THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Two new recordings from one of Japan's best noise artists (Marc's favorite). Akifumi Nakajima uses a single sound source to craft his bizarre soundscapes, heartbeats in the case of "Cardiac Strain" and florescent lamps for "Dazzle Reflexion." The textures range from ambient drones to harsh noise, and are never as random-seeming as the work of many of his contemporaries.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
More Good Alchemy - very extreme sounds from one of Japan's best, most conceptual noise artists.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The newest Aube project, this time using only a copy of The Bible as sound source material! Blasphemous crinklings and tearings? Yes, and he's mangaged to coax a sort of mechanical heartbeat out of it as well, among other noises. Of course without knowing already one could never guess that those sounds were coming from a book, let alone from the pages of The Greatest Story Ever Told--but that knowledge is an added bonus to this enjoyable listen.
Two disc set of remixes of Aube's 1999 disc "Pages From The Book", whose source material was solely an amplified Bible! Remixers of the Greatest Story Ever Told vary in extremes from the brutal aural assaults of Merzbow, Brume, Princess Dragonmom (Warn
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Continuing his single source material aesthetic, Aube pulls out a staple from his bag of tricks... glass. Looping samples culled from taps, cracks, and scrapes form a solid structuralist frame for closely amplified striations of glass. For the most part, Aube has left these sounds (aside from the sampled looping) alone, allowing the signature sound of glass to speak without too much external processing. Packaged in an oversized 6" x 9" paper envelope.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Voltage Control Oscillator is the answer to the question ("what is the source of the sounds on this new Aube disc?"). Aube's stuff is always less noisy and more soundscape-y than some of his fellow Japanese noise copatriots (Mezbow, Masonna, Incapacitants, etc.) and this is no exception. Drones and tones (some quite piercing, but placed in such a way as to make the resumption of the drones all that much more soothing). Nice.
Wow! An exceptional release from Akifumi Nakajima aka Aube! While most recordings by this highly prolific artist utilize unique sound sources (water, fluorescent lamps, heartbeat, or most notoriously - an amplified Bible!), "Timemind" is a more rhythmic, one
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
One of Japan's best (and most prolific) sound-sculptors, Aube here collects 20 tracks from various compilations and tapes, mostly on the noiser side of his ouevre. On the British label that last brought us Szeki Kurva.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
More Good Alchemy - very extreme sounds from one of Japan's best, most conceptual noise artists.
All you free-folk fans have a real sweet treat here! Six Organs Of Admittance + L = August Born. That's right, this gentle, emotive, improvised-sounding folk album finds Ben Chasny of Six Organs Of Admittance teamed up with Hiroyuki Usui of the mysterious Japanese psych-folk unit L, whose lone album Holy Letters from 1992 became a Record Of The Week here at AQ when it was reissued last year on VHF. If you've heard of L, you're surely familiar with Six Organs. And if you like both of them (as we do), then the idea of this collaboration has probably already piqued your interest. We might as well just say, it's real nice, and let you come n' get it 'cause it's pretty much a no-brainer! Lonesome, loose, lovely music from two like-minded souls, collaborating across the vastness of the Pacific (via air mail, we suppose), Hiroyuki recording in Tokyo and Chasny in Northern California. The music here went back and forth between Chasny and Hiroyuki as many as five times, with each musician adding both electric and acoustic guitar and voice and other sounds/instrumentation -- tambora, autoharp, bass, tinkling bells, field recordings of gurgling water, and more -- building up these songs in ghostly layers that allow them to remain rather spare and delicate. The eleven tracks that resulted from this long-distance collaboration are so very pretty and mellow and somewhat melancholic -- a strum here, a percussive knock there, with loose melodic guitar and bass lines underpinning the rambling, pensive, and lowkey (if not always in key) vocals. It's wonderful, wandering, wondering music, for a sunlit afternoon reverie. In addition to the previous works of Six Organs and L, we're reminded of Richard Youngs, Jandek, Nagisa Ni Te, and some Jewelled Antler stuff.
Aunt Sally only had one studio record, issued in 1978 on Japan's Vanity Records. Featuring the damaged vocal scree of Phew (who went on to record many solo records -- she's currently a frequent collaborator of Otomo Yoshihide and Seiichi Yamamoto, among many other luminaries of Japan's avant underground), this live collection documents the early manic insanity of her punk rock youth.
Another of several new PSF titles new in stock, and this one's a BRUTE. Holy moly. Deafening sandpaper for the ears... and we love it, just like we love the likes of Skullflower, Aufgehoben, and Cadaver In Drag, all of whom share the same sonic sandpapery, amped up overload absurdity of this band. Aural Fit, you may recall, if you read our list attentively or are especially tuned in to the Japanese underground, had a track on the Tokyo Flashback 5 comp, followed by a self-released full-length (now out of print) that we recommended some years back to fans of Boris and Earth looking for an even more extreme dose of heavy-duty, doomy dirge. On this new disc, Aural Fit still do the dirge, some of the time, remaining ultra-heavy all of the time. But, their sound has gotten even more "cacophonic and dense" so that it's ridiculous the band's called, merely, Aural Fit. More like Aural Apocalypse! They're not having a fit, they've having a catastrophic explosion. The sound of mechanical monsters on the march, lumbering through the smoking ruins of civilization, crushing and killing anything that hasn't already fled or been vaporized by their initial onslaught. It's four tracks, 38+ minutes of feedback, distortion, pounding percussion, and buried screams. Punishing noise rock, psych rock insanity. Utterly blown-out freak-outs, so in-the-red that your shuddering stereo speakers would be glowing if you looked at 'em through infrared goggles!
We tracked this down for those of you who really liked the first band on that recent Tokyo Flashback 5 compilation, or who, failing that, end up intrigued by the following description... We're talking about a Japanese trio called Aural Fit. We'd never heard of 'em before, but we were impressed by their cut "Behind 20, Beyond 20k" on that comp, which we described as "a very heavy, doomy, dirgey track that fans of Boris and Earth will dig, cacophonic and dense". Turns out they'd recently released a full-length cd entitled Livestock that's equally dirgey. Five tracks, 33'36" of unrelentingly creepy, cavernous, noisy, plodding improv psych. This is the dark, moody, hypnotic, rumbling music of rock n' roll void-dwellers, with crashing drums, harsh blasts of feedback guitar, and anguished vocals buried in the mix. Chances are they're fans of Fushitsusha and Skullflower...
