III

The booming, Bonham-esque drums that begin "Inu," the fourth song on Japan-by-way-of-London psych unit Bo Ningen's third album, III, point to a band bred on classic heavy rock. The clean swaggering guitars that come in shortly seem to back up this classic rock feel, but before too long the song starts taking on a strange shape, contorted with bubbling echo effects and mangled choppy guitar flutters that are eventually rooted into place with a minimal ping-ponging bassline right out of a Stereolab tune. Manic, shouty vocals and haunted whispers layered on top of each other by singer Taigen Kawabe make the song all the more unpredictable, as does the driving grunge rock bridge that comes in two-thirds of the way through. Dissecting the songs on III is a fun exercise in realizing how unexpected the band's sound is, mashing road-rage rock riffs and psychedelic production witchcraft with unexpected funk breakdowns, space rock trip-outs, weird time changes, and moments of overblown Seattle circa 1991 grunge guitar fuzz. It's a wild brew, coming off like the more rock-oriented material from early Boredoms albums and with the same boundless spirit of early albums from Krautrock legends like Faust or Amon Duul II. Highlights are many, including the frantic "CC," which features contributions from Savages' Jehnny Beth, and the comparatively subdued adventure into deep space that is "Mukaeni Ikenai." Moving gracefully between stretched-out and melancholic space rock sprawl and frothing explosions of psych rock power, Bo Ningen display complete control of their seemingly unhinged muse, creating an always colorful album that travels a spectrum of sounds based on other planets as well as the depths of the band's collective nervous system. ~ Fred Thomas