BOREDOMS

Cannot follow such an explosive avantgarde noises, freaky melodies, and kaleidoscopic development emitted out mainly by Eye YAMATSUKA. Not only we Japanese but also all of avantgarde rock fans should not forget their existence in late 20th century. Based upon Eye's electronic sense and violent artistic antithesis against monotonous, uninteresting art scene in those days (his Hanatarash days), they launch variation of auditory essence one after another. His creativity flooded with weird electronic noises or queers can easily remind me of sorta similarity to Krautrock ... especially danceable but sadistically repetitive heavy rock phrases mainly created with guitars, drums, percussion and quirky electronika behind them, in the third track 'Super Going' or the following 'Super Coming'.

We might mention such an act drenched in colourful musical (but also nonmusical, basically not touched in music world at all) cannot be flexibly heard (I guess it would make sense if you listen to the first 'Super You' full of nonsense electronic convolution or the second one 'Super Are' featuring ambient gentleness in the former part and cynical tribalism in the latter). On the other hand, there is a strict historical fact or background they were appreciated in 90s pop / rock scene (their material can be heard in a worldwide popular rock compilation Wow 2). Suggest they (including also Eye) would have looked straightly into 80-90s popular rock scene and adopt pop essence and shoot it out here and there, regardless of their innovative, intriguing artistic basis (such a positive attitude cannot be seen in Hanatarash days). In their creation are quite a little hilarious material with mischievous, unimaginable sound footprints, that could have been acceptable for every rock fan, methinks.

Mentioned again, their massive potential and gigantic existence cannot be forgotten eternally.

Not so much a collection of songs as a sprawling psychedelic stream of consciousness, divided into different movements as the band see fit, the Boredoms' Vision Creation Newsun is a neo-psychedelic freakout par excellence, the band dialling back their noise rock roots without entirely disconnecting from them so that a slight air of dissonance and chaos underlies proceedings. Imagine Can jamming with the Flaming Lips and Acid Mothers Temple in an upbeat celebration of total weird and you may be in the same ballpark. As the multi-instrument hub of the band, this is eYe's finest hour. A true classic of modern Japanese psychedelic music.

My second experience of the BOREDOMS is their third studio album POP TATARI. The band managed to garner a lot of attention by working with John Zorn and even made friends with Sonic Youth with whom they toured. They also snagged a few gigs with Nirvana and even got a major label to sign them. This is widely deemed one of the strangest albums ever to be released by a major label but since Warner Brothers also signed Mr Bungle it seems that they had their pulse on the underground of the early 90s.

Well, as usual the BOREDOMS offer a glimpse into the musically insane. They excel in trying to find the most irritating things that they can think up in a musical context and then develop it and turn it up to 11. The album begins with 30 seconds of some high pitches that usher in even more over-the-top musical antics to follow. Basically as i've already stated, the BOREDOMS are like a bunch of over-caffeinated kids who have also been downing lots of sugary snacks and are bouncing off the walls in every direction they can think of. Ironically this album seems to have a lot more cohesive "normal" songs in the sense that at least everyone is playing together albeit screaming their heads off with a noisy punk guitar riff extravaganza.

This is deemed one of their best albums of their early years but personally I don't think it's nearly as daring and out there as CHOCOLATE SYNTHESIZER which I prefer to this, however, this one has plenty of avant-garde craziness on hand as well and when it comes to this kind of sonic stew it is really hard to judge what is better than what when it's all so far removed from any musical experience you have encountered. I have only listened to this a couple times and perhaps it's a grower but for right now it's a little less interesting to me than the album that follows. It is still recommended for the musically adventurous who savor the most unorthodox craziness they could possibly find. Look no further than the BOREDOMS it's just that they take it further on CHOCOLATE and if i'm gonna go for crazy I want the full shebang.