(We've actually only got 11 copies of this, hopefully we can get some more, but please be patient if we run out.)
NB. the band put this out themselves, so Slant Eye Archives is their own label, something that anyone offended by the name might want to know!
Utech brings us the third album from these Japanese earhole destroyers, two years after Aural Fit II which came out on the PSF label (and was one of the most brutal and intense recordings ever on PSF, and that's saying A LOT). They haven't changed much. You want noise rock? Dense, distorted psychedelic clangor? A truly powerful power trio? Well this band's music is positively apocalyptic. Makes the likes of Skullflower and Wolf Eyes sound almost tame. The feedback and distortion is a physical force, the sound of a universe imploding. Listening to each track, it's hard not to imagine Aural Fit's amps and other gear (and the band members themselves too) beginning to vibrate, levitating off the ground, and then flying violently through the air, all around the room, participating in a "wire-fu" version of a mosh-pit, crashing and bashing together, drums colliding with speaker cabinets, effects pedals pelting off of cymbals, the tangle of guitar cables and power cords writhing in space like some sort of noodly monster...
Though, somehow, somehow, the 5 individual pieces on this 40 minute disc are structured "songs", even with (distressed) vocals buried somewhere in the blown-out din. A couple of the tracks, like "Embedded Command" parts 1 and 2, are more spaciously rumbling, a mesmeric smear of textural rattle and roll. Others, like "Revelation 1" or epic opener "Overexposure", traffic more in lumbering bludgeon, all pounding drums and in-the-red riffage. If we said Aural Fit sounds like Fushitsusha in gladiatorial combat, atop a trash heap, with a "motorpsycho" Merzbow, would you dig it?? All lovers of anything excessively "distorto-delic" should.
Comes in a slim, oversized, mostly black sleeve typical of Utech's usual fine packaging and graphics, with liner notes by liner notes by Alan Cummings.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
East-meets-west in unusual fashion as legendary free guitar improviser Bailey teams up with Min Xiao-Fen and her pipa on the relatively-delicate Viper, then really rips it up in his second meeting with Japanese progcore bass/drums duo Ruins on Tohjinbo, a worthy follow-up to their prior, equally out-there collaboration on Tzadik.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Derek Bailey, one of the world's most innovative improvisers, with the Japanese bass-heavy Ruins.
Baroque Bordello's "First Trip" is the third in Qbico's series of vinyl editions of Kawabata Makoto's super-limited R.E.P. cassettes from the '80s, and also included in the more recently released but equally limited 10 CD-R box set. Recorded in 1981, when Kawabata was a mere 15 years old and long before he formed Acid Mother's Temple, this album follows the same pattern as Kawabata's earliest ensemble The Dark Revolution Collective, with a constant amount of activity utilising various guitar / bell plinkings and single monochord bass repetitions. Pressed on translucent orange vinyl.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Holy shit!!! A brand new record from our favorite Japanese stoner grind sludge punk rock group. Possesor of quite possibly the best band name ever. And most appropriate too, as the band seems strangely pre-occupied with shit (although not bathtubs so much). It's been raining 'Shitter reissues as the band works through their considerable back catalog of singles and split eps, so we ordered this thinking it was another reissue, but lo and behold, it's a whole disc of brand spanking new Bathtub Shitter. For those of you new to the world of Bathtub Shitter, imagine the bastard spawn of Brutal Truth, the Boredoms, Celtic Frost, Black Sabbath, and Dick Dale. Stoner grooves collide with buzzing goregrind, surf rock licks sit unexpectedly amidst sludge metal riffs and lightning fast blast beats. A glorious goofy grinding metallic mess as only the Japanese can do it. But the star of any Bathtub Shitter is Masato Henmarer Morimoto, the owner of quite possibly the most ridiculous and breathtaking set of vocal chords ever. On first listen, we were convinced that BS must have had at least two vocalists, maybe more, but it's all the work of one man, Masato. Once you hear it you'll understand why it's so hard to believe. There is of course the requisite goregrind gurgle, a rumbling, phlegm spewing demonic growl, then there's the sort of punk rock yelp, that balances the first voice a bit, but it's the third distinct voice that blows the mind. A piercing, falsetto, damsel in distress, horror movie massacre, cheerleader / housewife shriek. It's so crazy, but sounds so great, especially when engaged with the aforementioned growl in a sort of unholy duet, like a grindcore Beastie Boys, but battling atop a swirling squirmy mass of downtuned guitars, rumbling bowel loosening bass and blasting splattery drumming. WE LOVE BATHTUB SHITTER.
Packaged like the last few BS releases in an oversized 7"style sleeve with really cool and creepy cover art!
If you've been hanging out with me (Andee) much lately, you've undoubtedly heard me singing the praises of Bathtub Shitter. In fact before I had even heard them, I knew Bathtub Shitter had the potential to be my favorite band. C'mon, they're Japanese, they are called Bathtub Shitter, oh and did I mention they only sing about shit? For a while I was fantasizing about releasing a split with the two best bands in the world (as determined at the time solely by monicker as I had yet to hear either) Bathtub Shitter and Fuck I'm Dead. I'm still thinking about it, but while I ruminate, we're lucky to have this, the first full length Bathtub Shitter record and their only cd. We spent a good long while tracking down 7"s, but since the world leans heavily in the digital direction we had to wait until this beautiful shiny shit-obsessed marvel fell into our hands! What's it sound like you're probably wondering by now. Well, imagine some strange mix of Drop Dead, the Boredoms, Brutal Truth, CSSO, death metal, grindcore, and well....um...shit! Crunchy riffs swing from almost-surf rock, to Zeppelin groove to metallic crunch, but spend most of their time in grind mode, splattered and speeding out of control. Crazy drumming, farting bass and some wicked guitar noodling add to the sick sonic stew. But the vocals are where things get really weird. The main vocals are of the burping, grunting, cookie monster death metal variety, belching out indecipherable tales of shit and shitting, but their foil is a squealing, squeaking little girl of a man voice, sounding either like a babblingly hysterical middle age housewife shrieking at the top of her lungs or a horror movie cheerleader being evicerated, screaming in that terrified way only dying cheerleaders in horror movies do. The two vocal styles swing and switch and battle and butt heads like some sort of bastard grindcore Beastie Boys. Or imagine Chuck D as Chris Barnes in his Cannibal Corpse days and Flavor Flav as the aforementioned shrieking dead cheerleader. With the everpresent S1Ws made up of members of S.O.D. and Angelcorpse. Other sorts of vocals are occasionally introduced like the 'dog barking underwater' and the 'asthmatic yodel' but I don't want to give away too much. It's better if you just let the Bathtub Shitter unfold before you like a beautiful, shit-filled flower.
