Boris At Last: - Feedbacker - , or Feedbacker as it is colloquially known, is
Boris' sixth album. Trying to nail down a Boris album to one particular genre is always difficult, but if you like
post-rock and
drone doom (though there isn't much doom this time around) you should like this. The album is divided into five untitled parts, and is intended to be played as a single piece of music. Like a
distortion-laden symphony, each part is an elegant movement with its own particular mood, playing off the other parts and working together to communicate
beauty through buzzing amps and bravely weeping guitars.
Part One
There is silence at the start of it, and it lasts just long enough to make you question whether you pressed play or not. Then a chord fades in, choked with fuzzy overdrive. It resonates, dies, and then crashes back in, mimicking oceanic waves. As it subsides for the second time, brazen feedback is allowed to sound. This chord routine repeats, sometimes going lower or higher, sometimes holding on for longer, and all the while feedback joins the guitar in sorrowful wails. It goes at a slow pace, and as you sink down into this Jovian mass of fog, it builds around and upon you, encasing you like a warm, safe pupa.
9 minutes and 38 seconds.
Part Two
The particles of blissful guitar chords that have surrounded you slowly dissolve into hissing whirr, and another guitar takes its place. The first remains, but stalks the background in a bright, clear whistle. And drums enter, giving the amorphous mass a strict rhythm. But the rhythm is slow, and you get used to the change almost instantly. This new guitar is much more adventurous, much braver, and explores the space that the first one filled with more detail. Lilting wah-pedal notes fill the air as light cymbal taps dictate the shimmering boundaries of the spacetime you exist in. After eight minutes, the guitar suddenly betrays the simple quiet web it has spun, and invades the area with laments. The other guitar soon is goaded into response, and the drums have been keeping up with the change in mood as well. Japanese vocals enter into the mix, and some heavy riffs tear into the whole thing, pulling it all down around you. Cymbals seize and shiver, drowning out most anything else.
14 minutes and 55 seconds.
Part Three
Out from the curtains of cymbals and feedback comes some wildly lashing guitar solos, sharply darting around as shards of the crystalline cocoon fall around you. Black streaks of bass-filled drone coat your vision, and the vocals become more pronounced and forceful, declaring something between anger and grim satisfaction. The drumming rolls around, stampeding recklessly, and it all dissolves again into noise.
5 minutes and 52 seconds.
Part Four
The cloud of noise does not subside; it relishes its existence and extends its fingers to their limits. From deep within, cymbals are crashing, but the sound could very well be your synapses snapping as your brain is addled loose. Gradually, all sound takes on a flat, dull quality, and except for a siren-like shriek, most of what you've been listening to is forming a trembling paste of white noise. A persistent ringing is circling above, and a faint growl is echoing from under you. They call to each other and you are trapped in the middle of their ethereal, sweetly jarring voices.
9 minutes and 52 seconds.
Part Five
The slow-paced drum beat returns as if it had forgotten the wild-eyed monster it had become. It governs the twin mouths above and below you, and brings order back to a violent, shuddering landscape. The beat exists just long enough to calm these great monoliths, and abandons you in the ruins. You lie stunned, senseless.
3 minutes and 32 seconds.
There are many faces of Boris. For some good old psychedelic rock, try Pink or Heavy Rocks. For pure drone doom, Altar, Amplifier Worship, or Absolutego are good bets. For a mix of both, Akuma No Uta accommodates nicely. For powerful shoegazing post-rock epics, you are presented with the choices of Flood and Feedbacker. These two are usually the albums that are recommended to new listeners, not because they encapsulate the typical Boris sound (there isn't one), but because they show just what Boris is capable of.
Boris At Last: -Feedbacker- - Boris - 2004 - Diwphalanx Records