ή stoner metal να δημιουργήσει ευτυχισμένους (έστω και εφήμερα) ανθρώπους; Στην περίπτωση των Άγγλων Orange Goblin μπορεί. Με μπροστάρη τον frontman Ben Ward, οι Orange Goblin έπαιξαν όσο πιο δυνατά γίνεται, για μιάμιση περίπου ώρα, και μας ισοπέδωσαν. Ατελείωτος χορός και σπροξίδι μέσα στον ασφιχτικά γεμάτο χώρο του Αn Club, καθως η μπύρα και το whiskey έρρεαν άφθονα (και κατι ουζακια ανα φασεις!). Αυτο που μ’ ενδιέφερε ηταν που από τα πρώτα κομμάτια μέχρι αρκετές ώρες μετά τη συναυλία ήμουν πραγματικά ευτυχισμένος. Η μουσικη τους, ικανοποιησε τους παντες, καποια μικροπροβληματα στον ηχο ή την ατμοσφαιρα δεν εδειχναν να πτοουν κανεναν. Ο Ben αν και με κοντύτερο μαλλί και μουσι από παλιότερα, έδειχνε ιδιαίτερα ορεξάτος, έπαιζε με το κοινό και ούρλιαζε με ύφος Hulk Hogan προς όλες τις κατευθύνσεις. Τραγουδούσε όσο πιο «απαίσια» γίνεται και μας μίλαγε για τα ναρκωτικά, τις φιλίες του και τα ταξιδάκια του στο διάστημα. Όμορφο βράδυ με μεγάλες δόσεις πώρωσης και τεραστιες παραμορφωμένες riffαρες. 
Beach House were formed in 2004 by Alex Scally (keyboards, guitar) and Victoria Legrand (organ, vocals). Their music style is characterized as “dream pop” due to their slow and atmospheric melodies. Their debut self-titled album was released in 2006. Their second album named “Devotion” was released in 2008. “Devotion” had received a great success and was included in Pitchfork’s Best Albums of 2008 list. This year they produce their third album (first in Sub Pop Records) named “Teen dream”.
Every person has a number of significant records that shaped his musical taste at a young age. For me one of those records was Mezannine by Massive Attack. I was a fan before Mezzanine but when it came out in 1998 it completely blew my mind. It was back in the time that Massive Attack had the amazing ability to change their sound and sort of, reinvent themselves record by record. Despite keeping busy with the release of a ‘best of’ compilation, various movie soundtracks & collaborations this is their first proper release after seven years. Yes, “100th Window” was way back in 2003. Although my tastes in music have changed dramatically over the years I really looked forward to this one since word started spreading. Massive Attack are not at their prime, but they can still satisfy their audience with a solid release and offer a good listen in general. “Heligoland” comes with an amazing cast of guest appereances, Tunde Adebimpe of ‘TV on The Radio’, Gus Garvey of ‘Elbow’, Hope Sandoval of ‘Mazzy Star’, Damon Albarn & of course Massive Attack favourite Horace Andy. This might be a long shot from a masterpiece but still it is a fine record. Most songs move in similar levels with a couple of them sticking out. ‘Splitting The Atom’ is one of the highlights along with the amazing ‘Paradise Circus’ (vocals by Hope Sandoval). Finally Damon Albarn curries ‘Saturday Come Slow’ and it was nice to hear 3D (Robert Del Naja) take up a couple of songs solo like the good old days. This is a must for Massive Attack fans and a good easy listen for everyone else.
The new album of an excellent post-rock experimental band is here. “Thee Silver Mt Zion” is a band led by former “Godspeed You! Black Emperor” member Efrim Menuck. This is their first album since shedding three members, recruiting a new drummer, and tweaking their name yet again. The music of this release is solid, there are plenty of vocals (
When I first listen about this band I realized that the most of the mags and websites or blogs tagged them as a post-rock band and this release as a post-rock album. I think that any instrumental music which contents a guitar is not post-rock. This release is a bit more experimental. The sound of the compositions is really electronic and the ambient passages are in high levels. As they said “The American Dollar” creates cinematic, electronica-tinged instrumental music. The duo fuses processed drums, spacious keyboards and powerful organ swells with electric guitar and bass, creating deep sonic textures while maintaining the passion and energy of a live band. This is already the fifth full length album of the duo from Quenns NY and they are already named as the most ambient post-rock bands in the world. I prefer to tag their music as experimental, except of post-rock and I do really love their compositions inside this album. Their music sounds well constructed and their atmosphere is quite ethereal and colorful. A great album to open this years music marathon.
It hasn’t been too long since we reviewed 
This is what these two bands could play. If you do not know Kodiak and Nadja yet, this split release is the perfect introduction of these bands. There is an ambient metal around this record that few bands in the world can really reach. Kodiak try to play a noisy and doomy but atmospheric kind of drone metal. Their composition is impetuous in a good way. Their metal is modern and quite experimental. 
