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Japan’s noise-rock flagship band always deserve the benefit of the doubt. Seadrum/House of Sun, their first US release since 1999’s Vision Creation Newsun, is a challenge, with not one but two 20-minute-plus drones, one drum-heavy, the other just heavy. The album is transcendent in spots, but even after repeated listens, I couldn’t find much behind Boredoms’ wall of impenetrability. At its best, the track "Seadrum" explodes with underwater percussion samples, a firm bedding for Yoshimi’s unintelligible croon, and the harp-like splashes of piano glissandi. It’s like some gloriously screwed-up theme to Mr. Rogers’s Neighborhood. The drone raga "House of Sun," on the other hand, is a gigantic mess of Eastern strings and ambivalence. Word is, though, that if you play "Seadrum" and "House of Sun" at the same time, it’s the greatest song ever. BY NICK SYLVESTER
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Issue Date: July 1 - 7, 2005 Back to the Music table of contents |
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