Get it while it's hot! First impressions - fans will not be disappointed. Love this band.

Boris - Absolutego

Recorded in 1996, this album was Boris' full-length debut, and it showed right away that this band wasn't messing around. In its original version, it consisted of one 65-minute track of oozing, slow motion, Melvins-inspired drone rock. (The U.S. release, put out in 2001 by Southern Lord, adds an additional bonus track, the 7:50 "Dronevil." And talk about buildups, this thing starts with a full 25 minutes of heavily down-tuned bass rumblings and doom-instilling guitar feedback before the drums and vocals finally kick in with the big payoff. From there, the band moves through about 15 minutes of thick, fuzzed-out trance rock (again, mostly instrumental) before the drums exit again, leaving in their wake a howling, droning mass of layered guitar feedback. The sound of this is truly massive and unsettling. It takes a good 25 more minutes for the wreckage to clear and the track to finally wind down to a close -- it seems strange to say it, but anything less would have seemed like an abrupt halt, such is the magnitude of this track. The aptly titled "Dronevil"'s oscillating, distorted sub-bass drones are also menacing and impressive, although arguably a bit anticlimactic in this context. In any case, suffice it to say that this album is not for novices, but for anyone whose record collection includes Sleep's Jerusalem, Earth 2, Naked City's Leng Tch'e, and/or more than a couple of the Melvins' earlier LPs, this Mt. Everest of droning doom is probably a necessary addition.
--AMG

Here

OH my god! It's been years I've waited for this. YEARS. After all the trouble and delays, the sophomore album is released and... it.... is.... glorious. Electropop doesn't get much better than this - "sublime pop genius" sums it up pretty well. She's also releasing a bonus EP with a few non-album singles. Thanks to this blog.

This is fantastic!


Getttttt ittttt

Also: bonus ep

!

New singles:


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Initial impressions: I like vol 1 way more than vol 2. Still, vol 2 is worth checking out. Can't wait for vol 3!



new splits:


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Such amazing album covers!! Great splits, good tracks by both bands on both of these.

Boris - Dronevil/Dronevil Final

Been listening to a lot of Boris' drone-ier material along with similar artists lately. I offer you the original Dronevil in mp3 and a combined version of Dronevil Final in FLAC, which i got from this blog. They got a lot of other great stuff so check em out. Oh, and this album rules.

Time to make a trip to the local junk shop and pick up an extra stereo: Boris' massive instrumental opus, Dronevil, makes a conceptual nod toward the Flaming Lips' Zaireeka. Instead of four CDs spinning simultaneously, the doom symphony is intended to be experienced on two synced, overlapping sets of speakers. If you already own the limited (and currently sold out) double-vinyl edition that the folks at Misanthropic Agenda kindly released last year, take note: This newer draft, Dronevil Final, is a burlier monster. The Misanthropic edition included four approximately 20-minute tracks, each taking up one side of a record. Inoxia's CD reissue, though, packs on two additional 20-minute pieces-- two hours if you play the discs straight through.

But, of course, that's not the plan: If you do own a couple of stereos (or can score one from a friend), you'll be able to unleash Dronevil as Boris intended-- an hour of doubled, layered, hyper-stereophonic sounds. Generally, one half, "Disc Drone", consists of darkened ambient work while the other, "Disc Evil", is louder rock. If played concurrently in the same room, the two mesh into one gigantic wall of rock'n'drone, but it's difficult to know how closely Boris tracked the separate compositions. In many cases, it seems the dynamics created are the result of chance. Process isn't important to the end result-- I tried both ways and prefer the spaciousness of listening to the discs separately. Which is good news, I guess, unless you're enough into micro-managing to go for the simulcast each time you need a Boris fix... A few folks I know have mentioned being bored by Sun Baked Snow Cave, Boris' 2005 collaboration with Merzbow. I also found its somewhat haphazard, collagist feel a tad flat. Anyone scared off by that excursion shouldn't automatically ignore Dronevil. It's another lengthy exercise, yes, but it showcases so much more substance, fluidity, and dimension. No matter how you slice or dice it-- and hey, why not mix and match the different pieces to create your own hybrids?-- it's a pleasingly exhausting lesson in sonic variation. Outside of Pink, it's their most inspired work in ages. Totally stunning. --Pitchfork

Dronevil

Dronevil Final

Great, sloppy, reverby, catchy, fun pop record. Really into this.

Check it out
(fixed 9/25/09)

Buy it

Man i've been waiting for this for a long time.

Sweet

New EP. Who doesn't like this band?

Here

I was really into their first album, and saw them live (they were alright). Been waiting a long time for this sophomore effort, and it doesn't disappoint. It loses some of that nice bedroom-pop feel with the slicker production. Still, some of the songs are as good as the best ones on their debut; "Balloon on a Broken String" is my new personal anthem.

Get it

The Millenium - Begin

How come I'm only discovering this now? It belongs on the same shelf as psychedelic pop classics such as The Zombies' Odessey & Oracle.


The Millennium's Begin can truly be described as a bona fide lost classic. The brainchild of producers Curt Boettcher and Gary Usher, the group was formed out of the remnants of their previous studio project, Sagittarius, which was preceded by yet another aggregation, the Ballroom. On Begin, hard rock, breezy ballads, and psychedelia all merge into an absolutely air-tight concept album, easily on the level of other, more widely popular albums from the era such as The Notorious Byrd Brothers, which share not only Usher's production skills, but similarities in concept and construction. The songwriting, mostly by Joey Stec and Curt Boettcher, is sterling and innovative, never straying into the type of psychedelic overindulgence which marred so many records from this era. For example, "It's You," by Stec, is as powerful and fully realized as the era ever produced, easily on par with songs by the Beach Boys and the Byrds -- and, yes, even the Beatles. At the time the most expensive album Columbia ever produced (and it sounds like it), Begin is an absolute necessity for any fan of late-'60s psychedelia and a wonderful rediscovery that sounds as vital today as it did the day it was released.
--amg

Wow.