KidCrash is a band from Portland. Their music is pure post-hardcore with screamo vocals. “Snacks” is their 3rd full-length album. I didn’t know the band before this album so I can only express my opinion for this album. “Snacks” is an amazing and full of energy – screams album. It’s a real screamo album that sounds great. Some times it sounds really hardcore and sometimes sounds absolutely chaotic. “Space between mountains” starts the album with an interesting guitar riff accompanied by heavy drums. Then the lead singer starts screaming and expresses his frenetic intentions right from the beginning. This song is a very good choice to introduce this album. “Where nerves are” continues in the same recipe as the first track, but in a less speedy way and more screaming vocals. “Grim collection” is a composition that sounds more post-metal than post-hardcore. “Wound eraser” is the best song of the album, the most synth-heavy and the most biffing track of the album. I have to congratulate the drummer for his fantastic drum playing in this one. “Slow applause” and “Brain snares” have very melodic and techical guitar lines that are unfortunatelly lost behind the screams and the heavy drums. I don’t know if this album is better or worse than their previous but I know that is a great album to hear if you like screamo and heavy sounds. I heavy production from a screamy band in an excellent sound job. 
Slow motion tracks with a sweet attitude. There is a beautiful voice and quite emotional. They have some long tracks and they create a great atmosphere. In order to like this release you have to be in a specific mood. Their music is not as easy as it seems. They are not experimental, but they try to create something simple in a strange way. They are post-rock influenced, they have some hardcore roots and they have some metal brushes in their sound. I can categorize them as an alternative rock band, or like an emotional post-punk group. They sound like early ‘Madrugada’. They have something from ‘Sonic Youth’ and influences from ‘Mogwai’ After some listenings, you‘ll realize that there are some parts of this album, that get stacked in your mind. The biggest advantage is Toby Hoffmann’s vocals. They are a modern band that tries to create emotional rock ballads under a fresh artistic background. 
This album came to me as a huge surprise. I do not really know Dominic before, as they have one EP back to 2004 named “Running With Scissors” and their debut self-tilted album released on 2006. And I don’t think I mention a lot of screamo bands before. But here’s the difference with other bands titled as screamo. This band is not only screamo or emo. This band contains music from all over the modern and alternative rock and metal genres. Or maybe this band is the only screamo around, because I can’t really define screamo music. They sound like “Converge” (sometimes), “Envy”, “Underoath”, “Alexisonfire”, “Thrice” and maybe “At the Drive In” and “the Mars Volta” Their style is quite interesting. Their attitude is really heavy and technical. Their music is progressive and math-rock. And their sound is great. There is no maniac way in their rhythms but you can find really sweet melodies behind the screams and the post drums. I find this realese quite heavy and melodic at the same time. They do know how to compose music and they do fantastic things with their instruments. 
Inside this record, there is a kind of music that flirts with your senses. Sentiments that produced by guitars. Feelings exposed and laying down. Vocals so calm that swim through your mind. Fantastic music influenced by Sigur Ros, Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Wow! What names hah? It deserves it to be alongside these bands. They are followers, but they are truly good! A dreamy music which played so well and so beautiful in a more atmospheric way. I feel the creep, I think I crawl, this music makes me happy and sad at the same time. I believe this band could be one of the best in the genre of modern rock and in this kind of alternative post-rock and ethereal music. This album is excellent, atmospheric, melodic, noisy, ethereal, calm, rock, post, piano oriented and full of feelings. There been lots of years when I last feel something from a track. “the guest” and “lilitu” push me so bad. These tracks scratch my feelings. The album is a masterpiece of melodic rock music. 
What are the criteria to define a perfect album? Everyone has his own. If an album can make you shudder from the very first time you hear it, then that’s it, bingo, you found it. After the first blind date, you adore it day by day, more and more. This is exactly what it happened to me and Muse’s new album, “the Resistance”. So, with my blinders and my prejudiced mask on the head, I can describe with greater ease Muse’s latest masterpiece. Muse are more mature than ever before. They decided that it’s time to start evolving their music by exhibiting to their audience a modern symphonic multidimensional piece of art. There can be found many influences from Queen to Floyd and Radiohead but all of these influences are pulled by Muse, one step forward. All of them are great musicians, but the main character of the album is once again Matthew Bellamy. His guitar is alive, with solos that remind you old and forgotten fulfilling delights. His vocals are pure, full of strength and his timbre becomes a highly addicting pleasure for your ears. Especially songs like “guiding light”, “undisclosed desires” and of course the three part ethereal song “exogenesis”, are his vocal recital. Christopher Wolstenholme’s bass does not support the tracks but leads them and Domenic’s percussion create an epic atmosphere in every single composition. The concept of the lyrics can be easily imagined by the title of the album. This release is so solid that I cannot describe each song individually. To all of those who thought Muse as a conventional band here’s an answer. They provoke themselves, their audience and the whole musical industry. But that’s what makes a band great, provoking and persuasion.
