Featured Review #36: Boris - asia

[Zeus 7997]

Artist: Boris Album: Asia 1. terracotta warrior 2. ant hill 3. talkative lord versus silent master

Rating: | Holy fuck.

 

Before I begin, I need to warn you. Asia is not a single. Asia is a raw, ugly, discordant album as massive as the continent it's named after. It may be three tracks, but the length of each is enough to make your jaw hit the floor. On top of that, Boris didn't craft Asia with easy listening in mind. So after the initial shock wears off, I am glad to inform you that this is one of Boris' most beastly concoctions, a nice throwback to the days when Boris were firmly a drone doom band. It shows that even twenty years later, the band can still contend for the heavyweight belt for "heaviest band in history". And they did it with only three people! Asia is one of three new albums in a series dubbed 'New Noise Literacy'. The count starts at 003, so I'm not quite sure where 001 and 002 are. Perhaps the answer is buried somewhere within all the noise of Asia, since Boris expects you to derive some form of fulfillment from the album. And for as suprisingly difficult as it is to describe, enjoying the album is quite easy.

When I say Asia is heavy, I don't mean aggressive melodies and harsh vocals. I'm talking about music so heavy you feel time hover around you in anticipation. Drone doom is the kind of music that lumbers forward, contorting the mood through feedback, noise, and clever use of tritones. Asia doesn't care about how much patience you have; if it takes ten minutes to set the mood it will take ten minutes. Enjoying Asia is an exercise for the listener in appreciating the journey and flexing your imagination. With the freedom to impress your own thoughts and meanings on the music, one can only imagine the band's state of mind when these tracks were birthed.

For as smothering and merciless as it is, Asia is anything but depressing. It succeeds at conveying all types of emotion, some of them disturbing but some are cathartic and others even beautiful. For example, the slow burn of terracotta warrior opens up into a majestic wall of warm sound that collapses upon itself and leaves everything as it began. It literally feels like a soldier rose from the dust to combat the darkness once more. The second track ant hill is much harder and toys with noise borrowed heavily from countless Merzbow jam sessions. I can almost imagine a large colony of ants crawling to and fro, moving their antennas in time with the noise. There's three distinct sections to this song, all of which use sound to color very different soundscapes. Despite being the shortest track, I find that it's the least accessible. talkative lord versus silent master sounds like silence had an argument with noise and lost, combining ideas and motifs explored into the first track to bring everything to a close.

There are plenty of drone albums that tax even my attention span, but Asia would not be one of them. For long, instrumental drone doom, this about as diverse as it comes. There are only two things I can't find answers for: where is 001 and 002 of this series, and why Boris decided to call this album Asia? But, then again, Asia's sister albums are titled warpath and urban dance, so maybe it's best to not read into such things. I had high hopes that Asia would resemble their collaboration with Sunn 0))), Altar , but that is not the case. Instead of crafting a spiritual successor to their last drone doom album - as I consider Praparat to be drone with a healthy serving of the unclassifiable - Boris have once again mixed a bit of the old with a bit of the new. If I had to pick something most similar to it, it would be The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked. Asia is not for everyone but if you are a fan of drone, doom, ambient, or Boris, Asia might be for you.

Support the band!

Purchase Asia (New Noise Literacy 005) here straight from their label, Inoxia!

Purchase warpath (New Noise Literacy 004) here straight from their label, Inoxia!

Purchase urban dance (New Noise Literacy 003) here straight from their label, Inoxia!

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

Great review! I'm going to take a chance and listen to your posted sample--songs over 8 minutes (especially drone ones) tend to ward me off, but I'm open to being converted.

 

#update

 

 

 

Asia is not for everyone

 

 yep

[Zeus 7997]

Great review! I'm going to take a chance and listen to your posted sample--songs over 8 minutes (especially drone ones) tend to ward me off, but I'm open to being converted.

 

#update

 

 

 yep

 

Boris' drone albums are an acquired taste and this is definitely not the place to start. Asia and warpath are definitely some of the harshest albums among their vast discography. Only some material on The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked -Chronicle-, Vein -drone-, and Megatone rival their newest material. This is perhaps why I didn't hear of it - in order to buy these three new albums you have to order it directly from the label. Since Boris is managed by so many different labels, the music that they release on different labels directly impacts how wide of an audience reaches it.

 

In order to convince you that Boris as a whole is not for you, check out the song Surrender. It's the only thing remotely resembling a single and I think this is much more suited to being the "sample". However, it's incredibly deceiving and it's not even on Asia (it's on urban dance), so I thought it was better to put a track that was actually there even if it's downright unlistenable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flh7BfhTDFY

 

And if you're willing to try more accessible drone, I actually recommend Heavy Rain from their last album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GndQg8SsU1o

 

[Wicked Teletubby 528]

I gave the third track a listen and I think I don't understand this kind of music (?).

anyways, it was a somewhat interesting experience.

guess I will come back to Boris when I have a really bad day.