Boces

Mercury Rev plug their amps into the place where dark meets light, write songs incorporating both the grotesque and the sublime and inhabit a sonic world where grand orchestral pop and gothic art-noise bleed into a hard-driving, pan-genre musical nirvana. BOCES, the band's 1993 release, is further proof of the Rev's shimmeringly brilliant recombinant rock aesthetic. From majestic ear-riddles ("Meth Of A Rockette's Kick") to blissful electric grinds ("Bronx Cheer") to discombobulated cartoon worlds of chimes and bells ("Boys Peel Out"), these sound scientists paint with lush warm hues and sudden violent slashes of color.
Unexpected, dynamically varied sounds and odd instrumentation create textured landscapes that alternately pummel and lull. BOCES bears traces of Pink Floyd, the Velvet Underground, the Beatles, the energy and love of discord that characterizes a good deal of indie punk, as well as the epic sense of sound construction of contemporary acts like Sonic Youth, Pavement and My Bloody Valentine. Ultimately, however, Mercury Rev sounds like no else, and this beautiful amalgam of humor, melodicism and left-field experimentation comes highly recommended.|