Ah! My first BOREDOMS album. This has to be the most whacked out and hilarious music i've ever heard. Nothing can prepare you for your first listen to this band. They revel in creating the most cacophonous sonic mess possible. I'm sure many wouldn't even call this music at all. And that would be a very good argument for in fact this IS called noise rock and more recently the term Japanoise has emerged. There is music here alright. There is a punk guitar that is pretty steady on the opening track "Acid Police" which is probably the most structured track on the whole album. After it ends though it is the wild world of sonic chaos. What is absolutely wild about this album is that it takes a major talent to make such unsymmetrical and forced chaos. It is the natural tendency of us humans to gravitate and feel rhythm, melody and harmony. BOREDOMS have mastered the art of melodic mutilations, rhythmic rape and harmonicide in the first degree. Not only do they commit these musical atrocities but they love to take to you on a ride and sometimes complete Krautrock freakouts.

They often start playing some really catchy riffs or bass lines with steady drumming and reel you into a decent groove only to mangle them and butcher them and strangle all life out of what most would call music. They are simply a bunch of little kids on sugar highs bouncing off the walls in any direction that suits their fancy. The result of this madness is actually a lot of fun. They challenge your very conception of what music is and reel you in and then spit in your face. The screams and irregular bombast just leave me laughing hysterically every time I hear this. I mean, geez, it's equivalent to going to the library or something and everybody in the building suddenly going berserk and dancing on the tables and swinging on the chandeliers and making noises like animals. It's just plain crazy! I can imagine many music lovers running away quickly from this psychotic musical episode. I am part of the minority of humanity who actually loves this kind of stuff. I love beautiful melodies and harmonies and "normal" music rest assured, but this kind of bizarre mind-bending music also has a place in my heart for its sheer boldness and ability to take you to places that you never thought existed. Of all the things that come to mind when I hear this, boredom is not one of them.

Part Six of the Boredoms' grand experiment known as the Super Roots series, staging the band's gradual metamorphosis from post-hardcore to a thoroughly original take on cosmic space rock. The prior chapter, Super Roots 5, was a major breakthrough in the band's sea change, taking their sound to new levels of bigness and exploring realms of explosive noise. Super Roots 6 is about as different from that as it could be.

Having exploded their sound in all directions, Boredoms now examined the microcosm of their sound, and set to work experimenting with the smaller details. This "EP" is still well over 60 minutes long, but it consists entirely of short pieces, each a mini-experiment in widening the band's range of sounds and styles. It's a very low-key affair, yet comes across as a very solid avant rock instrumental album on its own, despite its status as a collection of experiments. Underlining the "workshop" nature of this release is the fact that each of the tracks bears only a number as its name (and it doesn't even correspond to the track number, giving me an idea for a Boredoms'-inspired "who's on first?" skit: "What's track three called?" "6" "No, not track 6, 3!" "No, 3 is track 5".. and so on).

This album is less striking than Super Roots 5, but equally important, as it helped shape the details of band's sound as they neared the inevitable breakthrough album "Super Ae" (1998), which was presumably the culmination towards which the entire Super Roots experiment had been leading. It enabled the band to avoid the trap of being a one-trick-pony, and ensured that their career renaissance would truly sound like little that had come before.

This is volume 5 in the "Super Roots" series that charted the Boredoms' gradual transformation in the mid 1990s from post-hardcore avant garde maniacs to post-Gong cosmic noise trippers. This particular volume is significant in that it finally pushes the Boredoms' sound into the outer reaches of space. A single 60+ minute track titled "Go!!!!!" offers a remarkably sustained explosion of pure amplified sound. Taken in roughly three 20 minute "breaths", each punctuated by a frenzied scream, this is heavy stuff indeed.

This release pulls Boredoms further away from "rock" than they had ever gone to this point, and yet this may be one of their most powerful and energized releases of their career. The raging, howling tornado of sound seems to anticipate some of the experimental metal bands like Nadja that appeared in the following decade. Even more so than on the prior Super Roots 3, Boredoms are pushing their physical stamina to the limit here, rocketing up into the sky and spreading out in all directions for a full hour. After a while, the noise takes on the quality of a mantra, as your brain acclimatizes to the extremeness of it and starts to become a vehicle for relaxation, something that couldn't be said of any prior Boredoms album, but which could be said of everything they did afterwards.

As an experimental "EP" designed to be consumed as a "sideline" release, it only really focuses on one aspect of their sound (experimental noise/drone), but in doing so it introduced a way of making music that hadn't really been tried much before, if at all. A kind of turning point for the band, and for experimental music in general.

