Boris - Präparat

This is the 18th release of the band, and after some experimentation with some shoegaze and j-rock, the band returns to the sound that they're typically known for. It's an album I didn't really listen in too much detail when it released, but overall it's a decent album, even if the band at times feels a bit directionless on this album, which I feel is most apparant on tracks like Method of Error. There's a good amount of shoegazey goodness on here, which they managed to combine nicely with their typical sludge sound. Highlights: December, Elegy, Monologue, Mirano

Track List:
1.	December 					(3:50)
2.	哀歌 ("Elegy")				(4:16)
3.	Evil Stack 3				(0:58)
4.	砂時計 ("Monologue")			(4:21)
5.	Method of Error				(6:55)
6.	Bataille Sucre				(4:32)
7.	Perforated Line				(0:42)
8.	コップの内側 ("Castle in the Air") (2:19)
9.	Mirano 						(4:59)
10.	カンヴァス ("Canvas") 			(5:14)
11.	Maeve 						(2:33)



December starts out the album with a very down-tempo song that's really easy-listening compared to the rest of the album, with a bit of a glum atmosphere, yet very cozy in a way. There's a nice solo towards the end with some notes that sound like they're played backwards. Overall a really nice song with a cozy atmosphere.

Elegy starts out very silently for a few seconds, but quickly spins into a slightly heavy shoegazey song, with some dreamy vocals, set to a fairly gloomy chord progression, with the second guitar providing some distraction. Then, halfway through the song it picks up in tempo, seemingly combining J-Rock with shoegaze into a nice solo.

Evil Stack 3 is a short interlude that's mostly noise, but nothing too unpleasant. Kind of reminiscent in a way of the ending to Pink Floyd's On the Run, except way noisier.

Monologue starts out with another kind-of shoegazey, laidback intro, kind of alluding to the shoegaze nature of the rest of the rest of the song. There's a sort-of solo towards the end that starts out kind of sounding uninspired, but with the backing track slowly swelling in volume it does make for a pleasant listening.

Method of Error starts out very bluntly with a very basic set of power chords set to drums. After a minute or so some church bells start ringing for a bit, after which the song goes back to the blunt set of power chords, with the occassional guitar licks playing over it. Unfortunately, the track doesn't really hold my attention despite the attempts to provide some diversion. It does become more pleasant around 4.5 minutes in with some decent solos, but the payoff isn't really worth the filler of the 'intro'.

Bataille Sucre is a bit of an odd track on the album, because it sounds more like a song from the original Heavy Rocks, rather than a sludgy shoegaze song. There's some whispered vocals from Wata sung in French(?) that don't really do much for me. The soloing however is pretty decent, and it helps that unlike previous track, it's set to a pretty decent foundation. At the end of the song it becomes quite noisey, almost like some of the songs on Pink did.

Perforated Line is the second interlude track of the album, that starts out rocking fairly hard, and abruptly ends and turns into some weird funky riff. It's rather weird but it does make me wonder what a funk-based Boris album would be like.

Castle in the Air starts with a dreary almost haunted house-like piano waltz, with some xylophone/marimba-like instrument playing in the background. The song occassionally sounds like the tape speed changed for some reason, which really makes the mood more haunting

Mirano starts out with Takeshi singing right out of the gate, set to a nice shoegaze track with the occassional Mellotron-like synth in the background. This is probably one of my favourite songs on the album. The latter half of the song is really quite nice, and although the lyrics are a mystery, the mood is very clear with the way Takeshi is singing, set to the fairly dramatic instrumentation.

Canvas starts out really loud out of the gate compared to the rest of the album, with one of the more droney atmosphere on the album. It's not a bad drone song, nothing too grating, but ultimately it's not too interesting. It's pretty decent as background noise.

Maeve starts out with what sounds like the noise in the background of Canvas, and only really seems to serve a role as the outro noise for this album. Even if it's not too interesting, I tend to enjoy these kinds of tracks on albums like this, because they provide a nice, relaxing, contrast to the chaos of the rest of the album.