OK. By now any avid reader of the AQ list doesn't need to know anything more than this: NEW BATHTUB SHITTER. If you're like us, that's more than enough to send a tingle down your insane Japanese grind metal lovin' record nerd spine. But if that's somehow not enough. How about 5" vinyl ep? SO much cooler than a boring old 7". Still not enough? Okay, this has to do it, the lyric sheet is printed in shit brown ink on a PIECE OF TOILET PAPER!!! So just do it. You know you want it. NEED it. But just in case you need more, or this whole 'Shitter business is new to you, let's go back to an old review where we summed up the whole Bathtub Shitter experience as perfectly as we'll ever be able to:
"Imagine some strange mix of Drop Dead, the Boredoms, Brutal Truth, CSSO, death metal, grindcore, and well....um...shit! Crunchy riffs swing from almost-surf rock, to Zeppelin groove to metallic crunch, but spend most of their time in grind mode, splattered and speeding out of control. Crazy drumming, farting bass and some wicked guitar noodling add to the sick sonic stew. But the vocals are where things get really weird. The main vocals are of the burping, grunting, cookie monster death metal variety, belching out indecipherable tales of shit and shitting, but their foil is a squealing, squeaking little girl of a man voice, sounding either like a babblingly hysterical middle age housewife shrieking at the top of her lungs or a horror movie cheerleader being evicerated, screaming in that terrified way only dying cheerleaders in horror movies do. The two vocal styles swing and switch and battle and butt heads like some sort of bastard grindcore Beastie Boys. Or imagine Chuck D as Chris Barnes in his Cannibal Corpse days and Flavor Flav as the aforementioned shrieking dead cheerleader. With the everpresent S1Ws made up of members of S.O.D. and Angelcorpse. Other sorts of vocals are occasionally introduced like the 'dog barking underwater' and the 'asthmatic yodel'. The truly strange part is that all of the various vocals come from the very same guy!"
Yeah, we know it seems lazy to just crib that description from an old review, but that's EXACTLY what they sound like. Not sure we could describe it any better than that first time we discovered Bathtub Shitter. In fact, just reading that again gets us all excited about the 'Shitter all over again!!
Packaged in a striking full color mini lp style sleeve, with aforementioned toilet paper lyric sheet, and as with most things like this, very very limited!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The first release on North Carolina's Now Sound label to *not* feature a naked lady painted by the label president's dad! Congratulations, Jeremy! Masaki Batoh of the awesome Japanese band Ghost, who give hippies a good name, mind you, plays acoustic guitar, marimba, harmonium etc, and covers Can's "Yoo Doo Right".
Yep that's Masaki Batoh, the visionary leader of Japanese modern day hippie psych legends Ghost, looking rather more futuristic than his usual shamanistic self, on the cover of Brain Pulse Music, his new solo album for Drag City. The elaborate science fictional headgear Batoh is wearing, a tangle of wires, electrodes, metal bands, and for some reason goggles, is the eponymous Brain Pulse Music machine he helped invent. Apparently in clinical trials for therapeutic medical use, it somehow helps to stabilize one's brain waves, by electronically transmitting them in the form of audio signals that can be controlled via a biofeedback procedure. So this high-tech augmentation of Batoh's traditional acupuncture practice has applications to his musical activities as well, as heard here on this disc dedicated to the victims of the 2011 Japanese earthquake and ensuing nuclear disaster. According to Batoh, the BPM machine can promote healing for both the user employing it, and hopefully more widely as a tool for literally higher-minded music making.
So, what's it sound like? High pitched electronic drone-tones, rising and falling, sometimes soothing, sometimes noisy, not unlike the "onkyo" music of fellow Japanese experimentalists such as the sine-wave artist Sachiko M, for instance. We'd assume that depending upon the brains involved (of both user and listener!), the sounds the BPM machine produces could be perceived as either blissful or possibly piercingly aggravating. But, Batoh includes a lot more than straight BPM recordings on this album. The machine's drones are (usually) mixed with more traditional, ethnic Japanese acoustic instrumentation, such as wood block percussion, drums, gongs, bells, and shakuhachi flute. While some tracks are all about the BPM whines, others foreground the simple ceremonial ancient sounds (indeed, a few omit the BPM machines entirely), with the disc's 10+ minute final cut utilizing two BPM machines at the same time, alongside plasma theremin, springer FX, and shinto chant. That one is particularly amazing, pulsations indeed, by the end sounding like at least one of the BPM machines must have been plugged into Merzbow's brain.
Interesting stuff conceptually of course, but also the BPM meshes well with Batoh's less high-tech, more timeless Ghost-like musical rituals.
Nice silver-and-black graphics and design, with personal liner notes from Batoh himself.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
1996 recordings by Batoh, leader of Japan's epic psychedelic folk-kings Ghost. Solo, he emits beautiful, dark, drone-folk, ambient with nocturnal nature whisperings around the blurry edges of his instruments. This lp is a follow-up to his previous solo lp...both of which are available on one compact disc, as well. Side A concludes with "Death Star," making for another timely tie-in. Strictly limited to 700 vinyl copies.
We've long championed the work of Maurizio Bianchi, the grim electronic sculptor whose work in the early '80s paralleled the likes of Whitehouse, Ramleh, and Matthew Bower's early power electronics project Total. As much as we would like to ramble on about Bianchi's intriguing musical and existential history in reference to this record, it's almost a moot point as it's really hard to discern any sounds that bear the signature of Mr. Bianchi. Don't let that caveat scare you off from checking out this thoroughly amazing blur of noise, drone, acoustic tumult and electronics; but we have to be completely honest. No, it doesn't sound much like a Bianchi record; instead, the real author of the final mix of The Epidemic Symphony No. 9 is the little known Japanese sound artist Hitosji Kojo (who also records as Spiracle). If there's any justice, Hitoshi / Spiracle shouldn't be "little known" for very long. In fact, he should be heralded as the viable contender to replace David Jackman / Organum as the king of the droning acoustics. And no, none of the guttural drone expressionists who splatter cd-rs with quickly rendered cosmic exasperations come close to the power that Jackman was capable of in the '80s. But Hitoshi Kojo does.
