Review Summary: With the help of noise icon Merzbow, Boris push their sound to the limit with extremely interesting results.
It's a curious beast, this album. Listed here as a studio album, it is in fact a live performance; the band draws from it's studio efforts rather than present new material. Fans of Boris will be pleased at the selection here, featuring tracks from the excellent
Feedbacker,
Rainbow,
Pink, and many others. But this isn't just a recording of a Boris gig - instead the band's normal lineup is augmented by the iconic and unquestionably influential noise artist Merzbow. He spends the duration of the album doing... whatever the hell it is he normally does. His infamous electronics chirp, squawk, drone, bubble, and boil in anger for the album's 2 hour runtime in his instantly recognisable style. It's futile to even try and categorise or describe, and I'm a fool for doing so - so if you're familiar with Boris but not Merzbow's music then you're in for a surprise.
So how does it sound compared to the source material?
The immediate impression: not that different. Take for example studio version of "Feedbacker": after the song's brutal climax the music gradually descends from a mountain of monolithic droning riffs, down into a welcoming, all smothering blanket of raw noise.
Rock Dream features a full 35 minute rendition of "Feedbacker" in all its glory. During the song's flow build through the first half, Merzbow's input is relatively minimal, consisting of the odd electronic twitch or whistle. This is a positive contribution that gives the song a far rawer feel and although it seems paradoxical given the electronic nature of these additions, the music has far more organic feeling than that of the studio effort. Merzbow's input is definitely most audible after the song's climax. Here he really flexes his muscles, providing a part soothing, part disturbing orgy of distortion and feedback.
Other tracks are changed slightly differently by the addition of noise. The intro to "Woman On The Screen", for example, now features a shrieking gasp of electronics before the song descends into its familiar energetic mess of stoner punk anarchy. Production quality doesn't appear to be high on the agenda here - these more energetic songs on the album are pure noise worship, with both Boris and Merzbow at 100% intensity. This music will torture your ears and make your speakers sound like they're falling apart - and you're going to love every single second. Other tracks from
Pink, as well as bonus track "Dyna-saur", are re-imagined in similarly insane ways to "Woman On The Screen"; Boris sound totally in their element, and seem to relish the opportunity to play like their lives depend on it.
This is exactly the reason why some really aren't going to get this. This unholy collaboration pushes its source material past breaking point - quite literally. Most songs become so heavily deconstructed by the ridiculous oversaturated cacophony of noise provided by both artists that they devolve into something totally unrecognisable. This makes
Rock Dream a daunting listen if you don't know the source material, or if you aren't a fan of Boris's more experimental tendencies. That said, the second CD contains many tracks from
Pink, the band's most well known and accessible "heavy" album, and this is definitely the place to start if you're less interested in the slow, droning nature of "Feedbacker" that dominates the first disc. Personally I'm slightly gutted that they didn't attempt even an abbreviated rendition of the droning ambient epic "Flood"; much like "Feedbacker" it seems like a natural candidate to receive 'the Merzbow treatment'.
The remainder of the songs are an interesting bunch. Most notable are a thoroughly enjoyable PYG cover ("Flower Sun Rain"), and "The Evilone Which Sobs", taken from Boris's bizarre dual CD
Dronevil. "The Evilone Which Sobs" is definitely a worthwhile addition to the setlist, as it remains fairly true to the original yet is far easier to listen to than the original, which requires the listener to play both disks simultaneously.
In summary, this is a fascinating experiment, and rewards an open-minded listener from start to finish. For some Boris fans however, this approach to re-imagining their back catalog might be a few steps too experimental. This is not an easy listen, and definitely makes more sense when heard through speakers; headphones struggle not to sound strained, making this a very fatiguing way to listen to the album. If you love Boris, Merzbow, or noise, chances are you'll get a lot of enjoyment from
Rock Dream.
