Boredoms
Super Roots 6

The main misconception about Boredoms is considering them a noise band. This is not entirely accurate if you consider the blend of styles (between the main group and side projects) that the Japanese have dabbled in throughout their career.

An additional unorthodox transition (in an artistic journey that has made heterodoxy its creed) "Super Roots 6" is the fifth in a series of "completely improvised" albums according to leader Yamatsuka Eye, and represents a definite shift towards a less crazy and more experimental approach. The oddities, however, do not end there, starting with the decision to title tracks with simple numbers, which do not correspond to the order of the songs. Further dismay comes from the music, as the Boredoms on this album, compared to those on previous records, are nothing short of unrecognizable.

The work is shrouded in such austerity that it seems played by Buddhist monks, if only for the meditative tone of most compositions. From the delirious eclecticism of their beginnings, they have moved to a minimal approach, exemplified by the exclusion of both Eye's "warbles" and the dissonances that disrupted any idea of linearity. Emblematic is the disappearance of the dialogue between various instruments, as in most tracks a single instrument carries on a "groove" or a substitute for harmony. It is paradoxically a multifaceted album, balancing between acidic funk and ambient silences, percussive chants and kraut organs, techno reduced to its bare bones.

This is the kind of album that would make the task of introducing humanity to extraterrestrials less daunting, if it were placed on a space probe. Perhaps.