Like Jackman, Hitoshi's work is a dense compounding of layered acoustic textures, each of which are impeccably recorded and carefully positioned within the stereo field. In working with the source material presented by Bianchi and Nobu Kasahara (another obscure Japanese sound artist who has collaborated once before with The New Blockaders, giving some clue as the cacophony he's capable of), Hitoshi continues this strategy of precisely placed sounds which are then given plenty of opportunity to growl, rumble, vibrate, and bristle however they see fit. Where the first lengthy track steadily builds up to a crashing crescendo that abruptly cuts to silence, the second track exhibits some of what may be Bianchi's sounds -- a return to the Sacher Pelz techniques of varispeed tape and crushed turntable clatter which Hitoshi compounds into rippled acoustic shimmer. For the finale, Hitoshi blurs the source material into an industrial chorale marked by a surprisingly elegant two-note melody. Highly recommended!
An awesome recording of Japanese and Chinese sound artists - some of whom you should know and some of whom you probably don't - gathering inside a massive oil container and mustering all sorts of acoustic noises in response to the huge amount of natural reverb within that space. Otomo Yoshihide and Sachiko M are the two big names from Japan, and Yan Jun is the most well known of the Chinese artists, although he's accompanied by a half-dozen other artists as well. While this might seem like a pretty large assortment of people making a racket inside the giant oil drum, the recording is suitably restrained with many of the bangs, scrapes, and prolonged vocalizations thoughtfully responding to the industrial reverb. It would be very easy to confuse some of these episodes with one of the fictional subterranean realms of Lustmord or Thomas Koner, but here all of that expansive isolationist reverb is in fact recorded live. Cracks of wood upon the thick metal walls give way to a coordinated chorale of sustained vocal bellowing that's not too far from ritualized chants of the Tibetan or Gregorian variety, with small eruptions, clatterings, and rustlings of various objects presumably found within. When the activities diminish and some chiming metals are struck, the length of the echo seems to last close to 15 seconds before finally decaying to nothing, allowing resonance from outside to intrude. It's very clear that all of those within the space know a thing or two about improvisation, knowing that shutting the hell up is just as important as making the right sound. But it's the space itself - the Big Can - that is the real massive presence throughout the recording.
Many folks were disappointed when Cotton Casino decided to drop out of the Acid Mothers Temple. And it wasn't just lecherous psych rock nerds who would no longer be able to ogle the tiny chain smoking, perpetually scowling waif, stationed stoically behind her synthesizers. No, she also happened to contribute some of AMT's most appealing elements with her burbling blooping bleeping space rock synths and her angelic ethereal otherworldly vocals. This is only her second proper, non cd-r release, post AMT, and her first release as Birds, with her musical partner Per Gisele Galaen who had previously played in the groups Sloburn and Del. And damn if this isn't the lovliest AMT related record we've yet heard. As one might imagine, the focus here is Cotton Casino's voice, at once totally delicate and tentative, but at the same time dreamy and haunting. However, it's the surrounding sounds that really make this record special. The record opens acapella, with Casino's quavering vocals sounding like a timid girlish singer in some sort of creepy opera, which only gets creepier once the music comes in, hauntingly strummed guitars that blur into a shimmering minor key backdrop, while tiny electrical impulses whoosh to and fro in the background. After that the record drifts like an unmoored ship, down a dark stream through a dark and ominous forest, the sounds throughout moody and melancholy, with slow motion strings swooping in morose minor key arcs, Casino gurgling like a baby, her bandmate Galaen singing in a barely audible deadpan over swirls of space-y sound effects, the sounds of running water, delicate melodies playing on a heavily reverbed piano far in the distance, the buzz of steel strings ringing out like an electric sitar, dizzying synth melodies careening from speaker to speaker interrupted by wild squalls of full on ultra distorted Japanoise guitar skree, gorgeous folky acoustic guitars beneath Casino's hypnotic sing song vocals, extended stretches of warm droning rumbles, playful Moog melodies and more of that Casino bloopy space synth, sounding almost like Perrey And Kingsley, and finally the whole record finishes off with a six minute blast of full on wall of guitar meltdown, noisy and punishing, but at the same time completely hypnotic, like getting buried in warm wet sound, feeling it fill your ears and your eyes and your mouth, so all you can see or hear or taste is GUITAR, roiling and swirling and pulsing, slowly fading and drifting into space, leaving only a battered old piano, playing a simple melody, accompanied by Casino's barely there angelic purr.
Gorgeously packaged with original Pete Fowler artwork (Andee sports several Fowler tattoos in fact!), an image of a pink smoke breathing, wooden helmeted, long stripey armed, black bearded demon, surrounded by birds and squirrels and hairy horses, all rendered in blurred out 3-D on one of those cool three dimensional stereo lenticular cards. Wow!
We've got pretty much an AQ-fave shoo-in here, this strange Japanese band combining crusty, doooooomy heaviness with wyrd folk ritual, like Corrupted (with whom they have some membership connection) combined with Ghost. This 40 minute album, featuring three tracks (a two minute into and then two much longer pieces), starts by building up the ancient, Asian folky ambience, adorned with mysterious Scooby Doo meets Ol' Dirty Bastard kung fu mumble, all of it very much darkly psychedelic, before it gets HEAVY at about 5 minutes into the 20+ minute track two, Birushanah suddenly kicking out the lurching, kinetic riffs/rhythms along with much more wretched, raspy vokills in the Khanate vein. Tricky tribalistic percussion conspires with sinuous, strangled guitars, stopping and starting and coming down hard, on the bizarre bulk of this creepy and crushing album. One whose eerie eccentricities, rooted in traditional Japanese music, we figure should appeal to a lot of you who dug that Quest For Blood release we made Record Of The Week recently!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
A Japanese improv trio featuring the prolific Keiji Haino (vocals, 6 & 12 string electric guitars, flute Samples collection (which we still have in stock and look how inexpensive it is!). There are three long tracks; the first establishes an often delicate and complex mode of group playing, perfect for a night-time listen. The second continues in this vein, adding Haino's trademark anguished vocals to the mix, while the final and shortest track (at 9 min+) gets a lot heavier. Really impressive and gorgeous stuff, even if you're suffering from Haino-glut this is worth it. Import.
