Review Summary: Two of the most iconic 21st century Japanese bands unite on uneven footing.
Scoot around twenty years back in time, and the prospect of Coaltar of the Deepers and Boris releasing an album-length split of re-recorded tracks and covers of each other's work would have stoked the heart of any self-respecting Japanese rock fan to feverish intensity. Both bands' legacy comfortably precedes them by now: Boris' initial run of album-to-album alternations between monolithic drones and rollicking stoner bangers are legendary well beyond their home borders, while Coaltar of the Deepers' ambidextrous crossover of every shoegaze trope in the book with umpteen, disarmingly cogent metal/surf/electronic pairings is now a long-standing in-joke for anyone sensitive to their main genre's reputation for homogeneity.
Although the late '00s marked a break in the studio output of both acts – for Coaltar, 2007's milestone album
Yukari Telepath; for Boris, 2008's ever-underappreciated
Smile – their careers since have followed very different trajectories. Boris found fresh inspiration with a pop-metal renaissance in 2011 and have never looked back, keeping up such momentum that their intended prospect of a breakup in 2017 was ultimately left in the dust; on the other hand, while they technically never broke up, Coaltar of the Deepers' activity as a studio band has fluctuated wildly since the late '00s, and their output since – a handful of singles, 2018's
RABBIT EP and 2021's
REVENGE OF THE VISITORS (a rerecording of their debut album) – has seemed more like a tentative foot in the door than a true follow-up to
Yukari Telepath.
For anyone holding out for a gamechanger on that front, Coaltar's side of
Hello There posits an emphatic "not yet". The band's decision to rework two of
Yukari Telepath's most muscular tracks ("Wipeout" and "Water Bird") is curious and ultimately unsatisfying: the originals obliterated genre boundaries with their steely mesh of shoegaze and rollicking metal that, setting the stage for an extraordinary central run of progressive electronic hybrids that made
Yukari Telepath one of the finest achievements of its kind. Whatever heft and these tracks once had at their command is all but absent here: their original density is lost in a thinner mix, and the band's performances convey little of the same eerie focus (which goes double for Coaltar-in-Chief Narasaki, whose vocal performance is unflatteringly focal here). At its peak, Coaltar's cover of Boris' "Melody" puts their arsenal of coursing shoegazing tones to excellent use, yet they falter on the weighty dynamic shifts that recur throughout the verses, missing out on the momentum that Boris brought in spades when they used it to kick off their 2014 blockbuster
Noise. Between this and yet another version of their death metal cover of the Cure's "Killing Another" (formerly "Killing an Arab", after Camus), Coaltar's side of the split comes off as jumbled trivia and limp retreads. One hopes for a true comeback in due course.
Where Coaltar of the Deepers are still shaking off the effects of years in the wilderness, Boris barely seem to have taken so much as a holiday since 2011: while the quality of their output since has fluctuated (though rarely slumped), they retain world-class prestige both in the studio and as a live act, and they are in as strong form as ever here. Their choice of songs bodes well, boasting "Luna", an underappreciated deep cut from an alternative
New Album (2011) tracklist, and the iconic "Quicksilver", perhaps the most high-octane and uncompromising of
Noise's formidable roster of bangers. Both those parent albums showcased abnormally glossy production by Boris' standards, and, in turn, the reworkied songs benefit from a decidedly rawer edge. "Quicksilver" is still a blast for the same reasons as ever, and aesthetic preferences are unlikely to exert more than a secondary influence to that end, but "Luna" outright shines in its new version: the original's giddy rush of distortion gives way to leaner metal riffs, and twinkling synths are swapped for more subdued keys, courtesy of core member Atsuo (who cedes drumming duties to new-ish recruit Muchio for the whole release). I largely adore the original, but find it carries the claustrophobic overtones of a studio experiment, so densely textured that it was impossible to tell where the band starts or ends – this new version leaves far more space in its arrangement, and its many intricacies shine all the brighter for it.
It sounds as epic as ever, and the second half of the album shapes up well as such. Throw in Boris' kickass cover of the Coaltar deep cut "Serial Tear" (one of their nastiest metal sluggers, and readymade for a Boris interpretation), and they dish out a full-house for returning fans and day-trippers alike. Get your paws on this album if Boris' name is the one that drew your gaze – otherwise, its chief impression is likely to remain the enigmatic register of its title.
