Boris with Michio Kurihara - "Rainbow"

Boris with Michio Kurihara - You Laughed Like a Water Mark (Drag City 2007)

Boris with Michio Kurihara - Rainbow / Drag City

It's sometimes a struggle to write a record review when so many other people have already beaten me to the punch. So why do it, you know? What's left in the nooks and crannies of one of 2007's better releases that hasn't yet come to the light of day after months of analysis as The Hype Machine will attest?

I'm not sure, but let me just say this: I'm glad this album has finally come to the US. It was January when one of the better unheralded blogs out there, Funtime OK, first warned of an impending release with new artwork and extended songs. Though they're now finished, their heads-up was enough to get people refocused on something a little more psychish after last year's collaboration with doom kings Sunn 0))) resulted in the massive but mostly underwhelming Altar. Something was necessary to rectify that amplifier worshipping situation.

So if you haven't gotten the message, Rainbow is definitely that. In several reviews Boris is noted for their critically successful Pink and Kurihara is universally regarded for his time in Ghost, who themselves released an album earlier this year to some minor acclaim. Here's a secret not so many people have pointed out: Drag City definitely have the better album with Rainbow. In fact, I'd venture to say that In Stormy Nights was at times downright boring. Three months on from its Stateside release, I struggle to remember the highlights. Masaki Batoh would have my head, but perhaps Kurihara would slide a smile behind his back. I'm not propagating a rivalry here, just calling them like I see them.

Boredom is never a word I'd associate with Rainbow. Even during its quietest passages (The intro to "Shine" takes its sweet time revving up to proper amplitude), Rainbow flourishes under the tension of Boris' past and the ghosts of Les Rallizes Denudes to name but one. For two: Ghost shows up here too, but it's their earlier work that seems more relevant. More Second Time Around than Hypnotic Underworld. Or maybe that's just the spirits talking. Either way, this album is alive with late-60s golden-era Jap-psych and the best krautrock even shows face on "Rainbow" the song and my personal highlight, "You Laughed Like a Water Mark." This particular song's lo-fi solo is one of my favorites this year for its piercing sound and for its ascending and descending delicacy, honed over tons of Ghost albums, White Heaven, Damon & Naomi, The Stars, You Ishihara... You get the idea. Dude gets around.

The sounds alive on this record are all over the place, so much so that the distant vocals and Kurihara's six-string shredding are the only things uniting them. Boris is a transformed band here with a renewed sense of purpose and vigor. Frankly, I thought that Pink was merely good (Dronevil stands to me as their ultimate magnum opus) and Altar was more than overrated and over-saturated at least. It seems like anytime Boris puts something out, people jump on it just because they're happy to have another Boris release. I don't blame them, they're one of rock's finest bands at the moment... But for the last year or so they've been cruising n' collecting. No more. Rainbow is the reaffirmation for those of us who might've grown a little bored with recent releases that this band still knows how to put together brilliant songs. Michio Kurihara comes off looking as good as ever. Who loses? Only you if you haven't already purchased Rainbow for yourself.