''Rock Dream'' is a collaborative live album between Japanese band Boris and Japan

noise music Noise music is a genre of music that is characterised by the expressive use of noise. This type of music tends to challenge the distinction that is made in conventional musical practices between musical and non-musical sound. Noise music include ...

ian

Merzbow is a Japanese noise project started in 1979 by Masami Akita, best known for a style of harsh noise music. Since 1980, Akita has released over 500 recordings and collaborated with numerous artists. The name Merzbow comes from the German dada a ...

Production

''Rock Dream'' was recorded live in November 2006 at Tokyo's Earthdom festival.

Style

Thom Jurek of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

noted that the album was nothing like ''

Sun Baked Snow Cave ''Sun Baked Snow Cave'' is a collaborative album between Japanese experimental doom band Boris and Japanese noise musician Merzbow. The album consists of a single track that clocks in at over an hour in length. The album artwork was done by Sunn ...

'', a previous collaboration between Boris and

. Jurek noted that the music was not a "free-form improvisation and noise fest".

Release

''Rock Dream'' was released on October 26, 2007, on the Japanese music label

Diwphalanx Records Diwphalanx Records is a Japanese rock music record label, which primarily releases Japanese bands. Artist list *Antiseen * Balzac *Banana Shakes *Bitter Sweet Generation *Blue Beat Players * Boris * Church of Misery *Central *Cool Wise Men *Dead ...

. The American label

Southern Lord Southern Lord is an American heavy metal record label that was founded in 1998 by Greg Anderson. It initially specialized in experimental metal: particularly doom metal, stoner rock, and drone metal. The label later expanded its line-up to i ...

released the album in 2008 on compact disc and vinyl. The vinyl version includes the track "Dyno-Saur" that is not included on either version of CD releases. The American version had packaging designed by

Stephen O'Malley Stephen O'Malley (sometimes referred to as SOMA; born July 15, 1974) is an American guitarist, producer, composer, and visual artist from Seattle, Washington, who has conceptualized and participated in numerous drone metal, doom metal, and expe ...

, with their printer stating that they "never ever make anything like this again as it was painfully time-consuming and took forever to get just right!" This was a limited release with the label stating that there were "a little over 3800" manufactured in total.

Reception

The ''

Austin Chronicle Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...

'' discussed the album in their overview of Boris' career, declaring it "definitive live document, an impossibly dense double album that touches down on nearly every point of their career, from ''

Dronevil ''Dronevil'' is the eighth studio album by the Japanese experimental band Boris. It is a double album: the first LP, ''Drone'', showcases a more ambient sound, while the second LP, ''Evil'', showcases a heavy guitar-oriented doom metal sou ...

'' to ''

Smile A smile is a facial expression formed primarily by flexing the muscles at the sides of the mouth. Some smiles include a contraction of the muscles at the corner of the eyes, an action known as a Duchenne smile. Among humans, a smile expresses d ...

s contorted stairway to heaven ("Flower Sun Rain"), with Merzbow's electronic manipulations stitching it all together like connective scar tissue." In 2008, Raoul Hernandez of the ''

'' placed ''Rock Dream'' on his list of top ten albums of 2007. In a retrospective review from

Tiny Mix Tapes ''Tiny Mix Tapes'' (also ''TMT'' or ''tinymixtapes'') is an online music and film webzine that focuses primarily on new music and related news. In addition to its reviews, it is noted for its subversive, political, and sometimes surreal news, ...

, declared ''Rock Dream'' to be "not just the best album Boris ever made, but also one of the finest live albums I’ve ever heard." and that "It’s incredible then that someone recorded Boris and Merzbow that night, because for two hours they got to be the best band on the planet."

Track listing

CD version

LP version

Personnel

;Merzbow with Boris *Takeshi –

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

*Wata – vocals, guitar, echo *Atsuo –

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

, vocals *Masami Akita –

EMS Synthi A The VCS 3 (or VCS3; an initialism for ''Voltage Controlled Studio, version #3'') is a portable analogue synthesizer with a flexible modular voice architecture introduced by Electronic Music Studios (EMS) in 1969. EMS released the product ...

, computer, hand made instruments, effects ;Production *Yasuaki Satake – P.A engineer *Kazu – recording *Souichiro Nakamura at Peace Music – mixing, mastering *Fangsanalsatan – design iwphalanx*Shizu – drawing iwphalanx*

SOMA Soma may refer to: Businesses and brands * SOMA (architects), a New York–based firm of architects * Soma (company), a company that designs eco-friendly water filtration systems * SOMA Fabrications, a builder of bicycle frames and other bicycle ...

– design outhern Lord*Thomas Hooper – drawing outhern Lord*Miki Matsushima – photo outhern Lord

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2007 collaborative albums Boris (band) live albums Merzbow live albums 2007 live albums Southern Lord Records live albums