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 colour. more...

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 characterises 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.

Rolling Stone (7/8/93, p.20)
- "...Light-years beyond slacker rock. More like Pere Ubu's MODERN DANCE mating with Pink Floyd's SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS..."

Q (7/93, p.98)
- 3 Stars - Good - "...Dwelling where the sinister cohabits with the pretty, Mercury Rev weave mellow after-dinner music for the post-Goth set..."

Melody Maker (5/29/93, p.34)
- "...With the possible exception of Pavement, no band today revels so richly in the materiality of sound....exquisite stuff..."

NME (5/29/93, p.32)
- 8 - Excellent - "...overblown and overboard, but frequently brilliant proof that in these 12 hands the method of madness works a dream...."

Entertainment Weekly (7/9/93, p.50)
- "...As reckless as a finger painting, Rev's music still manages to be catchy. They put the risk back in rock..." - Rating: B+

Alternative Press (7/93, p.82)
- "...[a] mindfuck world of bells, whistles, aliens, horns, flutes, cartoons, tape loops, and hobbits strewn under some bright white noise....Just when you think you've got a line on one of these ten opuses, the Rev explode things over the top with cranium-bending volume..."

Option (9-10/93, p.117)
- "...If this were not a cruel, godless universe, Mercury Rev would be coming up with the music for a string of unbelievably popular Broadway musicals and Andrew Lloyd Webber would be managing the local Sizzler..."