VISION CREATION NEWSUN

Carbonised by the neutral gravity of Diemos and seasoned with a smijin of adult video idol Oikawa Nao's inner thigh sweat and housed in the sweetest box imaginable The Boredoms pull off a master-stroking stroke of genuine genius. That this was realeased at the business end of the 90s and that the Mighty Bore hail from Osaka and not the Rhine can not prevent this becoming an all-time Krautrock classic. In fact, nothing could stop this juggernaut.

From the off one instinctively knows when one is right (and without the meerest sniff of Croft's Sherry) and as the EYE starts a frenzied 'vision...creation...new...sun...' attaining new levels of spirituality along the 10 second duration we are headed into a tsunami of tribal drums, deep phasing to make Dieter Dierks stroke his balls with glee, electronics lovingly assembled in Taiwan, and enough technique and outright sense of what is holy and righteous that they don't miss a single stroke until it is all over some 60 minutes later. Along the way we get everything thrown at us (filthy, undeserving peasants that we are) but, as we are being bitch- slapped by the onslaught of goodness it is hard to recognise just what it is that is being served to our untrained bruised mind.

I caught Faust, Nine Days Wonder, Hawkwind, Stockhausen, Kraftwerk, Pataphonie and Achim Reichel admist the tribal techno melee on the first few listens and it would come as no surprise at all to learn that they had commissioned an electronics guru to filter all that they love into a particle generator and spunked it out at the other end to produce music as perfect as this. No need to know the track titles as they are all symbols and THAT is all we need to know.

And they are even better live. Last time I saw them in Tokyo they had a 30 strong schoolgirl choir (in uniform) which EYE orchestrated as their three drummers centered around an hypnotic hour long pattern. Thrice.

Buy the original 2cd Japan only box set if you can. You get a T-shirt, many stickers, a double cd with new material, and if that ain't enough...the box sings music when you hold it to a light-source.

I had always held the lyrics to The Human League's 'Black Hit Of Space' as some kind of expectation that I would never experience. Actually, these words always gave me a hard-on. It's subsided somewhat upon hearing this.

Been out all night, I needed a bite I thought I'd put a record on I reached for the one with the ultra-modern label And wondered where the light had gone It had a futuristic cover Lifted straight from Buck Rogers The record was so black it had to be a con The autochanger switched as I filled my sandwich And futuristic sounds warbled off and on

Chorus : The Black Hit Of Space It's the one without a face It's the one that doesn't fit You can only see the flip The Black Hit Of Space Sucking in the human race How can it stay at the top When it's swallowed all the shops?

As the song climbed the charts The others disappeared 'Til there was nothing but it left to buy It got to number one Then into minus figures Though nobody could understand why

(Chorus)

I couldn't stand this bland sound any more so I walked towards my deck to turn it off. All I could see was the B-side of the disc which had assumed a doughnut shape with the label on the outside rim. I reached for the arm

which was less than one micron long but weighed more than Saturn and time stood still. I knew I had to escape but every time I tried to flee, the record was in front of me.

The Black Hit Of Space Get James Burke on the case It's the hit that's never gone Time stops when you put it...

The cover is pretty cool with the odd shaped sun (Newsun) shining brightly upon a baby in diapers. The back cover is a picture of the ocean and mountains with again this new differently shaped sun shining down. I wish the music appealed to me as much. Don't get me wrong I do like this record, I was just surprised to hear a combination of Spacerock and Krautrock instead of Rio / Avant. Just about all of the songs blend together on this one.

"Circle" is the longest track by far, too long actually. It takes a couple of minutes to really get a melody as drums lead the way with spoken vocals in the background. We get some percussion as well as a guitar melody 6 minutes in. This is catchy. It has a spacey ending that goes on for some time. "Star" continues briefly with the loud spacey sounds as drums pound away. Spacey synths blow across the soundscape. It sounds like native drumming on "Heart". The space winds have stopped as we now have a good beat. There are these annoying squeeking sounds throughout.

"Spiral" becomes uptempo after 2 minutes in this Spacerock inspired tune. "Tide" continues briefly with the loud synths from the previous song before we get light drums and spacey background sounds. The drums beat faster 2 1/2 minutes in as gentle guitar comes in. "Two Circles" has a catchy beat with spacey sounds and vocals. "Arrow Up" sounds like a CAN inspired song, even the vocals sound like Damo. Some good bass 2 1/2 minutes in. "Omega" has a good rhythm with male and female vocals. 1 1/2 minutes in this is all swallowed up by spacey sounds. "Zutto" has percussion, lighter sounds and electronics as guitar comes in.

If your into spacey music you should really check this out.

This is by far my favorite Boredoms album, and in actuality is my favorite album all together. As far as style goes, it's a mix of electronica, psychedelia, trance, math rock, noise, and all out madness. Perfect blend of profound discovery and cosmic belly laughing. As far as comparisons go, Id say its a mix of Taiko drummers sitting in a teepee synching on Peyote, at times reminicent of Don Cherry's early 70's free/world jazz with Okay Temiz and Johnny Dyanni, some Black Moth Super Rainbow synth melodies through heavy delay, guitar riffs in the style of Don Caballero or Lightning Bolt (minus the distortion and feedback), and drum and bass lines like that of Violent Onsen Geisha. The titles of the tracks are symbols, but the highlights for me are #1 (circle), #3 (heart), and #8 (omega). Since there are already reviews breaking down each track I wont go into it, however I will say that the moments which define the album as my favorite are moments which at first seem to turn people off to it. For example my moment shines through on track 8 (omega), which begins with calming male/female chanting, and breaks away into roughly 6 minutes of chaotic billowing psychedelic synth patterns. This 6 minutes is the ultimate soundscape, the ugliest yet somehow most beautiful moment, and at least in my opinion, is the culmination of what the title of the album set out to define : Vision Creation Newsun. Anymore, music no longer bring dream visions or eyelid images as it used to, but rather is replaced by an estactic connection bridging the senses with external stimuli. But this album is pure psychedelic trance if you allow it to be, getting lost in it's depths creates beautiful mental visions. Honestly I feel that other than dreaming, this is an experiment in creating unique music as heard differently by every person. At times the noise comes through in such overwhelming waves that I imagine anyone listening to it will pick and choose different sounds coming through and the mind tends to put the pieces together as it sees fit, each time in more complex ways. And it doesnt matter much how heavy the influence of psychedelics has, it can appeal to anyone who is willing to confront what they know about music, shatter it, and then try and put it all back together again. I give it the top rating because there is not one second, not one synchopated beep which strikes chords in me the wrong way. 5 stars to the max!

Not so much a collection of songs as a sprawling psychedelic stream of consciousness, divided into different movements as the band see fit, the Boredoms' Vision Creation Newsun is a neo-psychedelic freakout par excellence, the band dialling back their noise rock roots without entirely disconnecting from them so that a slight air of dissonance and chaos underlies proceedings. Imagine Can jamming with the Flaming Lips and Acid Mothers Temple in an upbeat celebration of total weird and you may be in the same ballpark. As the multi-instrument hub of the band, this is eYe's finest hour. A true classic of modern Japanese psychedelic music.