Boris is a Japanese sludge drone trio that's been at it since their first album in 1996. Taking their name from a Melvins song the band has slowly but steadily been broadening their audience with 2005s Pink being the album that gave the band a wider audience. Merzbow is of course the legendary noise project of one Masami Akita. Akita uses tape loops, synth, and a variety of electronics to carve out dense electronic soundscapes and over the years Merzbow has become perhaps the most influential noise project around.

Rock Dream is the collaboration between these two monoliths of the Japanese extreme music scene and it was recorded live with Akita jamming with Boris. The album is a sprawling two-disc affair with re-interpretations of Boris songs, one cover and a lengthy jam.

Disc 1 starts with the aptly titled Feedbacker which is basically Boris indulging in a jam at a snail's pace with Akita almost flitting in and out of the sound with his subtle touches of feedback and noise. The song meanders along with the focus being on creating mood and atmosphere than on any sort of songwriting. The drums kick in at around the ten minute mark and the swirling guitar lines work superbly in a latter day Earth sort of way, albeit a lot more layered and dense. Boris guitarist Wata also shows off her chops with some terrific lead guitar playing on this song. There are some vocals that float in and things suddenly pick up at around the 20 minute mark with the payoff for the long build up coming good in the form of a dense sludgefest with drummer Atsuo coming to the party. An explosion of feedback later, the band hit on the first groove on this album with a vaguely eastern sounding guitar line that lasts for a few seconds before dissolving in a mass of electronic noise, feedback, distortion and a particularly atonal solo from Wata. The song lasts for a gargantuan thirty five minutes but doesn't feel half as long as that.

The disc is rounded out by three much shorter songs in Blackout, Evil Stack and Rainbow. Of these Blackout is a slow sludgy almost ponderous workout that threatens to drown the listener in distortion and feedback before reining itself in. Evil Stack is quite atmospheric with it's waves of sonic frequencies and electronic chirps that pop up now and then before ending in a burst of electronic fury and is mostly all Akita. Rainbow is definitely the most accessible song on the album with a discernible groove and Wata's vocals adding a touch of the ethereal to the sound. The icing on the cake though is in Wata's assured lead guitar playing on this song. Great stuff.

Disc 2 is the decidedly more rock oriented album with the band tearing through the songs in their patented garage drone sludge punk assault. Pink, Woman On The Screen and Nothing Special all race past with a fevered intensity that's in direct contrast to the music on Disc 1. Akita is around and doing his stuff but is remarkably restrained and concentrates on embellishing the music with touches of noise , feedback and electronic pops and whistles. His work right through these three songs that open Disc 2 is more like a garnish than an actual ingredient. It's only on A Bao A Qu that Akita once again adds his unique electronic flourishes to the song and with drummer Atsuo proceeds to create a song that starts off like the soundtrack to the apocalypse and ends with layers of distortion and drone.

It's after this though that Disc 2 really takes off. The lengthy The Evilone Which Sobs boasts of some stunning guitar work and atmosphere and is easily the best song on this 2 disc package. It's on this song that all the elements that make up these two units come together perfectly. Flower Sun Rain employs a repetitive drone to great effect with a monstrous bass sound and Akita once again coming to the party in his restrained manner. Farewell closes the album in a manner that is almost gentle with it's laidback groove and ever present drone.

Overall Rock Dreams is a terrific collaboration between a legendary noise artist Akita Masami aka Merzbow and a band that has started to become quite kvlt and path breaking in it's own way. It's also a terrific representation of Merzbow's current style and his reliance on synthesizers and computers to generate his sound. It's also his restrained and thoughtful touches that make this album stand out. It would have been easy for Akita to completely drown the songs in noise but he instead plays like the perfect foil to Boris and the songs sound all the better for it.

This may not be the best place to start if you've never heard Boris (Pink would be the ideal Boris starting point) but for fans of music that defies convention this is pretty essential.

Label - Southern Lord
Year Of Release - 2007