Japanese label Doubtmusic is, a heart, a jazz label. But usually on the fringes. Outside stuff like reissues of Masayuki Takayanagi, and improv rock crossovers like that recent Nambajazz album featuring Seiichi Yamamoto, ex-Boredoms. And there's lots of Doubtmusic albums featuring the adventurous Otomo Yoshihide of course.
But here's a Doubtmusic disc that's pretty much straight up jazz, definitely with a wild improv edge at times, but nice jazz nonetheless. From a trio of piano, baritone sax and trombone, all players no doubt noted in the Japanese underground jazz scene but not well known to us.
16-minute opener "Sky Clippings And Spinning Fragments" is lovely and lyrical, then skronky and squall-y, by turns. As is the rest of this disc. Their rhythms get pretty crazy too. If jazz gives you a headache, this is not the cure. But if you like jazz, with a sense of noirish danger and outright noisiness, this is quite enjoyable.
Swank Doubtmusic packaging as usual, this time the digipack looking like an airmail letter.
When we listed a previous edition of this some years ago, it was back when our reviews were, um, a lot shorter. So all's we said then was that it was a proto-metal essential, from Japan's answer to Black Sabbath. And maybe that's enough, but since we dig this album so much, and it has at long last been reissued again, let's go for something a bit more expansive...
First off, Blues Creation's Demon & Eleven Children, their second and most classic album, dates from 1971. That's right, 1971!!! Of course it does. They'd started off in '69 with a record of all blues covers, but by '71 they'd heavied-up, and were ready with an album of originals, obviously influenced by the likes of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple's In Rock. And dig that cover art. If you're one of our many proto-metal lovin' customers, you NEED this.
Among early '70s Japanese heavy psych hard rock bands, THESE guys (next to, arguably, Flower Travellin' Band) were indeed the heaviest we've heard. And definitely the most Sabbathy (though FTB did cover Sabbath... and Flied Egg came close too, even putting albums out on Vertigo). But really, just listen to the opening track here, "Atomic Bombs Away". No question. Sounds like a song Sabbath wrote for their first album, but let Blues Creation have instead. Heck if you didn't know better, it really sounds like Iommi's playing the guitar riffs and solos, and Geezer's on the swinging, lumbering bass! Obviously, it's heavy, gotta be when it's called "Atomic Bombs Away" (we wonder if it was was weird for a Japanese band to title a song that, only about 25 years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki). The song ain't actually about atomic bombs, actually, like most of the tracks on Demon & Eleven Children, it's about lovin' and leavin' (or being left). Which can be heavy stuff too. Sample lyrics from "Atomic Bombs Away": "First time I lay you in the rusty shack / Black night keep fallin' in your gypsy eyes / Keep on movin' till the end of time / Lord have mercy for my sin / Set me free from my destiny".
The next track is called "Mississippi Mountain Blues", complete with harmonica... but it's urgent and rollicking, and in any case about as conventionally blues rock as they ever get here. We call this proto-METAL for a reason. Just check out the rockin' riff-fest of an instrumental, entitled "Brane Baster" (aka "Brain Buster"), to see what we mean. It's not all about Sabbath emulation, either. They're proto-Priest in parts, too, or at least, they've got tight twin guitar action on here that'll impress the Wishbone Ash and Thin Lizzy fans. Definitely pretty badass for when and where they were from. Tracks like "Sorrow" do the slow and sad thing pretty well too. It's not all heavy - there's the gentle "One Summer Day", as lovely as its title suggests. But if you want heavy, '71 style, this album won't disappoint you at all, indeed, you'll be be freaking out. It concludes with the epic, and ripping, 9+ minute title track, and if you're not bowing down to Blues Creation by then, your name had better be, like, Ritchie Blackmore.
Julian Cope ranked this as #17 in his Japrocksampler top 50, not bad. From a proto-metal point of view, though, it's top ten material, and we're not just talking Japan. Up there with Bang and Dust and Buffalo and Leaf Hound and all the rest.
Reissued in one of those wallet-digi packages, numbered.
Japan's Blues Creation started off as standard late 60's traditional blues-rock band but quickly got all heavy and freaky and proto-metallic and sort of became their country's riffy acid-blues answer to Black Sabbath (well, along with a few others like Flied Egg and of course AQ faves the Flower Travellin' Band who covered Sabbath on their first album). We really wish we could still get a hold of the Japanese import cd version of Blues Creation's classic 1971 album Demon & Eleven Children. But at least, at last, we have a few recently obtained copies of this, a reissue of a live album that originally came out 'round the same time. It's got the title track from Demon & Eleven Children, along with a couple of Blue Creation originals not found on Demon, one called "Nightmare" being as good and metal as anything on that album. Plus there's a few covers -- "Understand" with guest vocalist Carmen Maki, who was kind of a Japanese Janis Joplin/Robert Plant hybrid, and extended-length versions of ol' nuggets like "Rolling Stone" and "Tobacco Road" (a mean version of that song for sure!). This is definitely not for those who hate the blues -- a lot of this is real bluesy -- but it's also pretty much always heavy and/or frantic. And the guitar work is KILLER, Iommi-worthy leads ripping out of yr speakers all the time. A live recording is just perfect for these guys. They have a super electric sound and that early '70s jamming aesthetic like the Sabs themselves.
It's finally here! An audio / video document of the amazing 77 Boa Drum performance that took place in Brooklyn on July 7th, 2007. Originally filmed for a full length theatrical and dvd release, those plans were scrapped for some reason, so this right here is the only document of that fantastic and now legendary performance.
Available only as a very pricey import, 77 Boa Drum contains 2cds, a full recording of the performance split into two halves, a dvd, featuring 20 minutes of video from the event, all housed in a massive and gorgeously designed green and gold hardcover book, packed with tons of photos, including a couple of our very own Andee, who was one of the 77, diagrams of the drum layout, various text and other imagery. It's really pretty fantastic, totally deluxe and elaborate. And beyond object as art, listening to the recordings, the sound is massive and powerful and beautiful, more than just a spectacle, it was a sprawling chunk or rhythmic organic sound, equally composed and improvised, the power of that many drummers, each contributing his or her own style, combined with the Boredoms three drummer attack, and Eye's homemade multi necked guitar and spaced out electronics. If you missed it, you might want to think about picking one of these up (cheaper than the plane ticket woulda been, right?). And even if you were there, that almost makes this even more essential, an amazing, over the top, keepsake of one of the most amazing performances we've ever seen or been a part of, and the very first Boa Drum.
