��Back in stock. Just unearthed some of the very last copies of this series of 7" EPs from Japanese sludge rockers Boris, originally released back in 2009 in between the Smile and New Album albums. The first two 7"s have been out of print for a while, so when these few copies go, that'll be the last of 'em. Each one of these 7"s featured a different member of Boris on the front cover posing in a weird glamour-style shot, and each record delivers a slightly different permutation of Boris's experimental metal/pop/sludge sound, with a presentation that ties these three records together in a manner that really reminds me of those old Melvins "solo" EPs that came out on Boner way back when.
�� The seven minute "16:47:52" is suggestive of where Boris would go on some of their later albums, as they explored a more pop-centric (but still quite experimental) direction in their songwriting. This is one of my favorite of their 7" tracks, a simply constructed song that sees Wata crooning softly over a pretty, downcast bit of guitar jangle and minimal percussion. Definitely reminds me of some early 90's dreamy alt-pop band that I can't quite put my finger on. Certainly gorgeous, moody stuff, Boris at their most fragile, like amore lof-fi, skeletal Mazzy Star number laced with some fuzzily-distorted, haunting piano. Absolutely lovely.
�� "...And Hear Nothing" then cranks up the amplifiers, and wraps this 7" up with a massive wave of crumbling, blown-out rumbling amp sludge, a gorgeous, dreamy melodic riff uncoiling in glacial slow motion, the sound super slow, the vocal harmonies rising skyward above the crushing dreamdoom heaviness, again sounding not unlike one of those classic early 90s shoegazer bands, but slowed down to quarter speed, a slowly crawling pop hook encased in earth-crushing metallic heaviness. As devastating as anything you'll hear from Jesu or Floor, so crushing you'll find yourself leaning over to the turntable to make sure that you have the record playing on the proper speed...
�� As with the other 7"s in this series, Volume 3 features a slick, glamour-style photo on the cover, this one of Wata casting her icy, aloof gaze out from the jacket cover, obscured by the chaotic vector graphics that Khanate/Sunn guitarist Stephen O'Malley created for all of the records in the series.