A partnership born on tour in the before times, the coming together of Boris & Uniform may not be quite so left field as initially voiced. The chameleonic Japanese trio have proven time and again they can morph into many personas, and their joyous hardcore punk side shares a lot in common with the more anger-fuelled industrial hellscapes conjured by the New York half of this union. So Bright New Disease should be quite the ride…
Noisy this most certainly is! The initial roar of ‘You Are The Beginning’ throws us straight into the fire, a full-blown doompunk explosion with an extra dose of distorted electronics to drive the nail home – the manifesto here is crystal clear. The steps up and down in pace are a staple of both outfits, an intrinsic understanding of when the tempo needs to change, and it is no surprise that Bright New Disease deploys these with devastating effect.
It is the juxtaposition exemplified by having the unsettling dirge of ‘The Sinners Of Hell (Jigoku)’ followed immediately by ‘Narcotic Shadow’ with its pounding electro beats that makes this collaboration so enticing. On paper, this sounds like a terrible clash that has no right to work, yet somehow all the disparate elements both bands love to play with draw together to make it make sense. It’s almost incomprehensible how, yet they do.
At only half an hour long, Bright New Disease is over in a flash. There is probably space here for some more experimental musings (a vast twisting twenty minute drone piece? We can but dream…) but there is very little to complain about what Boris & Uniform have graced us with. This is a collaboration that really is a joint effort, appealing to fans of both halves whilst still being something different enough that neither could or would have done it by themselves.