Needless to say, this is crazy limited, and we only have a few of these. When we run out, we'll hopefully be able to get more, but there's certainly no guarantee. So if you really want one, act fast.
These three Boredoms cds were last available in the States as Warner/Reprise releases -- yep, major label product! -- but they've been out of print for a few years now, not surprising considering that they are probably some of the most bizarre and fucked up sonic artifacts ever to come out on a US major. We can thank for that our pal Dave Katznelson, former Warners A&R, current Birdman bigwig. We can only imagine that his bosses at Warners were gripped by Lollapalooza fever in order to sign off on the signing of a crazy band like Japan's Boredoms! Anyway, those days are long gone. Fortunately for fans, the British label Very Friendly has at last licensed these three titles for reissue outside of Japan. (Now someone needs also to reissue their early masterpiece Soul Discharge and all will be right in the world.) So, here's one fan's assessment of these three examples of vintage Boredoms insanity, back when they were basically the Butthole Surfers of Japan.
Boasting their ugliest cover (tho the colours are better on this reissue than they were on the previous US version) Chocolate Synthesizer may have been a bit overlooked on its release in 1994 (well, I know I found it to be kind of a 'more of the same' album and didn't really grow to really appreciate it until just recently). But it's a solid example of the Boredoms doing what they were/are best at: confounding the listener and rocking the heck out of the recording studio too. This has got all the tradmark Bore-moves. It's a take-no-prisoners onslaught of trumpet, surreal song structures, wacked-out electronic noises, and lots of gargly, nasal vocals. There's slow starts to most of the songs, always building into crescendos of chaos. This was the last hurrah of the 'classic' period Boredoms, before they made a left turn into the realm of Super Ae and reinvented themselves as a freaking amazing, sorta hippified "trance" outfit of massive proportions. Edwin Pouncey got it wrong in The Wire when he said this record foreshadowed that change, when it was really their Super Roots series which lead to the dense, krautrocky wonders of Super Ae and Vision Creation Newsun. Anyway, this one is way better than we remembered, a blast from the past that seems fresher now than it did then.
Yeah, we know that this Japanese import dvd+cd set isn't cheap, unfortunately. But we also know that a few of you are died-in-the-wool Boredoms fans who are gonna want it regardless. And it IS pretty cool of course. The dvd portion (NTSC, all-region, 65 minutes) features a full show filmed live in San Francisco, we mean Sun Flancisco, at The Independent back in May of 2005. Several of us here attended that show and this DVD lives up to our cherished memories of that night, a fantastic display of the Boredoms' current psychedelic, rhythmic power. If you haven't seen 'em lately, the lineup here is bandleader/vocalist Eye Yamataka on various electronics and weirdness, alongside not one, not two, but three drummers (ATR, Yoshimi, and Yochan), pounding away. Andee, who participated in the Boredom's 77 drummer Boredrum extravaganza in Brooklyn last summer, says this is a similar piece to the one they played then, minus 74 drummers, but still pretty much the bomb.
The DVD starts off backstage, actually, with the Boredoms, friends, and kids hanging out, then moves to the show itself. At first it's all dark but for some blurry, colorful, moving light-spots and initially we wondered, is this what the whole thing is gonna look like? We wouldn't put it past 'em. But after about five minutes the scene comes into focus, the show having begun with Eye doing a bizarre ritualistic dance with intense sound-making electric "lighting balls" held in each hand. And then it's off to the races, as the drummers attack their kits and do their best to send the Boredoms' special vibrations to the far ends of the cosmos.
The other disc found in this lavishly designed, bright orange package is an audio cd. It's only about twelve minutes long, but what a great 12 minutes (11:40 to be precise)!! Billed as "Yamataka Eye Original Breakbeats" there's two new tracks here, "U-bus" and "Relerer" and both are definite percussive party-pleasers... if your party digs the freaky Bore-tronics, that is!
These three Boredoms cds were last available in the States as Warner/Reprise releases -- yep, major label product! -- but they've been out of print for a few years now, not surprising considering that they are probably some of the most bizarre and fucked up sonic artifacts ever to come out on a US major. We can thank for that our pal Dave Katznelson, former Warners A&R, current Birdman bigwig. We can only imagine that his bosses at Warners were gripped by Lollapalooza fever in order to sign off on the signing of a crazy band like Japan's Boredoms! Anyway, those days are long gone. Fortunately for fans, the British label Very Friendly has at last licensed these three titles for reissue outside of Japan. (Now someone needs also to reissue their early masterpiece Soul Discharge and all will be right in the world.) So, here's one fan's assessment of these three examples of vintage Boredoms insanity, back when they were basically the Butthole Surfers of Japan.
Onanie Bomb Meets The Sex Pistols is the one that's been going for the most $$$ on eBay, probably 'cause it's simply the hardest to find and contains some of their earliest material circa 1986-1988 -- including not only their debut LP originally entitled Osozeran No Stooges Kyo but also their first single Anal By Anal, one aggravating slice of noise-punk fuckery for sure. This disc represents a formative step in the career of Eye and co., and is perhaps the Boredoms disc best used as a lease-breaker. And that's saying a lot. If yr in the mood for some Japanese noise that's punk rock too, here's the ticket. Fun, juvenile Bore-carnage. Definitely some songs on here that rank with their best...Andee says that this sounds like wild geese skronkery billowing cramtappery. I don't know what the heck he means exactly, but his description still seems appropriate. Essential to any true Boredoms fan.
These three Boredoms cds were last available in the States as Warner/Reprise releases -- yep, major label product! -- but they've been out of print for a few years now, not surprising considering that they are probably some of the most bizarre and fucked up sonic artifacts ever to come out on a US major. We can thank for that our pal Dave Katznelson, former Warners A&R, current Birdman bigwig. We can only imagine that his bosses at Warners were gripped by Lollapalooza fever in order to sign off on the signing of a crazy band like Japan's Boredoms! Anyway, those days are long gone. Fortunately for fans, the British label Very Friendly has at last licensed these three titles for reissue outside of Japan. (Now someone needs also to reissue their early masterpiece Soul Discharge and all will be right in the world.) So, here's one fan's (Allan's) assessment of these three examples of vintage Boredoms insanity, back when they were basically the Butthole Surfers of Japan.
