Boredoms
77 Boa Drum

THE REVIEW

So, Boredoms. Having long concluded the initial antimusic phase of the group, also finished the psychedelic maturation of the group, downsized the lineup to an electronic (Yamatsuka Eye) / percussive quartet (Yoshimi P-We, Atari, EDA), the reborn Boredoms/V∞redoms set stages on fire across the globe with their renewed and cosmic sound. But this is just the beginning. After the neat "Seadrum/House of Sun" (already reviewed after cooking), Eye and company embark on a truly monolithic task (who knows why all the Boredoms reviews I'm writing always have at least two or three monoliths or monolithic in them).

"77 Boa Drum" is introduced by a voice (whose? No idea) as a "once-in-a-lifetime performance", one of those things that happen once in a lifetime. The concert was held on 07/07/07 in Brooklyn, Empire Fulton Ferry State Park. It started at 7:07 pm. 77 drummers. They were also arranged in a circle, or rather, a spiral. And they all played together, while Yamatsuka Eye enjoyed himself on the laptop and the SEVENA, a gigantic percussion-guitar consisting of 7 - seven - 7 guitars stacked one above the other played as a rhythmic instrument with drumsticks. From all these numbers and various delights, it is clear that the event was unmissable. But we missed it. And to help us out, after a bootleg circulating since 2007 of rather poor quality, the Boredoms themselves come to our rescue and finally, on November 26, 2008, release an official recording, in a limited edition for the Japanese market only (as usual), with a bonus DVD and quality production.

We agree: listening to it is certainly not as magnificent, total, cosmic, and unmissable as it must have been live. Yet the record manages to capture and convey all the magic of such a unique and special event, an authentic sublimation of that post-Vision Creation Newsun journey of the Boredoms, those Boredoms who wanted to explore and dissect the allure of rhythm, rhythm as the root and beating heart of human musical expression since ancient times. Rhythm that pulls, that takes the entire body and mind by the hand, rhythm that evolves, stretches, elongates, coils in a spiral, expands and contracts, breathes as if the great serpent (the boa that in the performance title blends with 77 and Boredoms) of drummers had come to life. Immersing oneself body and soul in this musical experience brings satisfaction. It is fun without being carefree; it is long (two tracks: SEVEN lasting 53'32'' and SUN LOARD lasting 46'39'') without being boring; it is cosmic, celestial or whatever you prefer, but with feet on the ground (they're there to keep time).

Perhaps this record cannot give us the unique, unrepeatable, unmissable etcetera emotion of having been there, present, at that moment when all this was happening. But I would say that we can settle for it, don't you think?