This is the third installment of the "Super Roots" series of mini-albums or EPs, produced during a four to five year break between full-length albums in the mid 90s.. Each of these volumes seemed to experiment with their sound in a different way, and each step proved necessary to bring the band from the post-hardcore heart attacks of the early 90s to the spacious, spiritual mantras of the late 90s.

I have not yet heard Super Roots 2, but Super Roots 3 does carry the band a long way beyond their prior style. This time out, we have a single 30 minute instrumental, and a minimalistic one at that. The drum beat is near hardcore-speed throughout, and the guitars chug along briskly on a single chord for minutes at a time, creating both a hypnotic feeling and a fair amount of musical tension. The guitar tone is mean, distorted, and blaring. This is not hypnotic music to relax to, this is hypnotic music to drive angrily home from work to. Just be mindful of those speed limit signs, kids.

When the chord does change, it's quite cathartic, and the energy level kept up throughout the recording is pretty nervy. It's fast, furious, and you often wonder how long they can keep it up. Simple though the music is, I'd hate to be their drummer.

This phase in the Boredoms' metamorphosis reveals their first steps towards the huge, cosmic sound they would soon perfect. Here, they are still dealing in post-hardcore rock, but stretched out like they hadn't done before.

In the early to mid nineties, Japan's Boredoms seemed to undergo a slow, measured, and deliberate change in musical philosophy. Beginning in the late eighties as hyper-caffeinated post-hardcore madness, with several albums fully exploring this style, they then took a relatively long break from full length recordings, in the interest of publishing several installments of the "Super Roots" series of mini-albums or EPs. Each of these volumes seemed to experiment with their sound in a different way, and each step proved necessary to bring the band from the post-hardcore heart attacks of the early 90s to the spacious, spiritual mantras of the late 90s.

This is the first of the Super Roots series, released in 1993. 14 songs in 19 minutes don't leave much of a lasting impression, especially if you're already familiar with their early style. This EP, more than anything else, resembles an early Boredoms album without the songs. That is, all of the herky-jerky transitions, sudden screams, abstract noise, and near-silence that gave the songs on prior albums their zany context are now presented in their raw form, without any song-like passages to cling to. I interpret this as the Boredoms effectively "dismantling" their musical style, the demolition process needed to move forward and build anew. As you might imagine, it's not an easy listen, but it's definitely an interesting one for fans seeking to understand their development over time.

It really is quite impressive, I must say, how the band really seemed to have a vision at this time, and they weren't afraid to take their time in realizing that vision. So baby steps are what we have here, and although they make sense in context and in retrospect, as a stand-alone piece of work, this one is really only for the dedicated.

I had gotten enough familiarity with OOIOO to the point where it was time for that dreaded moment in meeting the father, Boredoms. Actually, I had been looking forward to hearing this group as OOIOO overwhelmed me with its eclectic take on indie rock, and I figured that Boredoms is sculpted in a similar fashion. That is essentially what I got from listening to SUPER AE, except that Boredoms is less sane.

The best tag that could be applied to Boredoms here is noise rock, aka the kind of music that Sonic Youth was pioneering in the 80's. But don't think of this band as any kind of Sonic Youth clone; there's more to them than noise rock. It appears they have equal amounts of influence from, of all bands, Black Sabbath, particularly the opening riff in ''Super You''. Also, the amount of Krautrock influence is apparent on the song ''Super Going'' as the beat is essentially that Motorik kind that NEU! is best known for.

The best thing about SUPER AE is that the music sounds like it writes itself. You can feel that each of the super songs (it's a running gag throughout the album) is based out of group jamming, but these jams aren't ones that come and go out of nowhere. There's buildup and suspense in ''Super Shine'' that feels slightly conducted, and the separate ideas in ''Super Are You'' have clever segues between them to the point where the psychedelic jam at the end was worth getting to. Each of the twelve minute numbers are orchestrated beautifully to the point where they all have addicting rhythms, but there are moments where the band can take a pause to let the listener catch their breath for a few seconds. And over the top of all the structured jams is one Yamantaka Eye, the mastermind of the outfit and lunatic vocalist that sounds like Damo Suzuki after a caffeine binge.

