Osaka’s Boredoms fill a huge shelf at OBLADADA, full of bizarrely presented musical experiments. An arc of explosive punk and noise towards forms of rhythmic based nirvana in a couple of decades. Seadrum/House of Sun still feels like the last major musical statement they made.
It also has the prize for being the most expensive single cd I’ve ever bought, dropping through my letterbox, in an envelope covered in Japanese stickers for just shy of £40. Around the same time I’d been lucky to see them play live in Glasgow and then London. I actually got quite emotional at the blistering creativity of their performance – nothing feels gimmicky in the visual assault of their full throttle presence. The ever-expanding drum spirals of them playing live falls into the ‘you just have to be there category’. But Seadrum/House of Sun still feels like a band that made one last attempt to shoehorn in their rapidly expanding vision into a recorded document.
What is actually happening during Seadrum’s 23 minutes is a cluttered mess, a heavily pregnant Yoshimi P-We paints a deeply spiritually jazzy infections with her voice. Water slapping, under water recordings and drumming morphs into an almost drum and bass pattern and pianos rain down through the whole thing. There is a deep physicality to the whole throbbing mass of sound as it fractalizes endlessly. A form that’s still unique to these ears.
If the first track deals in physical and elemental forms, House of Sun is a 20-minute study in expansion. Little more than a static trippy drift somewhere between guitar and sitar. Given the staggering peak of the first track, House Of Sun on initial listen, felt like a bit of a let-down. However, a bit like Ash Ra Tempel’s Amboss counter Traummaschine, the quieter side, subtlety is ultimately a hugely lysergic treat, a slow burner that’s only become more powerful over the intervening years.
Eye, the other constant member of Boredoms is part of the Oomoto religion in Japan and much of his ideas grow out of their doctrine. That they use Esperanto for their texts further outlines the deeply universal interconnected nature of their pulsating discography. Seadrum/House Of Sun continues to be unparalleled.
Find out more about Seadrum/House of Sun here
