 As we mentioned here,
the Boredoms are beyond mere songs at this point, not that they were
ever unduly chained to those standards to begin with. Each new Boredoms
track since "Super æ" (with the exception of half of "Seadrum/House Of Sun,")
has been built on a pulsing, ecstatic chassis. The question now is not
where the Boredoms will go, but what new flash they're going to put on
the same skeleton.
That assessment sounds more negative than it really is. The Boredoms
have found their groove, their path to the Heavens, and like anyone
else in their position, it's their artistic imperative to follow it,
and to ignore (if not outright flaunt) anything that might be perceived
as a shortcoming. OK, so there are no surprises in "Super Roots 10." It
doesn't matter: there is so much territory to be explored in the band's
current headspace that a substantial artistic shift would, at this
point, feel more interruptive than progressive.
Much of dance oriented music works the same way. How many thousands of
dance songs have used the throbbing, stripped down beat found on "Ant
10," itself only a minor shift away from the last several Boredoms
records? It's due to this that "Super Roots 10's" structure...one new
track and five dance oriented remixes of it...not only makes sense,
it's almost inevitable. Whereas recent Boredoms albums have been about
the elevation, exploration, and continuation of one basic theme, here,
the Boredoms simply let others do the exploring for them, making this
remix EP listenable in exactly the same way one would listen to their
last effort, the two disc "Boadrum '77."
Which naturally means that although technically an EP, at 46 minutes,
it plays like an album, one long ongoing trip. After the intro, "Super
Rooy" (which is simply a 38 second bass tone,) "Ant 10" opens the door
with Yamatsuka eYe's familiar, full throated chant. Then the floodgates
open, allowing the trademark drumming, day-glo electronic blooms, and
assorted psychedelic sounds to go whizzing by like a giant, exploding
kaleidoscope, an unending stream of positivity that effortlessly finds
new ways of manifesting itself.
Since the original track is so sonically rich, cramming an untold
number of sounds and ideas into its nine and a half minutes, the
transition between tracks don't really seem like transitions, even when
there's silence dividing them. The density of the composition ensures
that even when the elements are shifted around considerably, the
remixes don't play as individual takes so much as movements of the same
piece. "Ant 10/Estero 10 (Remix By Altz)" puts a bit more emphasis on
spastic funk keyboards and Yoshimi P-We's backing chants, whereas DJ
Fingerhat emphasizes the spacier elements, with angelic choirs,
Krautrock keyboards, and a somewhat hazier mix. This goes uninterrupted
into DJ Lindstrom's explicitly dance oriented mix, adding disco
strings, syncopated keyboards, and Star Wars sound effects to party
like it's 1976 all over again. Seriously, at times it sounds as much
like Meco's hilariously cheesy remix of the Star Wars theme
as it does "Ant 10." It even sounds like a cantina scene at roughly the
eight and a half minute mark. This, I hesitate to add, is a good thing.
After that goofy sugar rush, Altz's second take on the track, "Ant
10/Mineral Dub Break," is a blissful semi-comedown, a less quirky,
somewhat more grounded effort. Which is not to say it's ambient...no,
"Ant 10" is far too percussive a track for that...but it is less
aggressive, one final rumination on the warmer end of the spectrum,
like dusk settling in around the edges.
I'd be lying if I said I didn't wish "Super Roots 10" had followed
"Super Roots 9," and consisted of one transcendent single track. The
band's riot of sound allows them to slowly build their way to ecstatic
peaks, huge releases that simply can't logically happen in a format
like this. But I shouldn't be greedy: although they've found their
niche, it would be wrong to confine them to it too thoroughly. Here,
they take their sound and recast it as an ever shifting diorama, a
parade of welcoming sounds that passes like Alice taking a train
ride through Wonderland. Peaks or no, "Super Roots 10" is an endlessly
fascinating trip, one with a coherence that belies its piecemeal
construction.
---
Available from Amazon Japan
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