Boredoms - Super æ (1998)

Boredoms conceive music in a blender. Ingredients are thrown in by a blind chef, who has the fortune of often producing something digestible, but only for the courageous consumer.

If listening to a cauldron of interrupted tempos and cut-and-paste melodies sounds like an excusable way to spend an hour, then Super æ is the record for you.

Opener, “Super You” is restlessness. Actually, Super æ is restlessness. Sounds are forever fluctuating. They’re impatient with any typical time structures, blipping here, spewing there.

Boredoms sound allergic to convention. Super æ frequently skirts predictability with the charm of an Attention Deficit Disorder patient.

“Super Are” falsely lulls before erupting in trademark Boredoms’ drum cacophonies. Hear that? It’s your ear drums enjoying a Fear and Loathing-style bender. There are bats in the sky, only this time they’re being heard. There is a reprieve in the form of “Super Going”, which is infused with sunny riffs and punchy vocals. By this time, your acid trip should be well and truly in its hallucinatory phase.

In the last quarter, “Super Shine” shows signs of exhaustion before snorting some tribal speed. It proceeds to hop colourfully and relentlessly for the remaining 4 minutes of its duration.

Finally, “Super Good” flutters out of earshot with a watery charm, the sun is ascending.

In 2006 experimentalists, Liars, claimed Drum’s Not Dead. They were right too. Drum is very much alive. And Boredoms have left a legacy of load-blowing thunder to prove it.

88
(85 - SM)
Combined Rating = 86.5