Flying Teapot: September 2023

Boris - 2013 - Boris Performing Flood

As time goes so does my attitude towards Boris shift back and forth. A love-hate relationship one might call it. Gone are my idealistic youthful days where I adored almost all Boris recorded and released but also are gone the days where I hated almost all of their output. There are some albums from this band that I will keep listening throughout my whole life probably and Flood definitely is one of them.

Recorded now way back in the, what I like to pretentiously call, golden era of their existence the studio album Flood definitely at the time was curve ball but surely signs of their will to experiment and change were all over the album prior this one called Amplifier Worship. This was the year 2000 and a lot of things changed for Boris since that album came out but the legacy of their golden era stayed ever present. The year 2013 and s couple of next ones after it seems to me were of a retrospective tone, almost melancholic in terms of what they released. Aside from revisiting Flood in a live setting they re-released a compiled Vein album (initially released back in 2006), Solomon box set with some more unreleased tracks and an archival compilation of their glory days of Pink and Heavy Rocks. This sentiment of "back to the roots" peaked next year, 2014, when they would release an album called Noise which had nothing to do with the genre noise and three more albums next year which were very much noise in all but name (and were also fucking terrible). This is just my conjecture though, I'm probably reading all of this wrong but it seems like this period of trying to grasp at something they lost lasted until and including the album Dear.

While I adore the album Flood I also think it's first and last part are self-indulgently too long and not that interesting. Exactly those parts are either trimmed or missing on this live record which makes it my preferred version to listen. If only it weren't so fucking rare to get it physically but at least we can enjoy it digitally. Maybe one day they will reprint it.

If you are new to Boris or haven't heard the original album my suggestion is to go with the initial release first and then come back to this version. For all you seasoned fans I warmly recommend for this version to be checked out.

Get it.

Daudadagr

Daudadagr is a "band" I discovered by pure chance but their sound captivated me on the very first listen and I can't seem to kick them out of my head ever since! Looking a millimeter deeper I found out that this is yet another project from the now very famous (in black metal terms at least) Swartadauþuz. So not a band. I was fooled! If you're not familiar with him or his bands I think his most recognizable/known project is Bekëth Nexëhmü and probably Azelisassath closely following it in terms of exposure. As is the case with hyper-productive people like him a lot of projects sound similar or the same and there is a lot of filler (sometimes good, sometimes not). From projects that I've checked out I can safely say they mostly fall into the "noisy lo-fi but not really lo-fi" bucket of black metal bands and projects. Some of his projects are crazy energetic, some are more subdued but all of them are consistently frosty. I've enjoyed Gardsghastr the most and of course there's only one fucking album under that name. But anyway... The project that I'm posting is somewhat similar to Gardsghastr as in there are synths and there is a noticeable Emperor-esque grandiosity to the songs and also the galloping drum beats of projects like Burzum but the sound here is much more subdued and contemplative compared to the very striking approach on Gardsghastr.

Under this name there exists only two demos released in 2012 and 2014 so I don't have high hopes of seeing anything new under this name any time soon. The first demo is very in tune with the 90s albeit the "demo" production is much more polished and cleaned up. Sure it is raw but it is very pretty and every instrument can be distinguished even the bass gets some spotlight on the second track nicely filling the sound that the very thin tremolo riffs made room for. In general it is a very good proof of concept that will be expanded on in the next demo which can be more or less be considered to be a full length album clocking in at 45 minutes.

The "album" omits the song titles and switches to the old reliable roman numerals but the production remains loyal to the ethos of the 90s, tape hiss and all but it is noticeably thinner, I think, compared to the previous demo. Here the pace quickens, synths and effects get more noticeable and everything seems more lively in general. The liveliness certainly comes from the continuously rising and falling, all good stuff. Man sure knows how to pace his songs to get a very good flow throughout.

Both demos are real good fun and are worth checking out!

Get them / Stream(1) Them(2)

Maki Asakawa revisited

Hey all! Been a while I know but finally I found a little time to re-share albums of this wonderful artist. I did a "all I have" share back when she passed away and you can read about it here but I've decided to make a separate post now because of two things. The first is that I have a couple more albums compared to before and second is that I have previously posted albums I've shared in better quality now (more or less).

Some of the albums are in flac and I know some of you have a distaste or preference for it so the ones in flac will be marked with a * at the end while my favorite albums will be bolded. The rest should be in acceptable bitrates.

Maki was a jazz/blues vocalist from Japan that enjoyed a popular and cult following mostly in Japan. From what I've managed to read she started out singing in American army bases which explains a lot about her style (earlier one anyway). He vocals are not so typical of Japanese female vocalists, it's raspy, deep and almost folkloric.

Back during the golden days of blogspot shareblogs her album Cat Nap would be shared a lot. This is how I discovered her but I can't really say I've enjoyed it that much over the years. It's very funky sprinkled with some weirdness but I can rarely be in the mood for it.

The purely blues and jazz style of music prevails in her early career but gradually she will include more rock and funk elements to her music with free jazz elements also influencing her on albums like One from 1980. At about the start of the 80s her style will shift to a more electronic sound that dominated Japan and world in general in general (oh lord the snares). I'm not so big on her later albums but they can be enjoyable. They're not bad but it's just not what I prefer so I'm not really in a position to claim which is best or which one is most worth listening to.

Included with the studio albums I'm also sharing her compilation series that are titled Darkness, there are several volumes of it all featuring hand picked songs and live sets. Mostly following some kind of theme or time period.

If you're in doubts as to where to start I still think 灯ともし頃 (Hi Tomoshi Goro, 1976 album) is her best work and is my go to album when I want to listen to her. So if you don't know where to start that's a good stepping stone in my opinion. Going through her discography chronologically is also a good option as you can sense her change or progression in sound much more deeply rather than jumping around the timeline. Whichever path you decide to go I'm sure it'll be a lot fun as she really was one of the best. Enjoy!

Albums:

1967 - 東京挽歌 (Tokyo Banka)*

1970 - 浅川マキの世界

1971 - Maki II*

1972 - Blue Spirit Blues*

1973 - 裏窓*

1974 - MAKI VI

1976 - 灯ともし頃

1977 - 流れを渡る

1978 - ライヴ夜

1978 - 寂しい日々

1980 - One