1993's Pop Tatari has always been one of my favorites, following up their astonishing Soul Discharge and Wow2 releases (and thereby the third Boredoms record I ever heard, one that was eagerly anticipated as I recall...I believe I mail-ordered an import copy from Japan when it came out). And it was very nearly as good as Soul Discharge. It's classic Boredoms at their best, mashing up genres from punk to funk to reggae to metal to noise -- there's references in the songtitles to both the Ramones and the Grateful Dead (and to themselves, of course). Yet Pop Tatari is far from a chaotic mess. Applied listening to this record will really reveal that there's a method to their madness. It's kinda like the same way if you saw them play live more than once, you'd realize that their seemingly improvised, acrobatic, spazzed-out stage act was actually carefully, amazingly choreographed! Mayhem that's totally retarded and totally advanced at the same time. Yamamoto's guitar skronk is lashed to the massive groove of the band's two drummers, while the crashing waves of distorted riffola that anchor many of these 18 tracks are surfed by the unique, extreme vocals of Eye and cohorts. Every detour into whatever sort of weirdness is perfectly timed, these ADD arrangements are the work of pros. Definitely a Boredoms album not to be without, my personal pick of the three Very Friendly reissues (though all are worthy). Very Friendly has reinstated the original song titles and tracklist that were altered for the US edition.
AKA UNKLE meets the Boredoms "Dysfunctional Monster Jam". This is a one track continuous megamix by James Lavelle and Richard File of UK Mo'Wax electronica act UNKLE, with scratching by the Nextmen (?). Due to the high import cost, perhaps not entirely necessary for anyone but the Boredoms completist, as UNKLE simply dips their hands into the Boredoms' back catalogue, speeds it up, slows it down, and ring modulates it. (Yeah, I bought one!) Actually it's a pretty great mix, especially for fans of the "new" Boredoms style. Rebore Vol. 2 is apparently in the works, don't know who's doing the remixing on that one...
AKA "Vision Recreation by EYE". The fourth installment in the R.E.B.O.R.E. series of remixes isn't necessarily a "remix" of Boredoms material, but a reconstruction, or recreation as the title suggests. Contained are seven wonderful tracks of blissed out
"1-2-3-4!" That same intro which kicked off 1989's "Onanie Bomb Meets the Sex Pistols" also kicks off this, the third volume in the Boredoms' series of megamixes, this time by the mighty DJ Krush. Subtitled "DJ Krush Gigamix (44:51 Non-Stop DJ Mix)", and
This is volume 2 in the Boredoms remix series, and continues in much the same manner as volume one (which was an an U.N.K.L.E. mix), with a crazy, seamless 40 or so minute continuous mix of Boredoms mania. This mix is by Ken Ishii, and is quite nice, though it basically sounds like a Boredoms mixtape, which is not a bad thing. Can't wait to hear volume three though, mixed by DJ Krush!
The new (latest) Boredoms album, previously only available last year as a verrrry expensive (but worthwhile) Japanese import, now is unleashed domestically by the good folks at Vice Recordings. Yay!
Our impressions from when we got the import: We thought they'd changed their name to Voordoms, as they were (sort of) billed last time they brought their psychedelic drum circle show on the road to San Francisco, but this says Boredoms right on it. Regardless, they've continued on with the hippie, rhythmic trance-drone sounds of their live shows, something also established on their last album, Vision Creation Newsun (and before that, too). As the title indicates, you get two 'songs' here -- "Seadrum" and "House Of Sun". Both of course are quite long! This is Boredoms in what we call their full 'Alice Coltrane' mode, with piano and female vocals and cosmic vibes galore. Lovely stuff. Reminds us of AQ-faves The Necks somewhat as well!
Vice has even duplicated the packaging of the Japanese version, an opaque sparkly blue jewel case with title and artwork printed directly on the front.
The domestic version of this kick ass Boredoms album finally sees the light of day! Far less manic than their previous spazzcore albums you loved in the past, the Boredoms' new focus on studio manipulations is intense and artistically successful. Layers of bombastic guitar noises swell and give way to insane bursts of tape manipulation along with the wax and wane of desperate screams and urgent percussion. Super AE is a rancid psychedelic experience that could be a chance meeting on the dissecting table between Amon Duul and Nurse With Wound.
f you've seen the Boredoms live and don't think you could sit through a disc of it, know that this album builds on the studio experiments of their recent SuperRoots series; it's not Yamantaka Eye jumping around anymore -- he's sitting in the cock-pit, entering your earholes with intents to purple-shag-carpet-bomb your sense of reality. Mad Jack became mad scientist.
Although Japanese import version came packaged in an elaborate day-glo oversized plastic box, don't worry: the artwork on this domestic cd is pretty damn cool complete with nifty Eye Yamantaka magic marker art!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
20 minutes on two tracks from the Boredoms. Neither of these tracks appear anywhere on the latest album (Super Are). Surprisingly beautiful psych-rock grooves that continue on their noisy Amon Duul kick.
Vice magazine may be most (in)famous for their magazine, especially the always enjoyable Do's & Don't's, but you've also got to hand it to their record label arm for championing the one and only Boredoms on this side of the Pacific. First they brought us the US edition of the Boredom's latest album Seadrum/House Of Sun, now they're reissuing the semi-legendary Super Roots series! So far, installments 1, 3 and 5. Eventually 6 and beyond (we hear tell that SR 9 is currently in the works, over in Japan). Er, what about 2 and 4 you're wondering? Well, Super Roots 2 was a limited edition promotional 3" cd ep only available with purchase of the Japanese release of Chocolate Synthesizer, and for the life of us we can't recall what the deal was (or wasn't) with Super Roots 4, actually we don't think it ever existed!
Confused? Well if you're not a hardcore Bore-fan, you might not even know what the heck the Super Roots discs are all about. Well, they were (are) sort of a series of between-album experiments wherein the Bore-crew goes off to explore some weird tangents... as hard as it is to imagine anything MORE experimental and weird than "regular" Boredoms albums themselves!!
And only Super Roots 1 and 6 were ever previously released in the USA, back when the Boredoms were still, in some Lollapalooza related hangover, seen by major label Reprise as being a reasonable investment! So 3 and 5, having only been available before as expensive Japanese imports, are going to be new to a lot of folks... and it's about time you heard 'em!! Seriously, if you're into any sort of psychedelic drone excess from the underground bands that we're constantly freaking on and on about some limited edition cd-r by, or love love love you some Boris, not to mention the likes of the Boredom's own kraut-drone masterpiece Super Ae and subsequent albums, you're gonna NEED to hear Super Roots 3 and Super Roots 5, they'll make you feel GOOD.
