Boris

Overview

Were it not for the fact that I was completely hypnotised by Jim Jarmusch's Limits of Control in the cinema last year, I would have raced out at some point to check who was responsible for the incredible soundtrack: Boris. In an issue of British experimental music magazine Wire, Jarmusch offered, "what's really remarkable is when they play live they're in the mode, in a way, of jazz musicians, not structurally or musically, but the way they listen to what the others are doing and build on it. Each time they play something it's obviously different, every time." That's how they approach recordings too, each album since their inception in 1992 exploring new territory but often with a base in drone.

Appearing in Sydney as part of the Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed-curated Vivid festival, Boris are a three-piece from Japan who extend avant-garde noise to incorporate metal and ambient sludge. They frequently collaborate with bands similar in energy, such as Merzbow and Sunn O))), who they toured Australia with just a few years ago, stunning fans into reverent exclamations post show. If the fact that Reed and Anderson handpicked them to play isn't quite enough to move you, Jarmusch and Pavement have also chosen them to play separate ATP festivals.