360 records from 2000: 16. Boris: Flood

Country: Japan
Artist: Trio
Career: recording since 1996
Language: Unknown
Genre: Heavy rock


Reviews tell me this is Boris’s most ambient album (at least up until that point). Maybe that’s why I like it so much. When I hear the word ‘Flood’ I always think of Bob Dylan’s Basement Tape-song ‘Down in the flood’: ‘It’s gonna be the meanest flood anybody ever saw’. This one isn’t mean though. In fact listening to it I can easily place myself in that picture on the cover, submerged, at one with the tide of the water. So very different from how I’d imagined Boris: I thought it would be ragged and uncompromising and that it would sound more amateur (thin production, unsubtle artistic choices) than fans would care to admit.

It’s not. I love that this is a carefully considered, expertly shaped, beautifully sounding experience, crafted with all the attention and knowhow it deserves. Lo-fi purity can be a good thing, but not for this music. It’s really one 70 minute musical moment, no shortcuts, no songs. Only parts of it can really be described as performance (parts 2 and 3 and those are some awesome performances), it’s all about the experience of the listener. It fits in neatly with a lot of other records in this list in that way. A very ‘00s thing. And Boris are up there with the best, based on this record.

What does it sound like, you ask? You’re going to be sorry you asked that, as words will do a very bad job at describing how it feels. Part one is basically two guitars playing the same 3 second melody line moving slowly out of sync. That’s the first 10 minutes plus of the experience. 7 minutes in there’s a distorted sound like somebody dragging a bag of metal objects across the room. That turns into a wild tribal tom tom percussion segue. I admit the first time I heard it I thought I’d never listen to it again, but I’ve come to like it a lot, partly because of the way it sets up the second section, but partly also just as itself. It worms its way into your consciousness. Part two is a two chord (two beautiful chords) dirge with lyrical guitar solos, also about 15 minutes. The control of tone is stunning, long feedback notes that sound just like flutes. It’s mesmerizing, epic and thrilling for the duration. It makes me feel as many conflicting emotions as ‘Maggot brain’.

There has to come a climax after that, and what a fulfilling, proud, uplifting moment it is. Part three starts with lovely singing (usually the downfall of such groups, but not here, harmonies and everything) and goes through the heavy stuff that you’ve been building up to for the last half hour. It’s crushing, it’s loud, it’s celebratory. Part four zooms out for 20 minutes on the last two notes of the climax, repeating endlessly and sinking into oblivion subtly and engagingly.

There you go. You can bemoan the state of rock-as-it-was in the ‘00s or you can ride along with the new wave. The second option is looking better all the time.

At its best: Flood II, Flood III