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BXI (BORIS + IAN ASTBURY)  self-titled  CD   (Southern Lord)   8.98


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Everyone seemed to be taken by surprise when Southern Lord announced that they were going to be releasing a new collaboration between Japanese psych-heavies Boris and Ian Astbury, front man for The Cult, but I could see how things could have led to this. The last couple of albums from The Cult had some fleeting moments of heaviness that suggested that the venerable hard rockers were soaking up some of the heavier underground rock sounds that have emerged in the past decade, and there's always been a certain anthemic quality to Boris's music that could allow them to back an outgoing singer like Astbury. That said, I couldn't even guess as to what the hell this match up was going to end up sounding like.

I guess I thought that BXI would end up sounding a little baroque, but what we get with this four song Ep is the most accessible material that I've heard from Boris. That's not to say that Boris fans won't like this; everyone around here that digs Boris picked this up. But it's almost radio friendly, with very little of the extreme distortion, frantic garage energy or weirdness that you might expect.

The opener "Teeth And Claws" is heavy and grungey sounding, vaguely psychedelic with it's spacey guitars but with a big hooky chorus and harmonica, and Astbury's dramatic wailing over top. That's followed by the much heavier "We Are Witches", which combines choppy metallic riffing with Astbury's weird vocal phrasing. The third song is a cover of The Cult's classic song "Rain" off of their 1985 album Love, and it sounds pretty great; that main riff becomes all crunchy and swaddled in shimmering reverb, while Wata takes over the vocals, singing in a delicate whispered vocal that is almost crushed by the red-hot guitar, with Ghost's Michio Kurihara joining the band for some haunting guitar leads. The last song "Magickal Child" is pretty fantastic too, crushing majestic glacial pop that starts off with Kurihara's eerie phantasmal guitar that leads the song into euphoric Jesu-esque sludge, soaring melodic fuzz guitar over huge, booming slow motion drums and Astbury's most restrained performance on the disc. That closer is definitely the best of the original songs here.

So yeah, it's an uneven effort, but I'm really curious to see if this union continues into a full length just based on the last song on here. And that cover of "Rain" is pretty damn intoxicating, I've gotta say...


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