new boris rec w/michio kurihara

from aquarius records:

BORIS WITH MICHIO KURIHARA "Cloud Chamber" (Pedal) cd 21.00
By itself, the name "Boris" on a new release creates a not-inconsiderable level of excitement amongst the heaviness-heads and Japanophiles 'round these parts. Add "with Michio Kurihara" to the cover and, well, the excitement, it's off the hook. You know what we mean, 'cause chances are, if you're reading this, you're already a Boris fan. And probably also are familiar with guitarist Kurihara from his 2006 collaboration with Boris, on the very wonderful Rainbow (he also guested on the more recent Smile, as well).
While Rainbow was a fairly song-oriented affair, with many moods and plenty of melodiousness, THIS new get-together is one for those of you into HUGE squalls of amps on 11, heavy duty GUITAR FREAK OUT. You won't really notice much in the way of, like, vocals on here. Or drums, for that matter. It's all about the motorpsycho guitar(s), which can sometimes sound more like airplane engines here (with, maybe, Neil Young flying the plane). Like we said, a guitar freakout. Not a stretch, of course, for Boris, who have albums with names like Feedbacker and Amplifier Worship, after all. And teamed up again with noted psychedelic axemaster Kurihara (White Heaven, Ghost) we're not surprised at all that they went for such a heavy, freeform guitar-centric sound. One that should be of instant appeal to anyone who's personal guitar gods are folks like Caspar Brotzmann, Keiji Haino, or China's Li Jianhong. Or, well, let's put it this way - at its mellowest, we could compare this to Nadja and/or SUNNO)))... the clouds in this Cloud Chamber are big but not exactly fluffy.
There's but two tracks here, both of lengthy, "side-long" duration (18:53 and 17:30). The first, "Cloud Chamber I", begins with deep pulsations of subtle sub-bass, building and building, joined by skree, skullflowering into psychedelic sheets of drone, culminating with what comes close to sheer white noise at the end. Even at its grinding-est, though, delicate feedback trails caress one's ears amidst the din. "Cloud Chamber II" simply starts off grindingly distorted, fuzzing and buzzing with divebomb attacks. But then proceeds to get even heavier - louder - and noisier!! By not much more than three minutes in, it sounds like something (everything!) in the recording studio is beginning to vibrate and collapse, you can imagine sparks shooting from the amplifiers, cabinets toppling, walls shaking, brains melting. And of course they just keep upping the ante on this destructo-, distorto- delic assault. A thing of literally devastating beauty... which physically reaches a peak at about the 13 minute mark, a point where it could easily be mistaken for the extreme electronic likes of Masonna, then suddenly quieting into blissed-out ambience for the final four minutes of this track. Sweet.
And this limited edition (1500 copies) Japanese import is packaged nicely, with some nice, stylishly subtle "advanced" design that, well, makes it look like a Japanese import.