Oh and what about Super Roots 1? SR1 first came out in 1993. It's pretty short, just over 19 minutes, and features 14 brief tracks, in the spastic, chaotic style of "old" Boredoms, before they got all tranced-out and cosmic (a change we feel the Super Roots series was the catalyst for). But this was at the beginning (Super Roots wasn't a series yet, this is actually titled Super Roots, without the 1), and it really did sound like their "roots" -- lots of percussive bashing, fits of screaming and yelping, ridiculous horn tooting, and suchlike craziness. The Boredoms we knew and loved, but had heard plenty at the time. So listening to it now, without Soul Discharge, Pop Tatari, or Chocolate Synthesizer as fresh in our minds, it's sounding pretty nifty! A nice reminder of the variety of wacky pleasures the Boredoms used to bring in their "youth".
Aaahhhhhhhh!!! It's the sound of Japan's Boredoms at their heavily percussive, psychedelically tranced-out best. Making the case for the Boredoms being one of the most original and inspirational bands of the past 25 years in might be easier in a review of one of their "proper" albums, rather than in a review of one from their often (extra-) confounding Super Roots series. On the other hand, this particular installment in the Super Roots saga is one that some folks totally new to the Boredoms may want to pick up, as features a pretty crucial remix from Swedish disco DJ of the moment, Lindstrom! So we thought we'd just mention that if this is in fact your first experience with the Boredoms, and you like what you hear here, you have a lot of catching up to do in the their discography (with lots of surprises in store for you therein as well, we recommend working backwards so as not to endure the immediate shock of jumping in with their early, Butthole Surfers style cacophony).
Super Roots 10 is basically one song, "Ant 10", prefaced by a brief seemingly silent track called "Super Rooy" (?). Glimmering and sparkling, "Ant 10" is a cosmic, rhythmic, ecstatic Bore-jam rocketing to the heavens, fueled by voice, drums, synth and effects, pretty much just what we expect (and want) from the Boredoms these days. The original track is 9 and a half minutes long. But what really makes it interesting is the continuation of it, over the remainder of this cd, via various variant mixes. "Ant 10" just keeps going and going and going, morphing into ever more freaky and groovy iterations, provided by Lindstrom, DJ Finger Hat (who is probably Eye from the Boredoms, since we can't find any reference to Finger Hat online that's NOT about this disc), and DJ Altz, whom you might recall from his Roland Young remix disc we listed recently on the EM label. The Altz and Finger Hat mixes bring in some additional techno house-y four on the floor thump, though Altz's first mix (he got to do two), "Ant 10/Estereo 10" is notable for the repeated figure of severe synth jabs, sizzling and droning and somewhat jarring, that he introduces into the track at the beginning. Meanwhile DJ Finger Hat's mix goes for more of a shimmery sheen. The Lindstrom mix is the one that made Irwin here remark that this sounds like "the Boredoms go to a disco", and also that it's rad, and it's WAY funkier than the other tracks, though equally as chaotic and complex. Cool, though we'd have to guess that the percentage of actual Boredoms source material in this percolating cut is less than the rest. Then, the throbbing, hypnotic appeal of the Boredoms in general and "Ant 10" in particular is accentuated by the final remix, Altz's "Ant 10/Mineral Dub Break", which also indulges in some cool cut-ups of the more or less wordless vocal. But, heck, discussing these tracks individually is almost silly since they all flow together, Super Roots 10 being a Technicolor trip from start to finish.
FYI this came out originally earlier this year on cd and vinyl both in Japan, the cd now out of print, and for some reason this domestic US version via Thrill Jockey is vinyl-only, maybe 'cause then there's more room for Eye's colorful art. And, naturally, somewhat limited too.
Vice magazine may be most (in)famous for their magazine, especially the always enjoyable Do's & Don't's, but you've also got to hand it to their record label arm for championing the one and only Boredoms on this side of the Pacific. First they brought us the US edition of the Boredom's latest album Seadrum/House Of Sun, now they're reissuing the semi-legendary Super Roots series! So far, installments 1, 3 and 5. Eventually 6 and beyond (we hear tell that SR 9 is currently in the works, over in Japan). Er, what about 2 and 4 you're wondering? Well, Super Roots 2 was a limited edition promotional 3" cd ep only available with purchase of the Japanese release of Chocolate Synthesizer, and for the life of us we can't recall what the deal was (or wasn't) with Super Roots 4, actually we don't think it ever existed!
Confused? Well if you're not a hardcore Bore-fan, you might not even know what the heck the Super Roots discs are all about. Well, they were (are) sort of a series of between-album experiments wherein the Bore-crew goes off to explore some weird tangents... as hard as it is to imagine anything MORE experimental and weird than "regular" Boredoms albums themselves!!
And only Super Roots 1 and 6 were ever previously released in the USA, back when the Boredoms were still, in some Lollapalooza related hangover, seen by major label Reprise as being a reasonable investment! So 3 and 5, having only been available before as expensive Japanese imports, are going to be new to a lot of folks... and it's about time you heard 'em!! Seriously, if you're into any sort of psychedelic drone excess from the underground bands that we're constantly freaking on and on about some limited edition cd-r by, or love love love you some Boris, not to mention the likes of the Boredom's own kraut-drone masterpiece Super Ae and subsequent albums, you're gonna NEED to hear Super Roots 3 and Super Roots 5, they'll make you feel GOOD.
Super Roots 3, specifically: some, uh, "hard bore", um, "bore core" here from 1994!! It's just one track, that might be titled "Hard Trance Away (Karaoke Of Cosmos)". Or maybe that's just a random slogan on the sleeve, it's hard to tell. In any case, the track is a doozy! Slightly over a half hour of raging, relentless, rhythmic chug, followed by a few minutes of silence. It's pretty amazing, the monomaniacal, minimalist, thrashing energy of this all-instrumental punk-metal gallop, you can imagine that the floor of the studio was shin-deep in sweat by the time they were done recording. Ultimately psychedelic in its repetitiousness, this piece seems always to be striving to attain some higher level, that eventually you realize they (and you, the listener) have reached long ago. Definitely the sort of thing (in a similar but different way as Super Roots 5 as well) that fans of Boris at their most extreme would dig... and thus quite recommended!!
