Product Code Database
Boredoms () (later known as V∞redoms) is a Rock music band from Osaka, Japan formed in 1986. The band's sound is often referred to as noise rock, or sometimes Japanoise (Japan's noise music scene), though their more recent records have moved toward repetitive psychedelic rock, ambient music soundscapes, and tribal drumming.
The band has a vast discography. Many band members have rotated through the group over the years, often using a number of various . Singer Yamantaka Eye is the closest the band has to a frontman; his style includes a range of baffling screams, babbling, electronic music effects, and very heavy post-production. Drummer/keyboard player/vocalist Yoshimi P-We is featured on most Boredoms recordings.
With the band finally reaching a level of stability, Eye and Tabata recorded their first official EP, Anal by Anal, in mid-1986. In early 1987, Tabata left the group to later join Zeni Geva and was replaced by Seiichi Yamamoto as guitar player. In March 1988, the band released its first full-length, Osorezan no Stooges Kyo. Due to unhappiness over Yoshikawa's drumming, Yoshimi P-We from Eye's Hanatarash-related project UFO or Die was asked to serve as drummer, becoming the first female member of the band, with Yoshikawa switching to general percussion. Shortly after the change Yoshikawa left the group, to be replaced by Chew Hasegawa (now of Japanese funeral doom band Corrupted) and then by Kazuya Nishimura, known by his stage name Atari. The band's sound from this period was marked by harsh, dissonant punk rock edited extensively by Eye in the studio, citing Sonic Youth and Funkadelic as influences, among others. This style was seen by some as "pointlessly abrasive" without any underlying motive, making Boredoms nihilistic absolute music, according to some critics; however, the strangeness of the record increased the band's popularity in the musical underground.
The following year, at the height of its popularity in the United States, the band was asked to perform on the main stage of the 1994 Lollapalooza tour in support of the album Chocolate Synthesizer, which had just been released in the United States. The album proved largely successful for such an experimental band and was later considered one of the best albums of the 1990s by Alternative Press magazine. Yoshikawa had later joined the band in the early months of 1994 for a second time to play on Pop Tatari, often sharing vocal duties with Eye, but left again in 1994 and was replaced on percussion by EDA, who had been introduced to the band by Pavement bassist Mark Ibold. The band was dropped from the Reprise Records roster, with Birdman Records distributing the band's Super Roots EPs during this period.
By the time of 1998's Super Go!!!!! EP and full-length Super æ, the band started to break sharply from their earlier atonality noise rock/Japanoise sound by introducing many elements of sweeping electronica effects and thoroughly constructed psychedelic rock jams into their music. Perceived analogies with the music of Can became common during this period. Described as "tumultuous space-sludge", Super æ has most often been compared to the defining elements of 1970s krautrock. Soon after its initial release in Japan, Super æ was met with a considerable amount of acclaim from the international music press, recognized as a modern-day avant-garde artifact and progressive "masterpiece". Notably, Super æ was considered one of the best albums of the 1990s by Pitchfork Media.
In 1999, the band released Vision Creation Newsun in Japan. This album saw an evolution in their sound, combining the evolving space rock themes explored in their Super Roots EPs and preceding album Super æ with "a much more earthly, primal, primitively worshipful inspiration". It features Psychedelic rock soundscape and "cosmic synths", complex tribal drumming, "cathartic celebrations of noise", and Eye's unique power electronic and turntablism stylings. The album is often considered the band's greatest achievement thus far, and has been described by critics as blending the "manic, high-speed, cut-up form punk rock" of their earlier albums with a new sound that is "just as intense and exhilarating, but more beautiful and more expansive".
After its release, Eye oversaw a series of of the Boredoms catalogue by guest Disc jockey. After the final remix album, Eye's own Rebore, vol. 0, was released in 2000, Boredoms seemed to disappear for a few years with no releases or tour dates, while the members participated in various side projects and other bands.
