Boris With Michio Kurihara : Rainbow

First issued in 2006, Rainbow marked the maiden voyage of notorious headbangers Boris and Michio Kurihara, famed lead guitarist of Ghost and White Heaven. Performed together with fantastic harmony, Rainbow is not just a perfect combination; it is a meeting place, with all players aligned in a singular cause — to make an album whose music elevates the listener.

Twenty years later, we’re psyched as the dosed punch to do our very own vinyl edition, right on time for the album’s 20th anniversary vinyl. The jacket’s done up in classic Boris style — a Stoughton 12" Single Tip-on with special uncoated natural white paper, Holographic foil stamping, and custom front sticker, with lyrics reproduced on an insert of translucent vellum.

For such a formidable combine of noise-making rock ‘n rollers, Rainbow’s negative spaces provide as much definition as their distorted guitars. Boris’ trio are all avid experimentalists. Kurihara’s guitar goes from whisper to scream effortlessly, applying a distinctive tattoo to the musical flesh of their collaboration.

Make no mistake: Rainbow does not lack for speaker-shredding intensity. Opening with the power of “Rafflesia,” Rainbow paces itself with short pop songs providing interludes among extended expeditions. A glockenspiel glimmers in the distance, Takeshi and Wata trade vocals, muted beauty is rocked open with droning, tom-pounding jams. A prism of sound colors shifts gracefully, giving the album its proper name.

Rainbow’s a heavy rock album with classic melodic aims captured at an apex of hi-fi stereo recording. Boris arrays their rock elegantly, with great care and vigor, and Kurihara’s carefully contoured guitar tones accompany them with great sensitivity, whether playing Mesozoan stomps, serrated riffs or floating meditations.