Lightning bolt, the noise rock duo from Rhode Island, returned into music business after 4 years of break with their 6th studio album named “Earthly delights”. For those who know Lightning Bolt, Brian Chippendale, their drummer, is one of the most experimental, fastest and craziest drummers ever. Their music is proggresive and extreme noise rock which made them famous to all extreme music fans including noise, metal, grunge and even techno fans.
Amesoeurs formed in 2004 by Neige (alcest), Audrey Sylvain and guitarist Fursy Teyssier. After the 3 track mcd Ruines Humaines (2005) and the split with valfunte (2007) they created their first full length album, Amesoeurs. Sadly this is also their last one after their divorce for “personal tensions and conflicting ideas regarding the band’s future”.
These New Yorkers formed their band just 2 years ago, in 2007. 
Noveller is the recording project of Sarah Lipstate. Lipstate, who has created music with One Umbrella, Parts & Labor, Sands, Cold Cave, Rhys Chatham, and Glenn Branca, she is also a photographer and filmmaker. I had no knowledge of her, up until a couple of months ago when I ran into a review of this record at some site or blog. The thing that got my attention really was the No Fun Productions written right next to the artist & record name. If Carlos Giffoni likes this, it must be good. And it is good. Noveller’s music is basically guitar based noise , but if you expect something harsh & raw you are wrong. Noveller shows a great ability to control & manipulate noise wisely. The record opens with “Rainbows” which starting from a simple drone, it quickly develops into a massive multilayered song before leading to “Brilliant Colors” which is great noise song, simpler but noisier than the first one. From the next song “St. Powers” things calm down and the music becomes more delicate, without losing any interest of cource. “Tunnels” continues in that sort of way but gaining some more noise before leading to the final song “Bends” in which Carlos Giffoni makes a cameo & his contribution is easily recognized. All & all this is a fine piece of cosmic noise music, and fans of Emeralds, Stellar Om Source or even Tim Hecker will appreciate.
Nightstalker is one of the most important Greek rock bands ever. Their music is 100% stoner rock. Their fantastic live performances have grown their reputation in the underground music scene of Greece. I strongly believe that if they were from California they could have been as famous as Kyuss or Fu Manchu are. “Superfreak” is their third full-length album and probably their best one.
O Sasu Ripatti επιστρέφει ως Vladislav Delay δύο χρόνια μετά το καταπληκτικό ηλεκτρονικό ambient ύμνο του το “Whistleblowe” (http://noiz.wordpress.com/2007/08/03/vladislav-delay-%E2%80%93-whistleblower/) , δίσκο που λάτρεψα για την τελειότητα της σύνθεσης του και την μουσική του ορθότητα. Ένα 100% ηλεκτρονικό δημιούργημα χωρίς καμία προσθήκη φυσικού μουσικού οργάνου.
This is the 7th album for the Ukrainians Drudkh which is pretty amazing if you think that their first album was released in 2003! I can say in Microcosmos I found the best harmony of folk music and black metal. The mind is traveling in cold landscapes from the very first second of the album till the very last one. Nostalgia and melancholy are everywhere. Vocals are nothing but early 90’s black to provide this odd feeling you find only in releases of that era. The cold production can help you understand that better. The opening and closing tracks are pure folk compositions and they are just above 1min in duration each. The other 4 tracks are around 10 min each. I’m noticing that because I realize that after the 5th hearing of Microcosmos. That’s because I got so much into this music that I didn’t realize the songs are so long. The only thing you do is thinking and feeling while hearing this, which is pretty rare for a black metal release. Beautiful compositions in a beautiful album. Huge.
There are few records that from the first time you hear them they force you to hear them again and again but not to understand their musical complexity but to satisfy the dependence that the music creates you from the very first song. Red in tooth & claw is definitely one of them. Bats is a five member band from Dublin, formed in 2007 and they are here to push the angry rhythmic and tense aspect of the music one step further. Their sound is a total directed damage to you nervous system. In order to understand better the tinge of their sound I could describe them as a mix of post-hardcore with many progressive punk and funk influences. Every single song of this record is made with a mathematical attention and that proves how well musicians they are. Their lyrics are also very interesting because they are full of scientific references. From the first song “Higgs Boson Particle” and it’s sequel “Gamma Ray Burst:Second Date” you can imagine what’s going to happen in the next 50 minutes. The vocals may sound confusing to some peoples ears bat in my opinion they couldn’t be more well-matched to the hole character of the record. The guitars support their schizophrenic tendency with catchy and heavy dynamic riffs. Energy overflows the dense drums and bass line. If i could describe their music with one word that woud be intense. Of course Kurt Ballou of Converge who has produced the album has contributed to that course. All those who are convinced get it now.