Despite the changes, the group's music still revolves around the tribal drumming patterns heard on Vision Creation Newsun. The band was signed by Vice Records for its releases in the United States since it had been dropped by Reprise. All Super Roots releases were then reissued on Vice in early 2007 (with the exclusion of Super Roots 2). In late 2004, Boredoms released its first album as a group in four years, Seadrum/House of Sun, most of which had been previously recorded before the band's brief hiatus. This release also saw the band move from their label WEA Japan to the smaller Japanese label Commmons. The album was not celebrated to the extent of their previous albums, yet it still garnered mostly positive reviews, with a score of 73% on Metacritic. Following its release, EDA left the band and went on to form audio-visual project Adrena Adrena with visual artist Daisy Dickinson. EDA was replaced in the Boredoms by Yojiro Tatekawa.
In early 2007, the group released Super Roots 9, the first addition to the Super Roots series since 1999 and their first major release since Seadrum/House of Sun. It was recorded during a Christmas Eve 2004 concert, making it only the band's third official live release since 1998's Super Seeeeee!!!!!! video (discounting disc two of the Vision Creation Newsun boxset, which included a 35-minute excerpt of a live concert). Super Roots 9 also saw the band move from Warner International to the smaller Japanese label Commmons for domestic releases and American label Thrill Jockey for overseas. Later, in April, the group (as V∞redoms) played three dates with Sonic Youth in Japan. The band also planned to attempt using newly developed contact microphones to record the sounds made by the human body while dancing.
The band released a live DVD/CD combination called Live at Sunflancisco in December 2007 followed by the remix single Voaltz / Relerer in August 2008, while Eye and Yoshimi have come out with new records of their own this year. During a 2008 United States tour with Iron & Wine, Eye used a new seven-necked guitar called the "Sevener" or "Sevena".
The band released another addition to the Super Roots EP series, titled Super Roots 10, on January 28, 2009.
The band continued the concept on August 8, 2008, with two concerts called 88 Boadrum held in Los Angeles and Brooklyn. Boredoms headlined the Los Angeles show while Gang Gang Dance conducted the Brooklyn show. At 8:08pm PDT on 8/8/08, 88 drummers played for 88 minutes at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. A third concert, Boadrum 9, took place on September 9, 2009 at 9:09pm EDT at Terminal 5 in Manhattan, New York City. It featured 9 drummers in total, two from Boredoms (Yoshimi and Yojiro) and seven others from prominent experimental music acts, namely Zach Hill (Hella), Hisham Bharoocha (Soft Circle, ex: Black Dice, Lightning Bolt), Butchy Fuego (Pit er Pat), Kid Millions (Oneida), Jeremy Hyman (Ponytail), Dave Nuss (No-Neck Blues Band) and Aaron Moore (Volcano The Bear)
In 2010, Boredoms toured internationally including two Boadrum performances at All Tomorrow's Parties curated by Matt Groening at Butlins Minehead, England, in addition to shows in London, Japan, Mexico and as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival on October 10, 2010.
The last numbered Boadrum event was 111Boadrum, on November 11, 2011, at Byron Bay at 11:11am. Notable drummers included Zach Hill, Hisham Bharoocha, Jermey Hyman, Butchey Fuego, and Mat Watson. There were 11 drummers and 100 cymbal players for a total of 111 performers.
In 2011, Boredoms premiered new material at the All Tomorrows Parties "I'll Be Your Mirror" festival in Tokyo. Six drummers were arranged in a circle around Eye, who used motion sensors to trigger ambient drone soundscapes created by Shinji Masuko that corresponded to each drummer. The music featured highly repetitive motorik rhythms that grew in complexity over the course of the hour long set. The band was chosen by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that he curated in March 2012 in Minehead, England. That gig (performed twice during the festival) featured 14 guitarists and 6 drummers.
In June 2015, Boredoms performed another development of the Boardrum series at the Barbican Centre in London, UK as part of Doug Aitken's Station to Station: A 30-Day Happening. The performance featured Eye, Yoshimi, Tatekawa, Masuko, and an expanded lineup of drummers and guitarists surrounded by 88 percussionists all playing cymbals.
|
|
