SEADRUM / HOUSE OF SUN

The BOREDOMS played a hardcore, noisy brand of Punk music for about the first ten years of their existence. Things changed with the release of "Super AE" to a more spacey and Krautrock brand of music. I started with the follow up to that one called "Vision Creation Newsun" which I found to be mostly in the Psychedelic / Spacerock style of music. Yes there was a Krautrock flavour as well which is taken a step further on this album called "Seadrum / House Of Sun".The title is basically the name of the two long(20 + Min.) tracks that make up this record.

The first song "Seadrum" opens with female vocal melodies with no accompaniment whatsoever for 1:20. Heavy drums and percussion then take over, and it should be noted that there are three drummer / percussionists in this band. Piano arrives before 5 minutes followed by the return of vocal melodies. There is a change in the rhythm after 12 1/2 minutes as vocals and drums / percussion stop. They come back sounding a little differently before getting back to the way they were 16 minutes in. Piano is back as drums / percussion soften for a minute, then getting back to normal 18 minutes in. The drums / percussion stop as piano and vocals end it. The piano on this track sounds like someone taking their hands and going up and down the keyboard without actually pressing individual keys.

"House Of Sun" is pure Krautrock to my ears. I agree with Black Velvet that POPOL VUH was the first band that came to mind when I heard this song. This one has an Indian sound with the sitar and tanpura bringing that flavour. Lots of electronics from eYe on this one. You actually wouldn't know it was the same band performing these two songs.

The challenge of course is listening to the repetitive sounds for over 20 minutes on each track. There are more variations on "Seadrum" but I prefer "House Of Sun". Another good album, but not as good as in my opinion as some of the bands i've heard playing these same styles of music.

This two-track album from BOREDOMS, Japan's most famed exponents of drone-laden experimental music, certainly appears to have divided the band's fans. I feel this is mainly attributable to the disproportion in quality between the two tracks on show here.

'Seadrum' is surely one of the group's finest moments, where passion and innovation adjoin beautifully, generating a truly unique experience. The song includes magnificent, tribal vocals, which precede the watery-sounding keyboards perfectly, whilst the pounding, almost ritualistic crescendo drumming of Yoshimi P-We infuses vivacity and urgency. Despite its 23-minute runtime, and typically droning nature, 'Seadrum' rarely threatens to relinquish its hold upon the listener, and repeated listening reveals new dimensions and aspects to the music, lending it unprecedented longevity ? a truly Prog virtue! 'Seadrum' is the absolute epitome of BOREDOMS' soaring, somewhat hallucinatory sound.

Unfortunately, the antithesis of this is 'House Of Sun', another 20-minute drone, but this time, jangling guitars and sitars form the crux of the track. However, the music moves in no tangible direction, and, unlike 'Seadrum', the drabness of the melody inspires only unwanted languor. Perhaps the band felt they were cunningly juxtaposing the energy of the opening song with the tedium of this, however the effect is inauspicious, and almost manages to sully the euphoria stimulated by the outstanding opener.

Strangely enough, despite the utter monotony of 'House Of Sun', I would still recommend this album to fans of the band, purely on the strength of 'Seadrum', which is one of my favourite BOREDOMS compositions. Besides, perhaps the fully-fledged drone aficionados out there will convey more appreciation for the closing track than I have.

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