This is a fantastic indie/noise/neo-Krautrock jam-filled album that knows how to catch the listener's attention. I throw Krautrock in the tagging because I feel Eye and company understand a little bit about that movement to influence them, yet added more modern influences (e.g. Sonic Youth) to freshen the sound up a bit. SUPER AE is just super fun.

Two-headed Snake

I remember picking up on the Boredoms around the time this album was released - though by some strange act of faith getting my hands on Vision Creation Newsun instead. The experience was somewhat underwhelming - mostly because I had heard so much good about this band, and especially hearing friends relegating them as some kind of second coming of the psychedelic royalty of the 70s, got me all worked up like a small dog sniffing in the prospect of a nice little anus. What I got instead was a quirky, strange and yes very psychedelic album, but truth be told: I wasn't ready for it at the time - at least, I wasn't ready to give it the benefit of a doubt, and there it laid, under my bed together with a couple of 80s Queen and Scorpions albums collecting dust and other small life forms. Fast forward to 2009 and me getting my hands on this little blue record, because of a mix up in the record store: Boredoms?!?!?! WTF!!!

I am however a practical man, and inside my big black stereo this album went for a number of times, and surprise surprise - I suddenly had grown quite fond of Boredoms - that is without listening to them for a period of 4 or 5 years...

Seadrum/House of Sun is both this album's title as well as being the individual names for the 2 long cuts hiding underneath its blue cardboard cover. Now, while I have come to adore my aforementioned bed lurking Boredoms record, this one is somewhat of a hit and miss experience. It probably should be the other way around though, especially seeing as this music lies much closer to Krautrock, a style that I have come to love like a small dolphin.

Seadrum is like a relentless jack-hammer that drills its way into your brain. The main ingredient is the drumming, which is damn smack in your face all up front in the mix like a hairy stripper in church. There is literally no getting around them, they sound like a steaming chu chu train huffing and puffing all the way down the line - without a single moment of laying back, smoking a cigarette or just feeling around for some other inspiration than the maniacal onslaught of Thomas the Train on Ritalin(I don't count 30 seconds of meandering as a break inside a piece that lasts a terrorising 23 minutes - more like: Hey dude I lost my drumsticks!). Overhead, up on the tracks, you'll find a small train carriage transporting a huge beat down piano with a mad schizophrenic has been heavy weight boxer that somehow believes he is standing in a Las Vegas boxing ring fighting the 10th round of his once big championship break - hammering the keys to a pulp - up and down the instrument like a raging whirlwind of trip trapping untethered notes. At some point you also are served with Eye's bizarre, unique and wordless vocalisations that flutter frequently in between the high school xylophone segments and those snuffling tribal drums. Now, as much as I like a good heavy beat down/hoe down all crammed full of storming rhythms and confused piano bits, I struggle to see how Seadrum would ever appeal to but a few scattered avant guarde Krautrock heads with an affinity for the monotonous and drilling. No way... but I still like it though.

(One could state that this whole release revolves around the repetitive and monotonous - playing around with micro-tonal patterns within a given sonic template. Both tracks sponsor a distinctive unwillingness to unfold beyond the minuscule, which in all fairness is a very difficult thing to pull off. The Berlin School of electronics is perhaps one of the only styles that I personally feel does this successfully.)

House of Sun then comes on like a hazy nocturnal Persian princess with long luscious hair black as tar - alluring you into her bosom with sensuous mantraing eastern sounds of seduction. Sitar, tanpura and wonderfully floating and organic electronics now suddenly appear like small flowers opening up on a damp field. The music has grown calm and pensive - transformed into a gentle Indian beast of docile and endearing touches, that caress and massage you like a series of well-placed oceanic waves softly rising up from the sea, kissing your body with all of the might they can possibly muster. Again, this track also churns out that same merry-go-round feel - the monotonous pattern of a toilet swirl gone metaphysical - yet on this the second cut, it is much more pleasurable and tasty, at least to these ears. I could listen to this music for days on end - lying illuminated by a remote sunbeam licking up every sonorous drop of Persian Princess juice.

3.5 stars